Saint Labre Community for Adults with Mental Health Conditions

The Saint Labre Community for Adults with Mental Health Conditions was founded in 2018 in Alexandria, Virginia. It provides an alternative to secular support groups by offering supportive prayer/intercession, Christian fellowship, and Catholic/Christian mental health resources.

As such, the community emphasizes peer supported recovery: growing in healing and holiness through the intercession and fellowship of our “peers” who also walk the continuous journey of mental health recovery. It is not a clinical service, and does not take the place of clinical services, but works alongside more clinical aspects of recovery by offering the spiritual element and the company of others who likewise carry this cross. The spiritual support group meets weekly each Saturday morning; other activities include healing masses, retreats, and social evenings.

As of July 2020, The Labre Community of Northern Virginia has united itself as a chapter of the Association for Catholic Mental Health Ministers. Contact us via email for more information at [email protected]. You may wish to consider starting a Labre Community in your own parish or diocese.

Click the podcast above to listen to the founding peer member of the apostolate, Kirsten Marie Obadal, a parishioner at the Basilica of Saint Mary who lives with a chronic mental health condition, talk about the community. Kirsten has completed training in the Commonwealth of Virginia as a Peer Support Specialist, and is currently working towards certification in Virginia. She is devoted to our Blessed Mother as well as to Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, the Patron Saint of Mental Illness. To learn more, please click here.