The STEP model · with Divine Mercy University
Care where people already belong.
Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there in the midst of them. Every ministry a church runs is a way of doing that. Presence+ works inside the ministries a community already has, trains and equips the people in them at every level of care, and makes sure each person ends up in a relationship that helps them change for the better, with a licensed clinician close by when that is what they need. Everyone in it is helping someone, and everyone has a pathway of their own.
137MAmericans live in mental health shortage areas
27%of the need in those areas is being met
~80%of people seeking help need accompaniment, not a diagnosis
1 in 4who seek help for a mental disorder go to clergy first
Find your door
Who are you here as?
Presence+ serves six kinds of people. Each has a page of its own, with one clear next step.
Looking for help
On your road to flourishing or healing. Start with what is right with you, and a person to walk with you.
Ask for help
Churches and campuses
Keep your name and rhythm. Add trained presence and a next step. Start free.
Start a first cohort
Helpers
Companions, listeners, ministers, spiritual directors, coaches who do not bill.
Start the Companion course
Clinicians
Licensed caregivers and credentialed helpers who bill hourly, in Mindspirit.
See Mindspirit
Organizations
Dioceses, networks, universities, schools and ministries working inside or alongside churches.
Partner with us
Learners
Short formation courses from Divine Mercy University faculty, on your own pathway.
Browse the courses
STEP
Caring is a continuum. People move along it by their own feedback.
Support, Through a trained person, Efficiently, with Presence. STEP names four levels on the continuum, from a friend to a psychiatrist, and Presence+ provides training, support and software at every one of them, not only the clinical end. Most people are served well by a friend or a trained helper. Clinicians are kept for those who need them, and nobody is discharged into nothing.
Everyone is both
Every person in the network is helping someone, and every one has a pathway of their own.
My pathway
There is no helper class and helped class. A therapist has a pathway to flourishing in the app; so does a man two years into recovery who now walks with the next one. The pathway holds the courses, practices and relationships that belong to that person, and it goes with them when they step up or down.
Everyone gives feedback, and everyone receives it
After each conversation the person says how they are doing and how the relationship is going, and the helper hears it. The same Regular Outcomes measures run for a Companion and for a psychiatrist, so the record means the same thing at every level, and it is what moves a person along the continuum.
The suite
Two ways in. One record.
Anyone who wants help uses the Presence+ app. Companions and church or campus staff help through Raphael; coaches, guides and clinicians work in Mindspirit. Every app runs on a phone and on the web, and all of them share one record, so a person can move between a friend, a pastor, a coach and a clinician without starting over.
For anyone who wants help
Presence+ app
Ask for help, meet your helper, follow My pathway, and say how it is going. Phone and web
For Level 1 and 2 helpers
Raphael
Where Companions and church or campus staff invite, listen and walk alongside. Phone and web
For parishes, campuses and community groups
Midst
Coordination: intake, matching, reporting. Sits in the midst of the ministries a community already runs
For every helper
Emmaus
Learning platform where any organization can publish and share formation courses
For Level 3 and 4 helpers
Mindspirit
Practice management and EHR: scheduling, notes, billing, measures
For deliberate practice
Melete
AI simulation, scored against established fidelity scales
Why it works
The relationship predicts the outcome more than the method does.
Decades of psychotherapy research say the helper and the relationship matter about five times more than which technique is used. That is why STEP forms helpers and measures relationships rather than licensing its way out of the gap.
From the CCMMP
Today's reading from the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person.
The CCMMP publishes daily on the news, books and questions of the day, read through the Model of the Person. Each piece opens on ccmmp.com.
CCMMP · Sep 2, 2026
Bringing Divine Mercy to the Catholic University of America
Father Charles Sikorsky announced on August 12th that Divine Mercy University will move to the Catholic University of America campus in the summer of 2027. The relocation centers on O'Boyle Hall, currently home to Catholic University's school of psychology, which is now under renovation. The move builds on an existing clinical partnership between the two institutions.
Read on ccmmp.com
CCMMP · Sep 1, 2026
When Bishops and Formation Teams Disagree: An Incoherence at the Heart of Seminary Discernment
A McGrath Institute report finds that 22% of U.S. bishops would ordain men with deeply rooted homosexual tendencies, a rate far above that of seminary rectors, formation directors, and vocation directors. The gap is not merely statistical — it reveals a broken chain of accountability in priestly formation that the 2005 Vatican Instruction was designed to prevent.
Read on ccmmp.com
CCMMP · Aug 25, 2026
What Child Centered Play Therapy Can Teach a Priest (and an Adult in General)
Child-Centered Play Therapy identifies a basic human need: every person requires at least one place where they can bring anger, sadness, and frustration and still be accepted. A priest whose prayer life and fraternal bonds cannot fill that role faces a structural crisis, not merely a personal failing — one that drives unmet needs toward unhealthy outlets.
Read on ccmmp.com
Honest about scope
Every helper can say what is theirs and what is not.
A psychiatrist can hand a question of meaning back to a person's faith. A pastor can send someone back to their doctor before they change a dose. STEP trains every level to name its scope early and to know the next step exists.
Bring STEP to a community you serve
Parishes, campuses and community groups start free. We will show you what a first cohort looks like and be plain about where the network is today.