Inner Child work that honors your body and protects your soul.

Become like a child. Heal as a Spirit-led adult.

Because Jesus’ invitation to “become like a child” is socio-emotional, somatic, and spiritual.

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Catholic Inner Child Work offers a trauma-informed interior pilgrimage to help you journey into your inner world.

Through the integration of psychology, neuroscience, and Catholic anthropology, we are here to help you heal emotional wounds, mature spiritually, and live more freely as the person God created you to be.

The Catholic Inner Child Work Interior Pilgrimage is for you if:

  • You desire to better understand your childhood and past experiences

  • You need a healthier way to explore your emotions

  • You want to experience healthy relationships

  • You desire to be more self-compassionate

  • You long to feel more regulated, calm, and safe in your body

  • You need tools to respond to triggers

  • Your faith is important to you, and you desire a more secure relationship with God

  • You want to better understand your patterns and disrupt unhealthy cycles

  • You long for a deeper connection

  • You no longer want to feel “split” or internally divided

  • You want to show up more maturely

  • You desire more childlike joy, freedom, authenticity, and faith

The Catholic Inner Child Work Interior Pilgrimage will help you:

  • reclaim who you authentically are in God

  • identify wounded and protective inner parts

  • bring unattuned parts into relationship with God

  • understand emotional and bodily responses

  • mature from reactivity into freedom

  • utilize the gifts of the Holy Spirit

  • grow in virtue, especially humility

  • live more compassionate, attuned, and alive

The goal is not childish regression but childlike integration that deepens spiritual adulthood.

Learn more by scheduling a consultation

Brya Hanan, LMFT

Therapist + Author + Founder

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You don’t have to keep healing alone.

Start here: Explore Coaching

Step one: Book a Consult
Step Two: schedule a session
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A woman and a little girl are drawing on a wall with chalk. The woman is standing on a small wooden step stool, reaching high to draw, while the girl is kneeling on the floor drawing with chalk. The wall has various childlike drawings and scribbles, and there is a sign on the stool that says, ‘Please stay out!’
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What we offer

A gentle path, at your pace—whether you’re beginning your own healing or learning to walk with others. All resources will help you integrate your story, the different parts of you, your nervous system, and your faith.

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  • Our individual accompaniment offers personalized support as you experience the Spirit-led Inner Child Work model. We take you on an interior pilgrimage so you can discover your inner world and experience healing, hope, peace, and integration.

    Sessions integrate nervous-system regulation/ somatic work, meditative prayer, and Catholic anthropology.

  • Gentle, trauma-informed practices designed to help you slow down, reconnect with your body, and begin healing in a way that honors your faith. These resources offer a safe introduction to Catholic Inner Child Work without pressure, overwhelm, or the need to go deeper before you’re ready.

  • We offer clinically informed and spiritually grounded formation for therapists, coaches, and ministry leaders who feel called to accompany others in healing. This training certifies you to practice the Spirit-led Inner Child Work model.

Who We Are

  • We believe in Jesus’s invitation to “become like a child”—not as a call to regression, dependence, or innocence without wisdom, but as an invitation to restored trust, openness, and freedom of heart.

    In Catholic Inner Child Work, this invitation is approached with deep respect for human formation and the realities of trauma. Many people did not experience childhood as a place of safety, attunement, or care. For them, calls to childlikeness can feel confusing, painful, or even harmful when interpreted without care.

    Our approach honors this reality.

    We focus on restoring what was meant to develop in childhood but was interrupted—a sense of safety in the body, trust in relationship, and freedom to remain present without fear.

    • All of creation has inherent dignity and worth

    • Trauma fractures us from our God-given nature

    • Grace works with our humanity, not against it

    • The inner child is not the sin nature, but the place where adaptation formed

    • Protection developed for a reason and deserves compassion

    • Safety is a prerequisite for discernment and growth

    • Healing is not fixing the self, but restoring wholeness

  • Catholic Inner Child Work was developed by Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Brya Hanan, drawing from her book Befriending Your Inner Child: A Catholic Approach to Healing and Wholeness, years of work accompanying individuals in healing and formation, and her own personal healing journey.

Get Started

Meet the Catholic Inner Child Work Coaches

  • Headshot of a bald man with a goatee, wearing a dark suit and white shirt, smiling against a plain white background.

    Ross Olson

    Ross Olson is a husband, father of five, and Integrative Catholic Coach dedicated to helping individuals rediscover wholeness, interior freedom, and identity through a lived relationship with the Holy Trinity. Combining spiritual counseling, inner healing prayer, and psychologically-informed coaching, Ross accompanies clients who feel stuck, isolated, or overwhelmed by emotional and spiritual burdens they cannot carry alone.

    With over two decades of professional experience in healthcare and ministry settings, Ross brings a grounded, compassionate presence to those who desire restoration in areas such as shame, fear, unmet core relational needs, and wounded trust in God and others.

  • A woman with long brown hair smiling outdoors, wearing a blue top and a necklace with a mountain charm.

    Briana Johnson

    Briana (Bree) Johnson has dedicated over 20 years to serving the Catholic Church, bringing a wealth of experience and a deep passion for integrating Catholic theology, psychology, and anthropology. Bree started a ministry of accompaniment called Maris Stella Healing. She holds two certificates in Narrative Focused Trauma Care from the Allender Center at the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, equipping her with specialized training to address trauma with compassion and insight. Bree also is trained in Spiritual Direction and Inner-Child Coaching. Her work reflects a profound commitment to holistic healing and spiritual renewal within the Church.

  • Woman in black blazer and scarf standing with arms crossed in front of a wooden door.

    Michelle Phinizy


    Michelle Phinizy is a certified Integrative Catholic Coach, wife, mom, and “Emmy” to her two granddaughters.  A Special Education teacher by trade, she also brings several years of experience with Internal Family Systems, Inner Healing Prayer, and is part of an apostolate whose charism is interior formation.  Michelle understands that God is the ultimate Healer, Guide, and Lover of each one of us. She believes in the power of the Ministry of Presence and strives to be a channel of God’s transforming love and compassion.  One of her greatest joys is to accompany others on their healing journey with Christ.  

  • A woman with long brown hair and a warm smile, sitting at a glass-top table with a white brick wall background, accessorized with a stack of books and decorative items.

    Maria Ortega

    Spanish Speaking

    Maria Ortega is a Licensed therapist and a certified Integrative Catholic Coach. She specializes in adolescents/young adults. Maria began her career as a social worker working with immigrant families. Maria has used her background to offer deep empathy and help break cultural barriers so that those on the margins can get the support they need. Maria hopes to use her background and therapeutic skills to accompany people on their journey as they learn to integrate the different parts of themselves. Maria's faith in God has led her to believe that she is the vessel and her job is to make space for God to repair the wounds that no human power can repair.

  • A woman with curly hair, smiling, sitting on a brown chair in a cozy, colorful room.

    Bella Bryant

    Isabella Bryant is a certified Trauma and Resiliency Life Coach and certified Integrative Catholic Coach. Isabella is trained in treating the effects of childhood sexual abuse and incest from the Arizona Trauma Institute. Isabella is gentle and non-judgmental while still being energetic and honest with her clients. She uses a trauma-informed coaching model and is trained in somatic body-based practices. Isabella desires to create a safe environment for her clients where they feel seen and heard. She currently works with Witness to Love Family Counseling Services in Phoenix, Arizona.

  • A woman with brown hair and bangs, smiling, wearing a navy blazer and white shirt, standing next to a white wood wall.

    Stephanie Gray

    Spanish Speaking

    Stephanie Gray is a trauma-informed licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, certified Integrative Catholic Coach, wife, and mother of three children. Stephanie believes that every individual is worthy of respect and the dignity of their life should be upheld and protected. She works diligently to create an environment where you will feel safe, seen, heard, understood, and loved. Stephanie’s love for the faith and Christ is entwined with how she views and approaches her work.

  • A woman with curly dark hair holding a pink flower near her face, standing next to a wall of colorful pink and orange flowers, with palm trees and a clear blue sky in the background.

    Kiki Rocha

    Spanish Speaking

    Kiki Rocha is a Latina Integrative Catholic Coach and Mindset Coach, guiding women toward emotional healing, embodied confidence, and a God-centered identity.

    Her journey into this work was deeply personal—growing up in a broken home and navigating trauma, sexual abuse and relational wounds, and pregnancy loss led her to seek deeper healing through inner child work, nervous system practices, and faith.

    Her heart is in helping women heal sexual abuse wounds, feel confident in their bodies, and navigate dating and young marriage with emotional safety and secure attachment. Kiki believes healing is something to be lived, not just taught, and she is committed to embodying the work she shares.

  • A young woman with long dark hair wearing a pink blazer, white top, and a gold necklace, smiling at the camera.

    Angelica Lopez

    Spanish Speaking

    Angelica Lopez is a mom, grandmother and Certified Integrative Catholic Coach. Angelica brings her background in spiritual direction and accompaniment. With Christ at the center, she is passionate about creating a safe and sacred space where growth, restoration and authentic transformation can unfold. She has been deeply inspired by the transformative power of God’s unconditional love in her own life and seeks to be a vessel in supporting other’s in coming to know their parts and trust the goodness within them.

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