Programs

• The Sanctuary Youth Series is a faith-based mental health program - Thursday Nights, starting January 8, 2026 from 6:30 to 8 pm in the Teen Center at Saint William Church

  Meeting Dates:

  January 8, 15, 22, 29, February 5, 12, 26 and March 12, 2026

  Note: parents who would like to join will be welcome to join a separate, parallel session up in Saint William Hall This will allow parents and teens to have their own peer groups and still experience the same content.  All parents are welcome to attend, but we highly encourage your teens to join as well.

  This series is designed to raise awareness and reduce stigma by starting conversations about mental health in youth ministry settings. By the end of this series, young people will have:

  • Increased their mental health literacy;

  • Reduced social and self stigma surrounding mental illnesses;

  • Learned how to care for their own mental health;

  • Developed positive attitudes towards help-seeking;

  • Cultivated a greater understanding of God and explored what it looks like to follow God in seasons of flourishing and languishing mental health; and

  • Engaged in spiritual practices of companionship.

• This series is for:

  • Young people with questions about mental health and mental health challenges;

  • Young people living with mental health challenges;

  • Young people supporting family and friends with mental health challenges;

  • Youth ministry leaders who want to engage their students in conversations about mental health, mental health challenges, and faith.

• Our target demographic is youth ages eleven to fifteen years old, but can go up to those in their senior year.
  
  This resource is written for a Christian audience and lead by our parish Mental Health Ministry. It provides a theological framework for understanding mental health and explores key questions through theological, psychological, and social perspectives. That said, it assumes low biblical literacy so that young people at different places in their faith journey are able to engage with the content.

  
  

  You can learn more here, on the Sanctuary Youth Series site.

• Session 1: What’s Good About Mental Health
  Session 2: What Does the Bible Say About Mental Health?
  Session 3: Why Do I Feel This Way?
  Session 4: What Happens When We Talk About Mental Health Challenges?
  Session 5: If You Have a Mental Health Challenge, Can You Get Better?
  Session 6: How Can I Help My Friend?
  Session 7: What Can I Do to Take Care of My Mental Health?
  Session 8: How Does This All Connect?

  You Matter | Your Mental Health Matters | You are Never Alone

• Register here

Special Services

• Blue Christmas Service
  • Monday, December 15,  2025 at St. Nicholas Church from 7 to 8:30 pm
  • Join us in a holy night of prayer for those who grieve loss, feel blue or empty this holiday season
  • We come together to honor your feelings and to accompany you in this time of sorrow
  • Register here

Film Screenings

• We are working to schedule our next film screening.
• Past films screened with discussion panels include:
  • Anxious Nation (May 2024)
    • Screening Guide
  • Angst 
    • Angst: It Gets Better
    • Screening handout
    • Angst Resource page
  • Upstanders 
    • Preventing Cyber Bullying: Top Ten Tips for Teens
    • Upstanders Resource page
  • LIKE
    • Screening tip sheet
    • LIKE Resource page

Past Talks

• Mental Health 101 with NAMI Santa Clara
  • Mental Health 
    101
    a Presentation by NAMI Santa Clara County
  • Sunday, May 25, 2025
    • Insights into mental illnesses and the mental health continuum 
    • Techniques for supporting those with mental health challenges 
    • How to avoid toxic positivity and spiritual bypassings
• ACES and Coping with Honorable Judge Steve Manley
  • Friday, April 26, 2024 from 7 to 8:30 pm at St. Nicholas Gary Thomas Hall, 473 Lincoln Avenue, Los Altos
  • Honorable Judge Stave Manley ("Gold Standard" for Mental Health Court article and Chief Justice Leadership Award)

Past Retreat Day

• Mental Health Ministry Retreat Day - January 13, 2024

   
  • We thank all who were able to attend this for this day of prayer, formation, reflection, breakout sessions and the celebration of mass 
  • Keynote Speaker: Deacon Ed Shoener
    • Ed Shoener was ordained a permanent deacon in 2004 and serves at St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Diocese of Scranton. Shoener is a founding member and President of the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers and the Catholic Institute of Mental Health Ministry at the University of San Diego. He serves on the Council on Mental Illness of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability. Deacon Shoener, along with Bishop John Dolan, is coauthor of the books Responding to Suicide: A Pastoral Handbook for Catholic Leaders and When a Loved One Dies by Suicide (Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN).
      
      He, along with family and friends, founded “The Katie Foundation” after his daughter, Kathleen, died by suicide in 2016. Katie’s obituary went viral because it spoke to the needs and concerns of people who live with mental illness. He lives with his family in Scranton, Pennsylvania
  • Mass Presider: Fr. Matt Stanley
    • Homily
  • Breakout Sessions
    • Those supporting someone with a mental illness
    • Those those with a lived experience of a mental illness
    • For those involved in or interested in starting a Mental Health Ministry
    • For youth, under 18, who either have their own experience with mental illness or know someone who does
    • For religious, who have a mental health program or not in their parish
  • Event Details
    • January 13, 2024 from 8:30 am to 3 pm
    • Saint William Church, 611 S. El Monte Avenue, Los Altos, CA 94022
  • Agenda
    • Event Agenda
  • Understanding of the Retreat Day
    • The Saint Nicholas and Saint Willliam Mental Health Ministry Retreat Day includes rich background, ministry and witness from Catholic religious & individuals and is designed to help attendees learn about and understand mental health. Neither the Diocese of San Jose nor this retreat day provides medical, counseling, or crisis services and those who attend are electing to participate in a purely educational program. If you experience a mental health crisis, you should contact local emergency services by calling (911) emergency or (988) the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or other similar service.      While all are invited to voluntarily share their own journey and listen to others,  understand there is no expectation that anyone participate by answering any questions during the sessions. Please understand that the program is expected to be a confidential setting for the participants and all who attend should acknowledge and agree that what is said during the program sessions is not to be, and will not be, shared or repeated to non-participants. Although the program may be presented by volunteer and staff mental health ministers, who are there to help accompany and educate the attendees, the ministers are not acting in any professional mental health capacity.      All attendees hereby hold harmless, release and discharge The Roman Catholic Bishop of San Jose, a corporation sole, The Roman Catholic Welfare Corporation of San Jose, a non-profit religious corporation sole, the Parish/School, and their respective agents, employees and any parent/volunteer/chaperone, from any and all liability, loss or claims for personal injuries, wrongful death or property damage that may incur as a result of participation in the activity described above.

Past Activities

• Dancing with Catholic Dance Crew
  • October 24, 2025, 6pm - 8pm
  • St. William Hall

• Novena

  • November Mental Health Novena
    • November 1-9 at 2:45 pm 
    • We will be following this novena: https://www.usccb.org/mental-health-novena
• Mental Health Walk in Los Altos
  • July 19, 2025 from 9 to 11 am
  • Join us for a nature walk in our own neighborhood!  We will start at St. Nicholas Church courtyard and walk through Redwood Grove and Shoup Park.  We will stop in Shoup Park for a prayer and reflection before heading back to St. Nicholas Fr. Gary Thomas Hall for some refreshments.

The Sanctuary Course for Catholics is an eight-session class designed for Catholics, but all are welcome!  It includes a rich background and witness from Catholic theologians, pastors, ministers, therapists, families, and individuals. There are videos to watch and a planned lesson for each week which includes readings and discussion questions.  Workbooks will be provided. Together we will walk through these topics to help our understanding of mental health, that we are not alone, and that there is a healing path for all.

The Mental Health Ministry team offered The Sanctuary Course for Catholics these past two years. We ARE HOSTING sanctuary Youth SERIES STARTING JANUARY 8, 2026.  REGISTER AND LEARN MORE HERE

• The 8 Adult Sessions course were offered in Spring and Fall of 2023 and we are offering this course once again in the Fall of 2024.
• Please email Catherine at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Adult Sanctuary Course Outline

Watch the trailer for The Sanctuary Course for Catholics here.

Sanctuary Session Number and Description
1 – Introduction
2 – Mental Health
3 – Mental Illness
4 – Stigma
5 – Recovery
6 – Companionship
7 – Self-care
8 – The Church

Film Contributors:

• Most Reverend J. Michael Miller, CSB – Archbishop of Vancouver, BC
• Most Reverend Samuel J. Aquila, STL – Archbishop of Denver, CO
• Helena Orellana, PsyD, LCP – Clinical Psychologist, Director of IPS Center for Psychological Services, Divine Mercy University
• Harvey Payne, PsyD, Academic Dean, Divine Mercy University
• Father David Songy, OFM Cap., STD, PsyD – President and CO, Saint Luke Institute
• Scott Hefelinger, STL, PhD – Assistant Professor of Theology, Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology
• Dr. Chi-Chi Obuaya, MRCPsych, MBA, MBBS – Consultant Psychiatrist, CO-Director of the Mind and Soul Foundation

While the Sanctuary Course is recommended for group settings, you can do this program on your own as well.  Sanctuary is offered on Formed.org and directly through Sanctuary, Mental Health Ministries.

The Sanctuary Course for Catholics includes a rich background, ministry, and witness from Catholic theologians, pastors, ministers, families & individuals and is designed to help me learn about and understand mental health. I acknowledge that neither the Diocese of San Jose nor Sanctuary provides medical, counseling, or crisis services and that participants are electing to participate in a purely educational program. If you experience a mental health crisis, please contact the local emergency services by calling (911) emergency or (988) the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or other similar services. 

While all are invited to voluntarily share their own journey and listen to others, there is no expectation that participants answer any questions during the sessions. The program is expected to be a confidential setting for the participants and what is said during the program sessions is not to be, and will not be, shared or repeated with non-participants. The program is presented by volunteer and staff mental health ministers all of whom are there to help accompany and educate participants; the ministers are not acting in any professional mental health capacity. 

Participants in the Sanctuary program hold harmless, release and discharge The Roman Catholic Bishop of San Jose, a corporation sole, The Roman Catholic Welfare Corporation of San Jose, a non-profit religious corporation sole, the Parish/School, and their respective agents, employees and any parent/volunteer/chaperone, from any and all liability, loss or claims for personal injuries, wrongful death or property damage they may incur as a result of participation in the activity described above.

Our neighboring parish, St. Simon, has a Mental Health Ministry that hosts a drop-in monthly discussion group via Zoom on the 3rd Monday of the month from 7:00 pm to 8:15 pm. RSVP here to get the zoom link. All are welcome!

We invite you to be in community with others facing mental health challenges or caring for loved ones who are.  Be in a safe, stigma-free, supportive space where you can share your story and struggles. If you have questions, please email [email protected].

• Here is a list of resources and help lines for our areas.
• Diocese of San Jose – Mental Health Ministries
• NAMI Santa Clara County
• Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers
• Reflection: I’m Fine, February 2022
• Resources from Santa Clara County