Nancy Kehoe - Wrestling with Our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness

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Table of Contents

More Praise forWrestling with Our Inner Angels

Reading this book is at once an intellectual, spiritual, and psychological experience as Dr. Kehoe, through her keen sensitivity, eloquent storytelling, and personal sharing, assists the reader in examining his or her own myths, beliefs, fears, and dreams related to spirituality, religion, and the painful and deeply personal journey of recovery from mental illness.

John Prestby, PhD., clinical director, Day Hospital, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division

Psychologist and Catholic nun, Dr. Nancy Kehoe is uniquely qualified to describe her transforming spiritual odyssey achieved during twenty-seven years of counseling people with mental illness. Her book will grab believers and non-believers alike.

Edward Lowenstein, M.D., Henry Isaiah Dorr Distinguished Professor of Anesthesia and edical Ethics, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Kehoes poignant description of her work with the chronically mentally ill illustrates the need to honor the spiritual journey of all patients. These intimate portraits of her patients courageous struggle to find God in the midst of their illness will inspire psychiatrists, psychologists, and clinical social workers to do the same.

Harold G. Koenig, M.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, associate professor of medicine, Duke University Medical Center

When a spotlight shines on a stigma and the site begins to take unexpected formsthat is the readers experience of looking at the intersection of serious mental illness and faith. Inevitably, the spotlight turns on the reader as well. The enlightenment can be liberating.

Jessica Henderson Daniel, Ph.D., ABPP, director of training in psychology, Childrens Hospital, Boston

An eye-opener. A must-read for psychotherapists, nurses, ministers, chaplains, and all people dedicated to the care of mental patients.

Ana-Maria Rizzuto, M.D., psychoanalyst and author, The Birth of the Living God: A Psychoanalytic Study

In Gratitude

To my parents for their faith, their love, and
the example of their lives

To my brothers, Kim and Charles, who have
journeyed with me

To all those who suffer with mental illness,
especially those who have touched
my life and been the inspiration
for this book

Foreword

In 1997, when I was researching my book Saints and Madmen: Psychiatry Opens Its Doors to Religion, several therapists suggested that I interview Dr. Nancy Kehoe, a psychologist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was doing some innovative work with men and women in a psychiatric day treatment program. After an initial luncheon meeting, she invited me to be an observer at one of her groups. I was immediately taken with the way Nancy so adroitly used her dual identitythat of a Roman Catholic nun and a clinical psychologist. Without seeing it firsthand, I never could have imagined clientssome with quite complicated mental health issuesbeing able to address complex religious and spiritual questions. Nancy handled the complexities with remarkable respect and skill.

Now, in her own book, Nancy Kehoe invites us all in on her groups, to be observers and to listen with new ears and to see with new eyes, to look at men and women who have been so marginalized by their psychiatric diagnoses, and to wonder again at the resilience of the human spirit. What I did not appreciate about Nancy at the time I wrote the chapter in my book was how fully she has used her own life experience to identify with her clients, and how fully she has herself been open to change.

In todays world, when religious beliefs have become so divisive and the source of so much judgment and pain, Nancy Kehoe, in her life and her work, shows us that we can all be learners and teachers, that human encounters based on respect and openness can lead to healing. If psychiatry has opened its doors to religion, it is because people like Nancy have had the determination to keep knocking.

Whether you are a therapist, a client, a family member of someone who suffers with mental illness, or just someone who is curious about another persons journey, you will be affected by this remarkable book.

Russell Shorto

Acknowledgments

I began this book with the hope of helping to change the face of mental illness. The faces that I encounter each week in the day treatment program have been my inspiration. When I thought of giving up, their support, their love, and their interest in this project kept me going. To them I owe my biggest debt of gratitude.

Over the years when I felt I was lost, wandering aimlessly on my journey, my mother would say to me, Honey, youve got to have faith. I believe the Holy Spirit has something He wants you to do. For me, writing this book has become that something. Almost from the beginning, I kept a list of all who helped me in some way, thinking that if my book was published, I would readily be able to acknowledge all those who helped me bring it to life. I am glad I kept the list.

This endeavor would never have come to completion were it not for three people: Anne Edelstein, my agent; Patricia Mulcahy, my personal editor; and Doctor Thomas Gutheil, my mentor, colleague, and friend. Anne believed in this project from the beginning, and her belief, her driving commitment to make it happen, her energy, her sense of humor, and her ability to instill hope in me when I had lost it kept me from sinking on more than one occasion. Patricia, a true teacher, worked tirelessly with me through draft after draft. Her humor, her experience, her liveliness, and her knowledge of the perilous world of publishing kept me on track. Tom, a friend and mentor for years, played a major role in helping me reframe the entire book. His intensity, his belief in me, his laser-sharp mind, and his innumerable gifts have been blessings for me.

Writing this book has been a journey in itself, and on this journey I have been sustained, nourished, supported, and encouraged by family members, members of my religious order, other writers, colleagues, and friends. My gratitude to each of them is profound, for it is very clear to me that I never would have accomplished this daunting task without each of them.

My brothers, Kim and Charles, have been like two compasses for me. Both are men of deep faith whose perspective on life and ability to see both the forest and the trees helped me find my path through the woods. My aunt and godmother, Frances Regan, has been a prayer partner from the beginning. My cousin Joan, who should be an editor herself, read and reread countless drafts and offered excellent critiques, as did my cousin Betty McGlynn.

My religious communitySisters Jean Bartunek, Malin Craig, Gail ODonnell, Meg Guider, and Susan Reganhave borne the brunt of this book for five and a half years. Without their love, support, encouragement, interest, and patience, it would have been almost impossible for me to persevere.

The members of two Provincial TeamsSisters Kathleen Hughes, Ellen Collesano, Joan Gannon, Sheila Hammond, Paula Toner, Marina Hernandez, Kathleen Conan, and Anne Byrneliterally and figuratively supported my writing the book. In addition to the community in which I live, the Religious of the Sacred Heart in the Boston area have been my cheerleaders. The retired sisters in my community who live in Menlo Park, California, and in Albany, New York, have followed me with their prayers and their interest. In particular I am indebted to Sisters Maribeth Tobin, Mary Ranney, Gabrielle Husson, and Claire Saizan.

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