Faith, Hope and Mental Health

April 1, 2026

An interview with psychologist Dr. Greg Bottaro on a Catholic approach to mental health care

By Columbia staff

April 1, 2026

A person walks through the woods. — Smileus / iStock / Getty Images Plus

The conversation around mental health and psychology has exploded worldwide in recent years, as professionals and average Joes alike grapple with the realities of mental illness.

More than 1 billion people currently live with mental health disorders worldwide, according to World Health Organization data released in 2025. In the United States, an estimated 61.5 million people — 23.4% of the population — experienced mental illness in 2024, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. This includes more than 33% of young adults ages 18 to 25.

In recent years, the Catholic Church has underscored the need for mental health awareness and proper care. In 2021, Pope Francis revealed that speaking with a psychiatrist helped him deal with anxiety as a younger priest, and in 2023 the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched its National Catholic Mental Health Campaign to raise awareness and remove stigma attached to mental health. Despite growing openness to mental health care, a 2025 survey by The Harris Poll and the American Psychological Association indicates that stigma surrounding the term “mental illness” persists.

For more than a decade, integrating Catholic anthropology into psychology has been the driving force behind the work of Dr. Greg Bottaro and the CatholicPsych Institute, which he founded in 2012. A member of the Knights of Columbus since 2014, Dr. Bottaro spoke with Columbia about this clinical approach and how to combat some of the root causes of anxiety and depression.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Learn more at catholicpsych.com.

Dr. Greg Bottaro, founder of the CatholicPsych Institute, is pictured in his home office in Greenwich, Conn. (Photo by Paul Haring)

COLUMBIA: How did your family background and early vocational discernment shape your understanding of the human person, and how did those experiences lead you to pursue psychology as your life’s work?

GREG BOTTARO: I grew up in a nominally Catholic, churchgoing family but never understood how much my faith should or could matter to me. That really hit the wall when my parents got divorced during my senior year of high school. That was tremendously difficult.

Luckily, I went to Boston College, where I had Peter Kreeft as a professor of philosophy. He taught me how to think and introduced me to the philosophy and theology of John Paul II. I read Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyła and discovered that the Catholic perspective on love and marriage was the antidote to all the ways in which the fractured experience of faith and family had left me.

As I experienced inner healing, I also realized nobody ever taught me this. Nobody ever helped me understand how important, practical and applicable the faith actually is. It’s not just about what you do on Sunday at church.

At that point, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life studying that and applying it for other people who might be struggling. This journey of vocational discernment led me to Franciscan University of Steubenville to finish my degree, and after graduation, I joined the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in New York City. The friars were founded by a psychologist priest, Father Benedict Groeschel, who became a mentor.

In time, before making final vows, I realized I didn’t actually have a vocation to religious life but to marriage. I went to pursue my doctorate at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Washington, D.C., and met my wife the same year I graduated.

COLUMBIA: How does the Catholic vision of the human person differ from prevailing secular models of mental health?

BOTTARO: The secular model is based on postmodern relativism, and it’s built on scientism — a kind of idol worship of science. This means the scientific method is treated as the be-all and end-all purveyor of truth, which ironically is not even what science would claim of itself. Science is simply a manner of observing and testing what is observed.

What we have in our anthropology as Catholics is a belief in what’s revealed. It’s not just what’s observable. Science is important, but we can begin from a deeper place of revealed truth — the revelation of Jesus Christ. Everything Christ reveals about man, about being human, becomes our foundation and starting point.

So when it comes to things like abortion, we don’t need a research study to tell us that it’s wrong and harmful. When it comes to transgender issues, we didn’t need to wait for research to tell us that transition surgeries are not making people happier. We already knew that, because we have the revealed truth about the human person. When we start there and then bring science into the conversation, it deepens our understanding of what it means to be human.

There are standards that we accept and take for granted when it comes to physical health. Here’s a mind-blowing fact: There are no standards of mental health in the secular world. If you have a 104 F temperature, you know you’re sick because you’re comparing that to 98.6 F. That’s a standard. That doesn’t exist in the entire world of mental health. There are subjective, relative definitions.

COLUMBIA: We live in an era of constant digital stimulation that fragments attention and often deepens isolation. What concrete disciplines can Catholics adopt to reclaim focus, interior silence and freedom in responsible use of technology?

BOTTARO: I like to get really practical about this, because we’re talking about this as if it’s a new thing. In reality, we’re about 15 years late to the conversation about digital addiction.

Simply put, you have to have at least one technology-free day a week. Just cut it out entirely. No phone. Get it out of your pocket. Don’t even go on the computer. And if you can’t — because of some impossible restriction — then fix whatever in your life is making that not possible. If it’s your only means of supporting your family, maybe there’s some wiggle room, but maybe it’s just Sunday.

I believe kids should not have phones and tablets. They’re actually ruining kids’ brains. I think it won’t be long before studies show that this is actually a form of child abuse. At the end of the day, that is what the future will look back on us and see — but some people are choosing not to pay attention to it.

But we have to do it first for ourselves, because we can’t give what we don’t have. If we can’t create healthy separation from technology, we’re never going to raise our kids with that kind of freedom.

When we do carve out that time, we see anxiety and depression decrease, happiness and peace increase. There’s more attention in families, more connection, and healthier communication. Kids respect their parents and spouses respect each other more, not less.

COLUMBIA: From a psychological and spiritual perspective, how should we understand addiction — and the roots of addictive behavior?

BOTTARO: We’re made for order, not disorder, and every addiction is a disorder that points to a deeper positive desire. So we ask, “What’s the good that’s being sought in a distorted way?” Whether it’s something pleasurable or the avoidance of pain or the resolution of some problem that can’t be solved through avoidance, there’s a certain sense of goodness and truth there.

When we look at digital addiction, I think there’s a really magnificent dimension of our human capacity for creativity, where we want to go beyond the confines of this reality. Even gaming — it’s like we’re exploring or building new worlds, and transcending the limitations of this world. Well, we’re built for transcendence — because we’re built for divine union.

So once we understand why there’s a desire in the first place, we go back to that core and we ask how can we meet the need or feed the desire in a healthy way instead of a disordered way?

We’re made for order, not disorder, and every addiction is a disorder that points to a deeper positive desire. So we ask, “What’s the good that’s being sought in a distorted way?”

COLUMBIA: In your book The Mindful Catholic, you propose mindfulness as compatible with the Christian life. How would you distinguish a Catholic understanding of mindfulness from New Age spirituality?

BOTTARO: When we talk about mindfulness, we’re talking essentially about paying attention to the present moment. What it means is taking your mind and what you’re focusing on and turning it toward what’s real right now. If you’re constantly letting your mind go to a place that’s not this moment, what we can measure with brain scans is that this increases your anxiety. It increases cortisol, heart rate, muscle tension. When we use our five senses to focus the mind back onto what’s here right now, all those anxiety signals decrease.

Peace expands our thought. You might be more creative, more connective, more able to make connections instead of worrying and only thinking about the future.

Now, it turns out that’s what the Buddhists have studied. The difference, which is critical, is their explanation of why it works. Essentially, the Buddhist unity of all being says that even the idea about the future is an illusion. That’s not what we believe. We believe that being in the present moment helps us be healthier and happier because we have a God who revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ, who told us, “Do not be anxious about the things of your life.” He told us that God will take care of us in each moment. He told us to look at the flowers, look at the birds. They’re not worried about their work, for the Father is clothing them and taking care of them.

Pope Leo has said that one of his favorite books is The Practice of the Presence of God. It’s all about finding God in the present moment. God, who is the eternal now, is there waiting for us if we focus on him in the present moment.

COLUMBIA: Marriage and family life today face enormous cultural pressures, and many couples struggle silently with stress, resentment or emotional disconnection. What habits can married couples cultivate to safeguard their relationship with one another and with God?

BOTTARO: Men and women are so different from each other, yet God calls us to be united, and it can sometimes seem like a cruel joke. But if we listen a little more carefully and deeply, this is a path to sainthood. This is what St. John Paul II and the Second Vatican Council really made clear: the universal call to holiness. Most of us are called to holiness through marriage — and the challenges and the crosses are actually the path.

A family spends time together. — zeljkosantrac / E+ via Getty Images

When I lived in religious life, I got to see this cadence for celibacy that was beautiful — the orarium, the daily schedule of common prayer. How do you spend your time every day in prayer? In as many ways as possible, I try to structure that time in our family life and with my wife. I can’t say we do a Holy Hour every day together, but we try to carve out a good amount of time to actually just be together every day, my wife and I. No technology, not in front of the TV, but just having a cup of tea, sitting and talking, being together.

Communication and emotional intimacy — or just quality time together — has to be a goal we are fighting for. The days we don’t want to see or be around each other — now that means there’s something to work through. It’s the working through that’s actually going to help us become saints.

So plant the stake, make the time and make it structured. If it’s an hour a week to start with, carve it out and put it on the schedule. Even if it’s 20 minutes a day, carve it out and put it on the schedule.

COLUMBIA: What are some foundational practices parents can adopt to foster resilience, emotional maturity and a stable sense of identity in their children?

BOTTARO: The most basic, generalizable principle I can offer to parents is: If it’s humanly possible for your kid to be doing something, they should be doing it. If they can do the dishes, if they can cook their food, if they can take out the garbage.

We’ve moved away from this idea that children should be growing into their capabilities, and we need to encourage that. We need to bring that back.

Does it take more time from parents to instruct, to observe, to manage and watch over? Yes, definitely. The education of children is a primary responsibility for parents. As soon as a child is physically or mentally able to do something, they should be taught how to do it and then expected to do it. That’s where we grow them into their greatest capacity.

COLUMBIA: Many people — especially men — are hesitant to seek counseling or professional support. How can Catholic communities reduce stigma around mental health struggles?

BOTTARO: On the one hand, there’s understandable hesitation about trusting the mental health field. At the same time, we all need help. There’s no “if.” It becomes a question of what kind of help we need.

This is the radical departure from the postmodern, relativistic culture we live in that is isolated and self-sufficient. We all need each other. God designed us to need each other.

Whether that means we need medical intervention, more connection and relationship, or more mentorship and guidance, if we rewrite the expectation across the board, then it becomes a lot easier.

You have everybody walking around like, “I’m so self- sufficient. I’m such a man. I don’t need any help.”

OK, well, where are your brothers, your father, the men in your family? Where’s the elder who’s teaching you how to become a better man?

“Well, I don’t need that.”

That’s totally false. It never works. It’s a bigger paradigm shift that we need to get to the place where community, relationship and mental health resources are not stigmatized.

COLUMBIA: Various studies point to rising loneliness, depression and a loss of purpose among men — especially young men. From your perspective, what are the deeper roots of this crisis?

College Knights gather at the conclusion of the 60th annual Knights of Columbus College Councils Conference in New Haven, Conn., held Sept. 26-28, 2025. The conference drew nearly 200 Knights representing 70 colleges and universities across North America under the theme “Ambassadors of Christ.” (Photo by Paul Haring)

BOTTARO: I think that we are facing this incredibly challenging pressure to be good men, while culture has stripped what makes us good from us. If you look historically at what it is to be a man, we need each other. Men come together, men work together, and men validate each other.

The way that boys grow up into men is by being around men who show them, through example, what it is to work hard, to have virtue, to be men of sacrifice — to be men for others, and to validate when the boys are starting to act with some of that virtue. We need each other.

There’s no way we can thrive in these isolated worlds of self-sufficiency, and yet that’s the world we live in. We are somehow expected to pull out of thin air these characteristics and virtues of being a man.

I think what we need to do is recognize where we’re isolated — perhaps the office cubicle or home office, and accept that some people can’t avoid those things — and we have to supplement our life with experiences that actually echo and reverberate with who we’re made to be.

So if you have to work in isolation or spend most of your time by yourself, you have to take the time and make the effort to go out and be together with other men, like with the Knights of Columbus, by working, serving and praying together.

COLUMBIA: What does authentic, healthy masculinity look like?

BOTTARO: The healthiest masculinity follows the example of St. Joseph. St. Joseph first was on his knees as a son, and Joseph’s yes follows Mary’s yes. Mary is the example of the whole Church. So the first thing we can do as men is to follow the example of Our Lady, because her fiat is the prime example of the disposition every Christian should have before God.

It’s a little ironic, but the first mark of our masculinity is: Can you get on your knees in a position of humility and receptivity, in the example of Our Lady? From that posture we receive the charge that God has for us — as fathers, as husbands, as men in our communities. That humility and that vulnerability is the most important mark of true masculinity.

Timothy McCarthy is pictured outside Beaumont Hall, home of Patapsco (Md.) Council 1960, where he has been an active member for nearly four decades.

Faith, Hope and Mental Health

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