Integratus, the official journal of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association, is pleased to announce a special call for manuscript submissions focused on The Catholic Family: Fostering Growth, Development & Healing in the Domestic Church Catholic couples and families struggle with the same issues all families face, but they also experience challenges that set them apart. In this issue, we will be exploring questions and issues related to fostering the growth, development, and healing of the domestic church.

How is the Catholic vision of marriage and family life unique?

What challenges do Catholic couples and families face that their non-Catholic and non-Christian counterparts do not?

Most importantly, how can we, as Catholic helping professionals, assist Catholic
households in responding to those challenges?

Integratus is excited to partner with Dr. Gregory Popcak as a guest editor on this special call for manuscript submissions. Dr. Popcak is a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, a Certified Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy Trainer by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), and a Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work (ABCSW). He is the author of over 20 books on Catholic marriage and family life, sexuality, and Christian living and the founder of CatholicHOM (Households on Mission) app, the only online Catholic family formation platform. He is the Executive Director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute, a pastoral tele-counseling ministry, and he serves as the Co-Director of the Peyton Institute for Domestic Church Life. an apostolate of the Holy Cross Congregation of priests (CSC) that is dedicated to fostering family spirituality and well-being through original research, professional training, and creative resource production. He is the co-host of the EWTN radio call-in program More2Life and a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Advisory Board for Marriage and Family Ministry. In 2022, Dr. Popcak and his wife, Lisa Popcak, presented the opening keynote at the Vatican World Meeting of Families.

Manuscript Submission details

1. Manuscript submissions may be…

a. Case studies that apply theoretical and evidence-based scholarship to the faith-integrated treatment of problems experienced by Catholic couples and families.

b. Empirical investigation of the challenges faced by Catholic couples, parents, and families.

c. Theoretical, historical reflection, and exploration of the features that distinguish Catholic marriage and family life from that of their non-Catholic and secular counterparts.

d. Literature reviews that provide an analytic overview, clinical implications, limitations, and future directions that can facilitate the flourishing of Catholic couples, parents, and families.

e. Clinical Reflections on emerging areas of clinical practice such as….

  • The development of the identity, mission, and charism of the domestic church.
  • The application of conventional models of marriage and family therapy to the
  • special challenges faced by Catholic couples, parents, and families.
  • Faith-integrated approaches to marriage and family therapy.
  • And other related topics.

2. Submitted manuscripts will go through the standard review process as well as editorial overview by Dr. Gregory Popack and Integratus co-editors.

3. Manuscripts selected for publication will reflect the general standards of Integratus as well as fit with this special call.

Timeline/Deadlines

  • Author(s) may submit a preliminary abstract to both Dr. Gregory Popcak at
    gpopcak@CatholicCounselors.com and Integratus editors, Drs. Robert Kugelman and Jesse Fox at integratus@catholicpsychotherapy.org by March 1, 2024.
  • Submitted abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words and include a title, author(s) name and contact information, summary of the manuscript idea and explicit description of fit with this special call.
    Full-length manuscripts are due by June 1, 2024 and are submitted through the standard, online submission portal: https://integratus.scholasticahq.com/
  • Authors are encouraged to follow the Author Guidelines and Submission Requirements: https://integratus.scholasticahq.com/for-authors
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