Judith Schaeffer

Judith Shaeffer

Sr. Judith Ann Schaeffer is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, St. Joseph Province. She earned her doctorate in clinical/counseling psychology from Loyola University Chicago. Her 40-year practice has included psychotherapy, assessment, and supervision of interns and residents. Her latest ministry has been at Franciscan Community Counseling Inc. in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her interests include developmental stages and processes of psychological growth as well as transference phenomena. Her publications include several scholarly articles, four continuing courses, and a book titled Transference and Countertransference in Non-Analytic Therapy.

By this Author

pupas and a butterfly

Lean into the nitty-gritty of religious life's evolution

"We need not be afraid or troubled" about changes in religious life, writes Sr. Judith Shaeffer. That's because "evolutionary development is at the heart of our Creator's plan."

Silhouette of a group of people on a mountain (Unsplash/Natalie Pedigo)

Women religious are being called to evolve to the interindividual stage

This new stage is "inter" in the sense of honoring and integrating all members of the human community. And it is "individual" in that it requires women religious to remain themselves and let others do the same.

Sr. Maria Cecilia Neil embraces another member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia July 24, 2023, at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, Tennessee, where 10 members of their congregation made their final profession of vows. (OSV News/Tennessee Register/Rick Musacchio)

Predicting the future of religious life

Will women religious choose to consciously move from an institutional to an interindividual level of development? Judging from their earnestness, sincerity and integrity throughout the centuries, they probably will.

A crooked wooden bridge (Unsplash/Florian Bernhardt)

Developmental movement is a must for women religious

Women religious must move from a stage of development marked by relative certainty to one of tentativeness and hope of a fundamental breakthrough. They need to accept "the new normal" of being in transition.