By Gretchen Keiser

A network of service available through the Church, but perhaps little known, is the professional counseling provided by licensed people under the direction of Catholic Social Services.

Their assistance to individuals, families and marriages undergoing stress, is available at the Catholic Center on West Peachtree Street in Atlanta and at 14 other parish sites.

The outreach in parish settings have been growing quickly, according to Anne-Marie Meehan, Ph.D., director of clinical services for CSS. Her desire is for the program to reach even farther in the future, particularly into the less densely populated, rural area of the archdiocese and more profoundly to urban, poor areas.

At present the counselors are available in a growing number of parishes, including five in Atlanta, two in Decatur, and other in Norcross, Stone Mountain, Lilburn, Lawrenceville, Marietta, Peachtree City and Chamblee.

In addition, five counselors are available at the Catholic Center, where as salaried individuals they can more readily slide their fees to meet the needs of clients with low incomes. Among the five is Roberto Montana, a bilingual Hispanic counselor, who sees clients at the center and also travels to Cobb County where he is providing counseling weekly to Hispanics. Father Jose Luis Avila, bilingual parochial vicar at Holy Family parish in Marietta, is an intern in CSS’ counseling program, also available in certain settings as an Hispanic counselor.

“The outreach started in 1982” with the desire to “offer our services when and where they are needed” and to minimize scheduling problems for clients who frequently are trying to work or go to school and raise a family, Dr. Meehan said. Counseling sessions that can be held at night, on weekends, in a variety of parish locations “minimize interruptions” for the clients and provide more service, she observed. “Slowly but surely we’ve added a few parishes year by year by year.”

The downtown clinical services staff of five, headed by Dr. Meehan, is part of Catholic Social Services and salaried. As with many CSS programs, it is partially subsidized by the archdiocese and a beneficiary of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal.

The 13 outreach counselors, who are licensed social workers, counselors or psychologists in the state of Georgia, work under contract to CSS. Dr. Meehan provides direction for the counselors, supervises ongoing educational opportunities and observance of ethical standards in the field, and oversees the counseling staff as a whole.

In addition, the downtown office of CSS is a place where people in need make their first contact and request help, where they are referred to appropriate counselors and where they can receive help on a 24-hour a day emergency basis if necessary. Legal and psychiatric consultations are also available to the counselors through CSS as needed.

All the counselors are licensed at the master’s or doctorate level in mental health specialties. Some have particular emphases, in addition to general counseling. Diane Huey, who is the counselor working out of Holy Cross parish in Chamblee, also specializes in remarriage and step children issues, since she is the leader of archdiocesan remarriage workshops and a single parent with two special children, Dr. Meehan said.

Other counselors may specialize in addiction, adult children of alcoholics, adult survivors of child abuse, alcohol intervention and the AA model, she said.

The counselors and parishes match up as follows: Mary Wetzel at St. Patrick’s, Norcross; Paula Abrams at Holy Trinity, Peachtree City; Diane Huey, Holy Cross, Chamblee; Joan Martin, Corpus Christi, Stone Mountain; Noreen Horrigan and Charles Bright, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Atlanta; Mary Ellen Hughes, St. Thomas More, Decatur; Van Waddy, Holy Spirit, Atlanta and Holy Family, Marietta; Dee Huggins, St. John Neumann, Lilburn; Jim Hunt, St. Anthony’s, Atlanta and St. Paul of the Cross, Atlanta; Bettie Daniels, St. Lawrence, Lawrenceville; Whatley Fenlon, Cathedral of Christ the King; and Rick Owens, Sts. Peter and Paul, Decatur.

Fees are on a sliding scale with a high of $70 an hour. Some parishes involved in the outreach program assist their parishioners financially with the cost of counseling and as they are able the counselors, particularly those at the Catholic Center, slide their fees to meet clients financial limitations.

Asked to specify some of the problems encountered by people who come to CSS counselors, Dr. Meehan said, “Family communication is a huge preventive theme,” a need that counselors try to help families meet before a crisis occurs with a child. Counseling can help find “a safe, palatable, humane method” for family members to talk to each other and share difficulties, she said. “We need a lot of support in this world and there is a way we can do that for each other.

In some parishes the counselor may be structuring a very different kind of approach based upon examining, with the parish staff, the mental health needs there. For example, at Sts. Peter and Paul, Rick Ownes and Father Richard Wise are developing a mentor program to strengthen male role models for children. In Peachtree City a concern has been ongoing effect of the Eastern Airlines strike on families and providing support for latchkey children. Another specific need in this archdiocese is counseling for people who are relocating from other states and experiencing difficulties as a result, Dr. Meehan said.

The growing Hispanic population, the terrible stress on the urban poor, the drug crisis and its impact on youth, all remain needs that must be addressed now, and more effectively in the future, the director said. “My dream would be to have good, available, down-to-earth outreach help for rural and remote areas as well as urban and poor areas.”

(The Archbishop’s Annual Appeal will be held Sunday March 11.)