Alumni » Our Alumni » Greg Kolodziejczak
Whether clients are explicitly spiritual or not, existential issues always loom in the background, and a psychologist needs to be able to address those issues with breadth and depth.
From engineer to psychologist, Dr. Greg Kolodziejczak answers the call to serve others.What importance has your education at IPS had in supporting the work you are doing now?
Psychology is a second career for me. My first was engineering, which I found to be intellectually interesting but somewhat sterile in terms of a deep sense of meaning. Eventually I decided that the workings of the human mind and heart, as well as the ability of persons to relate to one another with love and compassion, were more important and more meaningful to me than even the most stimulating engineering challenges.
Consequently, I left engineering and studied theology, getting a master’s degree at Catholic University of America (CUA). It was in my studies of theology, as well as in various ministerial activities, that I developed a sense of the importance of psychology.
Academically, the anthropological dimension of theology seemed to me to be underdeveloped, and it seemed that psychology could help to fill this out. In terms of practical application, it seemed that psychology could shed enormous light on difficult personal and interpersonal situations. Hence, when IPS began offering courses, I availed myself of the opportunity.
The details of how that happened are both humorous and providential. I had been away on a retreat over the Labor Day weekend of 1999. I returned Monday evening and got into a conversation with a new roommate who had just moved to Washington, DC, to attend IPS. As I spoke with him, I got the sense that I too might like to take some classes. On Tuesday I researched IPS, and then on Wednesday I visited the Institute, applied, was interviewed, and started classes that evening! Soon thereafter, I decided to take the plunge and get the degree rather than just take a course here and there.
But why IPS? In his book, The Blank Slate, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker notes that “Philosophy today gets no respect. Many scientists use the term as a synonym for effete speculation. . . . But far from being idle or airy, the ideas of philosophers can have repercussions for centuries.” The enduring effects of our philosophical presuppositions are important not only in culture as a whole, but also in the individual lives of our friends, families, our clients, and ourselves.
One of the things I like best about IPS has been the rigorous manner in which the curriculum forces students to examine those presuppositions and their psychological/emotional effects.
That training has served me well in the work with my clients. Whether clients are explicitly spiritual or not, existential issues always loom in the background, and a psychologist needs to be able to address those issues with breadth and depth. My education at IPS has helped me to be able to do that.
Additionally, IPS has allowed me to investigate and write a dissertation on the subject that I find most compelling – love (agape), and the manner in which our capacity to love becomes undermined and distorted by a variety of psychological mechanisms. What I learned from researching and writing that dissertation has been exceedingly helpful to me in my clinical work, and it formed the basis for what will likely be a lifelong project – synthesizing psychology, philosophy, and theology on the issue of love. I don’t believe that I would have been able to approach this topic in this same integrative manner at the great majority of academic institutions.
I recall taking a yearlong course at a local secular institute while also enrolled at IPS. In that course I gave a presentation on love, including some philosophical and theological perspectives. While the other students seemed to enjoy it, the professor seemed offended, as though I had violated a taboo. IPS, on the other hand, gave me the freedom and support to pursue what I held to be most important and meaningful, and helped to equip me (both theoretically and clinically) to serve clients from an integrated perspective on love.
Dr. Kolodziejczak works primarily in private practice in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. In addition, he is involved with the Archdiocese of Boston, working with the diocese’s marriage preparation curriculum committee, as well as with Project Rachel.
Last January, as part of his fellowship in the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), Dr. Kolodziejczak gave a presentation on Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Borderline Personality Disorder at the prestigious Winter Meeting of the APsaA in New York City. The two senior faculty in the session were Otto F. Kernberg, MD, FAPA, and Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA.
In September 2008, Dr. Kolodziejczak visited IPS and presented his dissertation, Distortions of Love as Distortions of the Self From a Psychosocial Perspective. Following his presentation, Doctoral Student Lillian Henricks observed, I was struck by the way Greg integrates his psychological, philosophical, and theological research, as evidenced by his dissertation, with the clinical work that he practices daily. What he is doing is a great example of the type of integration of our study and practice that flows so naturally from our life of faith and the rigorous application of reason. No doubt, he is a gift to each one of the clients and to the field.