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Alumni » Our Alumni » Leslie Kacsir

 
Dr. Leslie Kacsir earned her Psy.D. from IPS in 2007 and is currently in private practice in Front Royal, VA.  Beginning Fall '09, Dr. Kacsir will be an IPS clinical supervisor.

I clearly remember the first time I concretely considered the possibility of integrating faith with psychology. 

I was a second-year master's student at a respected behavioral psychology program. These words had just come out of the clinical supervisorís mouth:
Just convince your patients that guilt (due to mortal sin) is based on a maladaptive system of beliefs. Cognitively restructure their belief systems that this (action) is not wrong; the guilt is.

I remember feeling stunned that, as a helper, I was being asked to lead someone into sin and away from God.

The supervisor really believed in instructing my colleagues and I to help others and was naturally a very kind and concerned person. However, I knew I could not follow this feedback. 

Naive and just 22 years old, I had never considered this could happen, let alone what God was calling me to do about it.

In His Mercy, He let the supervisorís instruction happen, and He opened a door that would never be closed. In His Mercy, He also gave a sweet, wizened, Carmelite priest (also my next-door neighbor) who not only guided me, but also talked with me about the possibility of a Catholic psychology. 

My heart became consumed with a desire to not only prevent persons from becoming mislead away from faith in counseling, but also to TRULY help people in a way that is complete, and in a way that is eternal.

On that day, I promised myself that I would not practice any form of counseling without it honoring God.

I started to become aware of my vocation as a psychologist.

It took a while to respond. I completed the masterís program and moved on to a doctoral program.

I tried to convince myself that as long as I was just teaching kids to tie their shoes and to learn play skills, there wasnít a problem. However, I could not let go of the conviction that Jesus wanted something else.

I often pondered the conversations I had with Father, and, in prayer, my heart continuously returned to the conviction that there must be a Catholic psychology.

Finally, in 1998, while on pilgrimage for the March for Life, in another act of Mercy, God made sure I got lost in D.C. 

As a person was writing directions on a newspaper, I realized he was writing on an ad for a group of clinicians known as ìCIPS.î I stuffed the paper in my pocket and did not take it out again until June, when I was cleaning. I glanced over the ad again and put it away for another year. 

And then, I called Gladys Sweeney, not knowing how I would pay, where I would live, or whether the program would last.

In His Mercy, God gave me the grace to let go of old career plans, He reassured me the Institute was legitimate, He found me a job, and He made sure I came up with the tuition.

As the years went by, He sustained me.  He gave me the perseverance to work my way through school, to entrust financial worries unto Him, to endure serious physical illness, to secure an internship, to pass the licensure exam, but most of all, to see His Mercy in the entire process.

In short, my IPS journey, and now my journey as a Psychologist, has been a continual manifestation of His Mercy.

Finding the IPS program, let alone attending it, was (and is) fulfillment of that dream Jesus planted, long ago, in supervision at a secular university.  He quenched that thirst for integration and truth in the IPS classroom.

I have NEVER been disappointed with the courses I found there.

As I reflect on my IPS journey, initiated over 10 years ago, I realize that going to IPS was about so much more than acquiring a degree, gaining knowledge, learning a truth-based psychology, or even learning how to serve those who suffer from emotional illness.

Admittedly, these are all important and essential elements; however, the picture seems so much larger now. 

Being a Catholic Psychologist is a calling from God. There is nothing you can do to turn it off, if you desire His will.

Whatever obstacles exist, He will transcend, in His time. This program is hard work, worthy work, and again, He provides all that is necessary to complete it.

However, it has to be about Him, and it cannot be accomplished without Trust in His Merciful plan.

These days, I have opened a practice, devoted to the Divine Mercy and called Misericordia Divina, in Front Royal, VA.  I am also returning to IPS this summer, in the role of Clinical Supervisor.  Of course, all by and for His Mercy!

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, Have Mercy on us and on the whole world!