The questions men ask
before they begin

No. Serviam Institute provides virtue coaching, not psychotherapy. Therapy is largely concerned with healing what has been wounded and treating diagnosable illness. Virtue formation is concerned with building capacities that were never formed in the first place — prayer, temperance, fortitude, self-governance. We do not diagnose, we do not treat mental illness, and we do not bill insurance. If what you need is therapy, we will tell you plainly and point you toward it.

No. We coach individual men in virtue. Marriages do improve as a consequence — wives are usually the first to notice — but we are not a couples counseling practice and we do not work with couples.

No, and it is not a replacement for it. Spiritual direction concerns your interior life under the guidance of a priest or trained director. We train you in the virtues: the habits that make the spiritual life livable. Many of our men have a director, and we would encourage it.

No. Fr. Chad Ripperger has endorsed this work and trained us in Thomistic psychology, which is why the question comes up. Serviam is formation in the virtues — teaching, practice, measurement and accountability.

There is brotherhood in it, and that matters. But a men’s group meets. This is a structured twelve-week formation program with an assessment at the start, a re-assessment at the end, daily practice and a coach who sees whether you did it.

No. Self-help hands a man information and leaves him to it. Most men do not lack information — they lack formation, structure and accountability. That is what we provide, and it rests on the Church’s understanding of the human person, not on motivation.

A Catholic man who knows something needs to change, is willing to practice weekly, and wants to be held to it. Fathers, husbands and working men who are serious.

Men who want therapy rather than coaching. Men looking for a quick fix. Men who want information without implementation, who are not willing to do daily practice, or who do not actually want accountability. This work asks something of you.

Because taking a man’s money for the wrong program is a disservice to him. Some men need clinical therapy, addiction treatment, spiritual direction or marriage counseling before or instead of coaching. We refer those men elsewhere, and we would rather lose the enrollment than mislead you.

A conversation. We ask about where you are, what you have already tried and what you want to be different. You will leave knowing whether we think we can help and what we would recommend — including recommending something other than us.

Because a recommendation made without knowing your situation is a guess. We would rather understand the man in front of us than sell the same thing to everyone.

You complete your virtue assessment, meet your coach and your cohort, and begin. Weekly group sessions, three private sessions across the program, and daily practice tracked between them.

We tell you, and we point you toward what would actually help. That happens, and it is the right outcome when it does.

Because we do not recommend a program before understanding your situation, and the right recommendation is not the same for every man. Cost is discussed openly on the call, before any decision.

No. Insurance reimburses clinical treatment for diagnosed conditions. This is formation in virtue, which is not a clinical service and is not billable — and being outside that system is precisely what lets us do this work as faithful Catholics, for men anywhere in the country.

Two reasons. Clinical licensure binds a practitioner to a single state, and men across the country need this formation. And the ethical frameworks governing clinical practice rest on an understanding of the human person we do not share — they do not recognize you as body and soul. We do.

Tell us on the call. There are payment options, and if the timing is genuinely wrong we will say so rather than press you into it.