Showing results by author "Sr. Carole Riley Ph.D." in All Categories

Denial, anger, depression, and anxiety block the path to freedom. Hostile environments at home and work feed our sense of being out of control and under attack. To deal with these realities, Sr. Riley introduces the listener to a series of meditation techniques that address our unhealthy defense mechanisms, face our fears, and begin to understand the peace and strengths that come from utilizing the insights of mystics as well as psychologists.

Using the Principle of mindfulness spiritual practice, this seminar will focus on strategies for healing the caregiver. Techniques of journaling, therapeutic writing, mindfulness practice, and spiritual integration will provide the participant with necessary tools of self-care.

In this interactive seminar, Dr. Riley will present symptoms of compassionate fatigue and strategies for recovery and healthy practices during intense periods of caregiving. Participants will be directed in goal development for prevention of fatigue and depression associated with caregiving. In addition, self-care activities, methods of balancing living and a bibliography to support continued learning will be provided.

This seminar will focus on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy techniques proven to be effective for depressions, anxiety, stress, addictions, eating disorders and borderline personality disorders. The six techniques of ACT will be presented with extensive bibliographical resources. Some experiential worksheets will concretize the theory.

In Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, he says: “Be angry and sin not.” How do we live this Christian admonition? How do we attain spiritual growth in struggle, in conflict, and with feelings that overwhelm us? Carole Riley, C.D.P., Ph.D., looks at conflict as a Eucharistic engagement. When we apply the skills and techniques she discusses in this presentation, we may better understand the mystery of life and reach harmony.

In addition to her continuous post as professor at Duquesne, her past roles have included assistant dean of the music school, chair of the piano department, and membership on numerous committees and boards. She has received the President’s Award for Excellence in Community Service and was honored with membership in the Century Club of Distinguished Alumni.

If you are feeling intense stress about the future, are losing sleep, are experiencing a vague sense of disaster, are blaming everyone else for your anxiety, are overlooking your accomplishments and focusing on your failures, are distorting mistakes and thinking of them as catastrophes, if you are seeing everything in terms of black and white, all or nothing, this presentation can help to set you free and develop a more humane outlook on life and a more realistic wholesome way of existence.

Sr. Riley explores the dynamics of depression in the Church. She offers insights into this dark reality and gives practical suggestions for dealing with depression. She shows how physical activity, prayer, ritual, meditation, music, friendly support, and counseling can aid in lifting a person out of the darkness.

Guilt is an almost inevitable part of the human experience, yet we are sometimes at a loss to know how to heal the guilt within us. Can we bear it gracefully? Can we release it? Can we avoid poisoning our relationships with guilt that we have not processed appropriately? Yes, we can, Sr. Carole tells us. But we must begin by accepting it and understanding its roots in our childhood, in our expectations of others and ourselves.

As relationships deepen in healthy encounters, conflicts emerge. This seminar addresses the call to resolve through noticing, analyzing, discerning self-reflection and dialogue. Part One addresses conflicts in intimate relationships. Part Two will focus on the role of teachers, church leaders, and organization leaders in creating a safe space for conflicts to emerge. Some concepts of Parker Palmer will be used to investigate ‘truth’ as truth in its communal dimension.

Participants will learn sound-based techniques for self-healing-techniques that anyone can use, whether facing life-threatening disease or simply seeking relief from the stresses of daily life. Music, vocalization, breathing and meditation techniques will be used. Suggestions for playing healing music at the bedside of the sick and dying will be given. Use music, whether (sung, played, live or recorded) as healing sound power.

Using her extensive pastoral experience, her academic research and natural sense of humor, Sr. Riley presents a program of meditation, relaxation techniques and self reflection to help the listener become more peaceful and wholesome in the midst of all the stresses life poses.

Sr. Carole Riley describes what healthy spiritual relationships are and how to establish them. The presentation also covers how to heal broken or dying relationships and how to end essentially destructive relationships. The skills presented here are immediately applicable and can change both the dynamics of how individuals interact and how the Christian community as a whole gels in its life in the Lord. She presents the keys to mindful loving.

"Anger" - one letter away from "Danger". This program will help you to: identify positive and negative anger; identify precursors to inappropriate anger escalation; verbalize strategies to express feelings of emotional pain appropriately; name resources for anger management, conflict management, and emotional pain resolution. Using scripture, poetry, music, pictures, discussion, and personal experiences Sister Carole will guide you through the process.

This presentation will uplift, delight, and inspire every senior religious. With humor, insight, and realism, Sr. Riley reinforces the listener’s faith and affirms the value of every single religious whatever the state of his or her health might be. Everyone will be reminded of the spiritual wealth of his or her own congregation while embracing this mutually shared mature spirituality that is totally Catholic and appropriate for the veterans of love, who have reached their jubilee years.

In two presentations, Dr. Riley addresses the grieving process and describes steps for grief recovery. The use of a loss-graph and relationship-graph foster healing of emotional hurts and other issues that remain from unfinished emotional grieving. Safe exercises for a person to work alone or with a grief partner are described. In these talks, Dr. Riley provides many helpful examples as well as an outline for personal use.

This program will address the spiritualty helpful to adult survivers of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Tips on building a support system, identifying a network and resolving abusive relationships are addressed.

A practical guide for those afflicted with the life draining condition of scrupulosity. The listener is guided through a self-evaluation that pinpoints when scrupulosity is dominating the person’s life. She gives spiritual exercises designed to help the person live in the moment, let go of past events, accept the forgiveness of God, and finally be forgiving to oneself.

Sr. Carole attempts to address the painful reality of denying denial. Denial is basically a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with facts that are too uncomfortable to accept and ultimately rejects them, insisting that they are not true, despite what may be overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The concept of denying of denial involves thoughts, actions and behaviors, which bolster confidence that nothing needs to be changed in one's personal behavior.

This audio will help families, teachers, principals, social workers, 12 step sponsors, pastors, and religious deal with conflict, overcome self-deception and promote honesty, integrity, and interdependence. The art of leadership is brought into focus and the capacity of all to share in the power to make things better. A sense of powerlessness, blame, suspicion and backward looking attitudes drains individuals and groups of their capacity to grow.