From July 1 to 14, the facilities of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) hosted the first face-to-face meeting of the Master in Psychospiritual Accompaniment. This is a two-year international postgraduate course of specialization for the formation of those who accompany the integral growth of believers in the Church. This course is one of the courses offered by In Imun Cordis School and has as its motto to the depths of the heart.
This meeting, which was held in person in the Colombian capital, marked the end of the first year of the Master’s program and brought together more than 30 students to attend experiential workshops aimed at deepening the topics covered during the year through e-learning courses.
The meeting was structured in four main workshops, each designed to address different aspects of psycho-spiritual accompaniment:
Family of Origin and Accompaniment: This three-day workshop was led by MasĆŗ Boticario, PhD in Psychology, from Spain. Participants explored aspects inherited from their parents and early attachment figures. We worked on understanding how the origins and early relationships influence the person, identifying possible wounds and traumas that need to be healed to improve the role of companion.
Healing the Companion’s Inner Wounds: The Newman Mexico team, composed of Oscar Rivas, Luis MĆ”rquez, Ana Luz CĆ”zares and Erika Arellano, gave this workshop focused on early trauma and its healing through psycho-traumatology. Through group therapies and techniques such as EMDR, Bilaterality and Tapping, attendees learned to identify and treat internal wounds, facilitating healing processes to better accompany those suffering from anxiety, depression and other disorders.
3. Intervention and Accompaniment Techniques: Doctor of Psychology Claudia Diaz, a Mexican based in Spain, led this workshop that taught participants how to carry out a well-structured psycho-spiritual accompaniment process. Through practice with real cases and exercises in meditation and philosophical dialogue, the participants learned to establish effective routes and frameworks for accompaniment.
4. Psychospiritual Experiential Retreat-Workshop, Compassionate Love: Directed by the Colombian friar HĆ©ctor Manuel CalderĆ³n, Augustinian Recollect, this two-day retreat allowed the participants to reflect and surrender to God all that they had learned and healed. It was a space of integration and spiritual peace.
This meeting was the closing of the first year of the Master’s program and also an important step in the formation of missionary evangelizers. Starting in October, participants will continue with the second year of the program, which includes more online study modules, the preparation of a thesis and a final face-to-face meeting. The ultimate goal is to train psycho-spiritual companions who can guide others in their spiritual and personal growth, helping them to find and connect with God in their life journey.
In Imum Cordis School
The In Imun Cordis’ School of Formation was born with the objective of strengthening the accompaniment of the formators to the young Augustinian Recollects. This responds to the call of Pope Francis to form for the mission, to form in the passion of proclamation, to form in that passion to go wherever, to any periphery, to announce the love of Jesus Christ to all, especially to those far away, to relate it to the little ones and the poor, and also to allow oneself to be evangelized by them.
The Augustinian Recollects, through the General Secretariat of Spirituality and Formation, have taken seriously the challenge of being artisans of integral formation with the next generations of religious and priests by creating a School to accompany their integral growth. This school for companions is a school to learn to love; a school to be fully human. It is formed in an accompaniment from the desire for God and Augustinian love; from the passion for life, for Christ and for the Church that defines the Augustinian Recollects; and from the three characteristic wisdoms: Interiority, Community and Church.
The motto, “In Imum Cordis” (“Towards the depths of the heart”), guides the School of Formation in the knowledge that it is not possible to accompany in these transcendent depths without the integral formation of the person accompanying.
With this school the Augustinian Recollects want to form companions to be pilgrims with those who are on pilgrimage in life, as Jesus did; to be formed to accompany from heart to heart; to be in tune with the vital moment of search and encounter; to be involved with the direction of the deep desire of people; to accompany to make qualitative leaps that the person seeks and needs; and to accompany from an authentic, integral and involved love.
All from humility and happiness, from the Word and towards community and communion with the Church.
