The Catholic Guide Through Anxiety

Amelia Bentrup reviews Catherine DiNuzzo’s new book designed to help readers understand and work through anxiety. 

The Catholic Guide Through Anxiety

By Catherine DiNuzzo

What mom has not felt anxious at times? In our modern day and age, anxiety seems to be an almost universal experience for moms. The Catholic Guide Through Anxiety by Catherine DiNuzzo is a fairly quick and easy read that explains the biological basis of anxiety, provides helpful tips for working through and stopping the anxious process and gives information on how trauma leads to anxiety and how we can heal past traumas. Catherine DiNuzzo is a Licensed Professional Counselor who operates Sacred Heart Mental Wellness, and this book is written from her expertise and experience.

The Catholic Guide Through Anxiety is divided into several different sections. The first section discusses mental wellness and provides information and examples of how mental wellness is a result of biological responses shaped by past traumas and experiences. DiNuzzo provides a simple explanation of how anxiety develops and uses the Biblical example of building a house on the sand to explain how anxiety affects our lives. Using simple terms and examples, the author explains both the benefits and downsides to anxiety and explains how anxiety is a gift God gave us to help us survive but sometimes our bodies react to danger which is not present and we feel anxious when we are, in fact, safe.

Strategies to Help Anxiety

The next part of the book details strategies and techniques people can use to stop the anxious response and reclaim their peace and joy. Prayer is a large part of the author’s strategy, and she incorporates both spiritual and more mainstream strategies to combat anxiety. The given strategies can frequently be used before, during, and after a bout of anxiety and can both lessen anxiety and help prevent it from occurring.

As a mom who struggles with anxiety and who has written about anxiety previously, I found DiNuzzo's strategies to be helpful and useful. While they can seem basic as things we have heard before, she describes and details these techniques in a way that makes them more do-able and easy to remember in the moment of anxiety. I also really appreciate how she incorporates prayer and spirituality into her coping strategies.

The last part of the book provides a detailed plan and steps one can take when experiencing anxiety to find relief and overcome it. These steps are simple yet thoughtful and provide a basic framework for stepping down from one’s anxiety.

Trauma and Mental Wellness

The book also discusses trauma and mental wellness and helps the reader identify past trauma in their life and explore how that trauma is currently affecting their mental well-being and provides help to heal from past trauma and more forward with mental wellness. This section of the book focuses a lot on our identity as being grounded in Christ and how our relationship with him can help us through our anxiety. DiNuzzo offers practical and spiritual information to help guide the reader to a place of greater mental wellness. The appendix of the book contains the Sacred Heart Litany and other prayers that will help the reader move through anxiety. 

I found this book to be a practical, helpful guide for learning about anxiety. I gained some new techniques and knowledge that I put into place with my own struggles with anxiety and have found them to be helpful. Whether you have a clinical diagnosis of anxiety or just feel anxious and worried a lot, this book has helpful tips, techniques, and information that will be useful for many Catholic moms.

Is this a book you'd like to read? Share your thoughts with the Catholic Mom community! You'll find the comment box below the author's bio and list of recommended articles.

Copyright 2026 Amelia Bentrup
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