Every time there are losses there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper.
~ Henri Nouwen
Our Vision
As our consciousness expands and becomes awakened throughout our lives, we become more spiritually attuned to God’s presence and closeness to us in new and more experiential ways.
Through workshops, support groups, reflective writing, retreats, prayer, conferences, and other psychoeducational experiences, the Center for Spiritual Awakening creates space where wholeness with God, our true selves, and each other leads to a more spiritually awakened world for all.
Marriage Education Programs
Marriage Education Programs will provide psychoeducational learning and skill development designed to strengthen, enrich, and enhance marital partnerships. Focusing on problem-solving methods and ways to keep the bonds of friendship alive and strong in marriage, John Gottman’s award-winning New York Times Bestseller Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, as well as Harville Hendricks Imago methods and others, will be offered.
Ministry for Separated and Divorced
Ministry for Separated and Divorced will provide support and education groups to all those whose lives were suddenly or not-so-suddenly turned upside down through the experience of divorce. Recognizing the shame, blame, loss of self-esteem, confidence in oneself and related issues that often ensue following or even preceding divorce, Ministry for Separated and Divorced offers healing connection to our God and to others through the process. Recognizing that God’s love and presence remains stronger than ever as we struggle to move through the process of endings to find new beginnings, is key to our faith-filled journey.
Ministry for the Bereaved
Ministry for the Bereaved will provide emotional and spiritual support, compassion and understanding for those who have lost a loved one in their life. No amount of preparation for the impending loss of a loved one can ever prepare one fully for the actual experience of loss that is conjured up by losing a loved one. Additionally, issues of shock and trauma can become overwhelming for those who lose a loved one in sudden, unexpected ways. In supportive and caring connection with others who are similarly grieving, this Ministry will provide psychoeducation, peace, belonging, hope, healing and connection with others who likewise are grieving the loss of a loved one.
Ministry for Trauma, Loss, and Shattered Assumptions
Ministry for Trauma, Loss, and Shattered Assumptions will provide psychoeducational support and spiritual nurture for those whose lives were forever changed through unexpected endings and events that they never saw coming. Issues of betrayal, loss of employment, sudden relationship endings and events one never anticipated may incline one to feel lost and alone. Yet, God’s presence and tender mercy remain strong in ways that are unseen, yet keenly available for all who turn toward him with courage and hope. This Ministry offers solitude, peace, comfort and connection through compassionate sharing with others in similar situations. While trauma and loss incline our paths to become blurry and unclear, a process of re-learning our lives and re-learning ourselves in new ways is a viable, life-giving goal filled with God’s grace. The more we become whole with God in us, the more inclined we are to turn around to help those behind us.
Reflective Writing Retreats
Have you ever reflected on the steps that you have taken in your life that have brought you to the place you currently are? Have you ever put words to what was meaningful to you through your life that you adhered to, in ways that you may not have been consciously aware of? What drove you to make this choice versus that choice? What led you to stick to choices that are meaningful to who you are, versus who others might have wanted (or encouraged) you to be? Throughout our lives, we are pulled by threads of cohesiveness that ultimately lead to beautiful tapestries. Through reflective writing, prompts will be given to guide you as you write your story. Be filled with joy as you watch your story of oneness, purpose, and meaning come alive in new ways before your very eyes. There is only one you. Welcome to a Reflective Writing Retreat where you will meet your True Self in ways you had not consciously known or encountered before!
Stepping Into Your Aging Years with Wisdom, Wholeness, and Your Essential Self
We live in a culture where aging is often greeted with dread and despair rather than hope and joy for the gifts of Wisdom that our years of life have gifted us with. In this workshop you will focus on the essence of who you are, the Wisdom that fills your life, and an awakening awareness of how your Wisdom has become part of the fabric of your relationships with those you love. In a spirit of humility and gratitude to God for the many ways his presence has been silently working within you, guiding and defining you, come recognize and give thanks for the first time perhaps, for the essential spirit of who you are! It is the essence of your spirit and love that has interwoven you with others in love and connection. Come celebrate the essence of who you are for the gift it is that will remain forever!
Hello! I am Dr. Geraldine Kerr
Thank you so much for visiting my site to learn more about spiritual awakening and the process of psychoeducation and spirituality.
From the outset, please note that psychoeducation is not therapy.
Throughout my own life, as well as in working with the lives of others, it has become abundantly clear that throughout life, there will always be change. Some changes are chosen and exciting while others are far from anticipated and are in fact devastating.
There is so much that we don’t know when we don’t know it!
There are so many moments in our lives where we spiritually awaken in ways that we may not at first resonate with, until we recognize a certain stillness and closeness with God within us that helps us to awaken, and become more aware.
Change and transitions throughout life often lead to feelings of anxiety and grief. We may find it difficult to come to terms with the changes thrust upon us.
Transitions mean change and change means that something has ended so that something new can begin.
Endings often bring grief – the metamorphosis that occurs as we wrestle with and “let go” of life, situations and relationships as they “should be” -- to what we wake up to one day and recognize they have become.
This could involve a marital relationship that embodies twists, turns, peaks, and valleys in ways that one feels unskilled to navigate, divorce that one never dreamed would occur at the time of marriage, loss of a lifelong partner, child, parent, or friend without whom there are feelings of great distress and emptiness.
As a long-time therapist who has worked with individuals, couples, and families, I made the decision to offer psychoeducational groups for very specific reasons. Stated again, it is important to note that psychoeducation is not therapy.
What I know as a therapist is the keen sense people have to feel God’s presence through the experience of sharing the stories of their lives.
Often, it is not my words that are wanted, but rather a stillness and quiet centeredness within the person where they open themselves to hear more specifically and clearly what it is God is speaking to them within their hearts.
What I know about psychoeducational groups is the expanded sense of God’s presence that becomes available through sharing our stories with others in a group setting with others in God’s family who are going through situations similar to our own.
What I know is that sometimes during transitions we may not specifically know what we are feeling, but upon hearing someone else name the feeling on their journey, we may connect with that person and that feeling, in ways that are comforting and create peaceful belonging.
What I know is that all things family-related have been the hallmark of my work for over twenty-five years. Through God’s grace, I have learned that transitions through any aspect of family life – marriage, affairs, parenting, single-parenting, separation, divorce, empty-nest transitions, elder care, death, dying, and so much more – are openings in our lives that invite us to a deeper awareness and awakening of God in our lives.
Spiritual awakenings help us to find greater purpose and meaning through our transitions, which ultimately help us to feel God’s presence in our lives in more meaningful and fulfilling ways.
I hope to see you in one of the groups at The Center for Spiritual Awakening!
Please contact me if I might be of further assistance at (908) 813-8232.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS, LICENSE & CERTIFICATION:
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) NJ #37F100119000
American Psychological Association (APA)
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)
International Family Therapy Association (IFTA)
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
International Leadership Association (ILA)
Spiritual Directors International (SDI)
Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS)
Certification in Pastoral Ministry, Fordham University School of Religion
PEACE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS
Lord, make me a channel of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt; faith;
Where there is despair; hope;
Where there is darkness; light;
Where there is sadness; joy.
Oh divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen