Speaking and consulting
The deeper questions belong to everyone.
For more than forty years my work has been with Catholic religious communities. But the questions at the heart of that work — how do we move through profound change, how do we let go without losing ourselves, how do we find hope when the old forms are passing — are not theirs alone. Every organization, every leader, every gathering of people committed to something larger eventually arrives at its own crossroads.
I speak and consult for groups ready to meet that moment honestly.
What I offer
Speaking
Keynotes, retreats, workshops, and talks for conferences, leadership gatherings, formation programs, and communities of every kind. I don't offer easy answers or motivational gloss. I bring depth, candor, humor, and a conviction that the hardest passages are often the most generative — that a crossroads is not only a place of loss, but a threshold to something new.
Consulting
Focused accompaniment for organizations and leaders moving through transition or the weight of decisions about the future. Grounded in psychology and a lifetime of contemplative practice, the work makes room for the honest questions beneath the practical ones — and stays with them until something real emerges.
Themes I explore
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The difference between change and transformation — and why the deeper kind can't be managed, only entered
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Crossroads and thresholds: the liminal space between what was and what is not yet
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Contemplation and the inner life as the ground of genuine change
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Hope in seasons of diminishment, loss, and uncertainty
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An evolving spirituality — where contemplative wisdom, psychology, and the dialogue between science and faith meet
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Leadership and communal discernment when familiar structures no longer serve the future
What I bring
A grounding in clinical psychology, four books including Graced Crossroads, and a lifetime formed in the contemplative and integral traditions.
But what people tend to remember is the room itself: the empathy, the humor, the willingness to ask the hard question, and a hope that holds up under real weight.
Consultation with Beth Lipsmeyer
Beth Lipsmeyer, Ph.D., founder of Comprehensive Consulting Services, continues to offer selective Zoom consultation to individuals, elected leaders, and leadership teams. A clinical psychologist and former Sister of Mercy, Beth brings four decades of experience integrating psychology, spirituality, leadership, and religious life.