WEBVTT 00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:09.760 Good morning. 00:00:09.760 --> 00:00:15.060 I have the pleasure to introduce to you all Grant Freeman, a graduate of our master's in counseling. 00:00:15.575 --> 00:00:18.475 And I'm Michelle Drennen, the alumni relations manager. 00:00:18.695 --> 00:00:21.595 We're gonna get to know Grant's journey a little bit this morning. 00:00:21.895 --> 00:00:31.020 So, Grant, the first question I have to ask you, tell me what you're doing with your degree and maybe some ideas on how you feel like you're changing the world. 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:33.100 It's a great great question. 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:33.840 Thank you. 00:00:34.940 --> 00:00:44.080 So what I'm doing now is I'm, I'm seeing clients that are, Catholic, through the Pastoral Solution Institute, doctor Greg Popczyk. 00:00:44.865 --> 00:00:58.485 So, through his group, I'm able to utilize, my skills as a counselor through the training from Divine Mercy University and, and all offer it to clients that are seeking out that spiritual integration. 00:00:59.200 --> 00:00:59.700 Wow. 00:00:59.760 --> 00:01:01.860 That's primarily, what I do. 00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:22.265 I also have an opportunity to to see some private clients that are in my area, and I also am able to work with, business professionals that are seeking a, a performance coaching, to integrate their life and their work and their family and their spirituality. 00:01:23.125 --> 00:01:39.410 It really blends everything together in a nice way so that individuals that might seek mental health counseling because they're they're in a hole, right, and they're trying to find that equilibrium, there are also those individuals out there that want more. 00:01:40.065 --> 00:01:48.465 They, they have things that are, working for them, but they wanna capitalize on what they have. 00:01:48.465 --> 00:01:58.990 And they want to, you know, squeeze the life out of it, you know, just really drink deep on what they're doing in their careers and in their family and in their faith. 00:01:59.210 --> 00:02:02.030 And sometimes it's hard to integrate them. 00:02:02.410 --> 00:02:11.235 And so the work that I'm able to do from the Catholic mental health perspective is really to shape that journey upward. 00:02:11.535 --> 00:02:11.935 Wow. 00:02:11.935 --> 00:02:13.135 It's a really great thing to do. 00:02:13.215 --> 00:02:13.715 Concept. 00:02:13.775 --> 00:02:16.755 I heard you mentioning when you're talking to father Charles, the CCMMP. 00:02:17.855 --> 00:02:21.140 How do you feel like studying the way you did at Divine Mercy? 00:02:21.140 --> 00:02:25.000 Are there some examples that you feel like you really made a major change in the world? 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:27.880 Obviously, no names, but just your Yeah. 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:44.675 Well, I think that perhaps, one thing that is, is shocking that is, is that we are primarily good and that we suffer the challenges of life. 00:02:44.815 --> 00:02:45.315 Right? 00:02:45.615 --> 00:02:50.280 Rather than we are inadequate and we have to become adequate. 00:02:50.740 --> 00:02:51.620 God loves us. 00:02:51.620 --> 00:03:01.320 He sees us through his lens of love, and he sees what we're going through, what we're struggling with, but he sees us redeemed from all of that. 00:03:01.635 --> 00:03:07.335 And he comes to join us in this journey of getting through the muck. 00:03:08.115 --> 00:03:33.905 And I think that that fundamental, made in the image and likeness of god that we are good, that we have the virtues planted in us, and it's difficult to kind of, weed the garden to allow those virtues to flourish, I think that that's a a an element that people are reminded of when they come into the counseling session. 00:03:34.285 --> 00:03:40.225 They have forgotten it, and they need that reminder that they are primarily good and beloved. 00:03:41.085 --> 00:03:46.145 And that there's not something wrong with them, but they're going through something that's very difficult. 00:03:46.980 --> 00:03:48.440 Fulfilling what you're doing. 00:03:48.500 --> 00:03:50.360 Oh, without a doubt. 00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:55.160 So what attracted you to divine mercy in our state in the beginning? 00:03:56.900 --> 00:04:08.375 Well, in the beginning, the fact that I could do it online, because I was working as the director of evangelization at Purdue University, and I was serving a lot of students at the time. 00:04:09.075 --> 00:04:15.655 And I didn't wanna leave them, but I wanted to acquire the clinical skills. 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:21.160 And so, I would work by day and study by night. 00:04:21.620 --> 00:04:24.760 God bless my wife for handling that for three years. 00:04:26.260 --> 00:04:33.025 But what really attracted me was the the ease of getting into classes, being able to do it online. 00:04:33.805 --> 00:04:37.745 The second thing is that I'd be able to study in an atmosphere that was Catholic. 00:04:38.365 --> 00:04:48.800 I wouldn't have to, defend myself against the secular side of the counseling world, which is, quite toxic, actually. 00:04:49.340 --> 00:04:55.100 And I didn't wanna have to fight my way through because the science is so good. 00:04:55.100 --> 00:04:59.360 It's helpful for, those that wanna help people, obviously. 00:05:01.185 --> 00:05:12.805 But I didn't wanna have to put my shield up and fight away the agendas and the ideologies and slog my way through the difficulties of, well, the toxic, university environment. 00:05:13.470 --> 00:05:25.090 And so DMU was a a refuge for me that I could go in there, and the idea of, John Paul the second's, Catholic anthropology would be there. 00:05:25.550 --> 00:05:31.325 The Thomistic and, philosophical truths would be reverenced there. 00:05:31.865 --> 00:05:38.765 And, I think that that it was, it was free from the tumult. 00:05:39.385 --> 00:05:41.325 That's what I really thought about. 00:05:42.340 --> 00:05:43.460 Also, they let me in. 00:05:43.460 --> 00:05:43.860 Yeah. 00:05:43.860 --> 00:05:45.140 It was divine mercy. 00:05:45.140 --> 00:05:46.920 There were it was a divine mercy. 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:50.730 So, doctor Payne, he he let me in. 00:05:50.730 --> 00:05:55.635 I was, a I had been out of school for a long time. 00:05:55.635 --> 00:05:57.715 I've been working for about a decade. 00:05:57.715 --> 00:06:02.995 And when I applied, he's like, I don't know about this guy, but he let me in and god bless him for it. 00:06:03.235 --> 00:06:04.055 Great answers. 00:06:04.115 --> 00:06:08.035 Great great great management of that whole belief. 00:06:08.035 --> 00:06:08.775 Thank you. 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:19.120 So you've talked about this in some respects, but what type of bridges do you think can be built between science and religion and health care and pastoral care? 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:21.700 You seem to love to weave all those things together. 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:22.240 Yeah. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:24.195 Can you share your feelings about that? 00:06:25.395 --> 00:06:37.655 My feelings I mean, well, I think it's gonna I mean, it's terrifying to try and do that because there's such a a challenge to it, but my thoughts on it are, what else is gonna work? 00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:46.280 If we don't have the rapport between, faith and science, then okay. 00:06:46.280 --> 00:06:47.960 So we can take care of people. 00:06:47.960 --> 00:06:51.740 We know what we can do, but do we know who we're taking care of? 00:06:52.175 --> 00:07:12.660 And so, medical professionals, clinicians, anyone who's working to help people flourish, if they don't know who they're taking care of, someone who's made in the image and likeness of God, someone who's fallen and redeemed, someone who has potential and has a gift to offer the world. 00:07:12.880 --> 00:07:26.325 If we don't know that about the person, then we might just be treating it like, well, we're fixing a machine or we're fixing, you know, some, useful element in society, but it's a person. 00:07:27.105 --> 00:07:46.460 And so the connection between, psychology and theology and health care is really it it's an addition of, what we're trying to get people to do, but also who it is we're taking care of. 00:07:46.760 --> 00:07:56.795 And if the clinicians, doctors don't have a good idea of who they're taking care of, that they have an eternal value, then it's a shortsighted vision of what we're doing. 00:07:56.855 --> 00:07:57.355 Cool. 00:07:57.655 --> 00:08:01.415 It's a great, great critique and certainly doing a lot of great things out in the world. 00:08:01.415 --> 00:08:05.520 We appreciate your gift of time this morning and sharing your journey with DMU so much, Graham. 00:08:05.520 --> 00:08:06.960 You're very, very welcome, Michelle. 00:08:06.960 --> 00:08:07.360 Uh-huh. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:08.080 Thanks for having me. 00:08:08.080 --> 00:08:08.402 You bet. 00:08:16.723 --> 00:08:17.223 Bet.