About Anam Cara
The words Anam Cara are the Gaelic words for “Soul Friend”.
A soul friend in ancient Christian Ireland was a person committed to spiritually walking with others, in search of God and healing for their souls.
In our header you will note the Celtic Cross. The Celtic Cross is a symbol of hope and healing. The circle around the beams of the cross embrace and transfigure the loneliness and isolation where the two lines of pain intersect.
To define the term Psychospiritual Therapy, the word psyche in Greek means soul. Psychospiritual therapy is the integration of the spiritual with the psychological or with the therapy or healing of the soul. More specifically, our approach is that of integrating the Celtic and contemplative spiritual traditions with that of depth and analytical psychology.
About The Anam Cara Community
The Anam Cara Community is a community of belonging. Its mission is to provide care and psychospiritual healing for those living with serious and life-limiting illness. In addition we offer support and counseling to family members and friends of the loved one living with illness. A newly formed community, it consists of Psychospiritual Therapists and Spiritual Directors committed to humbly walking as a ‘soul-friend’ with persons who are ill.
Currently we are a small consortium of individuals in professional ministry in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Our faith backgrounds are primarily that of Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox Christian Traditions. Our psychospiritual approach to formation and counseling reflect the richness and wisdom of these Traditions.
First and foremost, we are a community deeply steeped in the ancient Celtic Christian Tradition of Anam Cara or soul friendship. We see in this ancient Celtic model of spirituality, great value in its emphasis of being part of a circle of belonging. Secondly, the Celtic tradition emphasizes a spirituality of transfiguration and one of intimately encountering the sacred.
Celtic spirituality is especially an effective gentle and compassionate approach in helping others through the dark tide of fear, despair and isolation that illness often brings. The Celtic way of “being with others” allows the person living with illness to discover new depths of soul and to experience new levels of individuation and completeness.
Most of all, Celtic spirituality is a tradition of hope and resurrection. It allows one to see and experience that we are much more than our bodies; that we are eternal and that illness never has the last word in our lives.
Though the Anam Cara Community is currently a small group of committed individuals ministering and counseling those with serious illness, our ultimate goal is to settle in a place of community where we can work, pray and worship. Once this sacred ground is obtained, a church structure connected to a hospice home will be built. Here we will care for those who have no place to live out the remaining days of their lives. They will have a safe haven, surrounded by a community of love and the promise of Christ’s resurrection.
Finally, the goal for The Anam Cara Community is to train and educate others called to similar ministries. It will provide a place of formation to equip students to establish other Anam Cara Communities and ministries to those living with illness.