Archpriest and Psychotherapist Seraphim Chemodakov: "The most sincere and deep confessions happen with me in my office and in prison."

Father Seraphim was born in Herkimer, NY, near Jordanville and its Holy Trinity Monastery. There, the nature, the weather, and the Russian accent are just like in central Russia. His father, the future Archpriest Nikita Chemodakov, was then finishing Holy Trinity Seminary.

Father and mother of Fr Seraphim were born in China. In their family, there is a holy martyr – great-great-grandfather, Fr Gabriel Luchinin. He served at Holy Trinity Church in the village of Sorvizhi, Vyatka Diocese. Father Gabriel did not accept the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), for which he was sent to a camp and died of hunger in 1931. In his honor, Fr Seraphim’s uncle received the monastic name – Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada.

The cousins of the spouse of the Holy Martyr Gabriel were hierarchs: Pachomius, Averkios, and Michael (Kedrov). Archbishop Pachomius and Archbishop Averkiy were canonized as new martyrs.

Archbishop of Chernigov Pachomius was arrested in October 1922 and exiled for three years outside the Chernigov Governorate. He criticized the activities of the deputy patriarchal locum tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky).

On October 16, 1930, he was arrested and, “as an enemy of the revolution and Soviet power,” sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment. He served his term at Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp. He became seriously ill. He passed away on November 11, 1937. In 1981, he was glorified into the ranks of New Martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Archbishop Averkiy of Volyn and Zhytomyr, according to Metropolitan Manuil (Lemeshevsky), “was an exceptionally kind, friendly, a deeply believing person, as a hierarch he was approachable, sociable, and through this, he earned the common and most sincere love of the people of Zhytomyr… He loved to serve often.”

On July 25, 1937, the bishop was arrested in Birsk and taken to the NKVD prison in the city of Ufa. Many charges were brought against him. On November 27, 1937, Archbishop Averkiy was executed. In 1981, by the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, he was canonized as a holy martyr and included in the Assembly of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.

The third brother – Bishop Mikhail (Kedrov) – was the Bishop of Wroclaw in the Polish Orthodox Church.

“My great-grandmother Zoya, the daughter of Father Gabriel,” Father Seraphim recounts, “married Nikolai Chemodakov. They had a son, Lev – the father of my father and Bishop Gabriel.

The grandfather on my father's side, Lev Nikolaevich Chemodakov, was educated in Harbin, China, and became an engineer. He was also a reader in the church, where his deep, velvety bass made a special impression on the clergy and parishioners. When Lev Nikolaevich read the Apostle, many would say that “the lion is roaring.”

Fr Nikita entered seminary in 1972 and met Archbishop Averky (Taushev) and the founders of Holy Trinity Monastery – Archimandrite Panteleimon (Nizhnik) and Archimandrite Iosif (Kolos), icon painter Fr Kiprian (Pyzhov), Fr Mikhail Pomazansky, Church historian Nikolai Dmitrievich Talberg, and other professors of that time.

“When Father Nikita became a priest,” Fr Seraphim continues, “he received invitations to serve from all over America (at that time, Orthodox churches were short on priests), but Fr Rostislav appeared to him in a dream and said, “You are needed in Australia. Go there.”

Since then, Fr Nikita has served in Australia for 52 years, at St Nicholas Church in Sydney and at the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Convent in a suburb of Sydney. There in Australia, the future Fr Seraphim grew up and got his higher education in biology and microbiology.

Since childhood, he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in the seminary in Jordanville. After graduating in 2002, he was ordained a deacon, and at the same time, he worked in a lab in his secular field. In 2005, he became a priest and went to his first parish – St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Lakewood, NJ, where he has served for 15 years and gained valuable experience.

Many years later, the questions that Fr Seraphim encountered while working with parishioners led him to a career as a psychotherapist. Now he works like most priests abroad, in his case as a psychotherapist in his own office, as well as in a prison.

Why do you need to do this?

– When I went to study psychology, my relatives, the priests, and parishioners were asking me: why do you need this? By that time, I had already seen at our large parish how people came with problems, and I didn't always know exactly what advice to give them.

Usually, like other priests, I would say: let's pray. We prayed, performed a service – that's fine, but inside I felt that something was missing, that I needed to look deeper into the problem and give them sensible and practical advice. And that's when I started reading books on psychology.

In the city of Lakewood, close to St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, where I was serving at the time, there’s Georgian Court University. That’s where I enrolled in a psychological counseling program, specializing in working with families and couples. I got my master's degree and am now working on my doctoral dissertation.

After some time, I was offered a job at Monmouth County Jail. It holds about 400 inmates. Of them, 350 are men. This prison has professionals working here – both correctional officers and civilian specialists, including doctors.

– What's your profession?

Psychotherapist, or, as they specifically call it in this prison, a consultant on mental disorders. I conduct interviews with newly-arrived inmates, determine if they have mental issues, including fear, anxiety, depression, whether they have suicidal tendencies, or if they need medication.

– And the inmates of this prison – who are they?

They include repeat offenders, rapists, and murderers. Some are seriously mentally ill, and my job when they arrive is to determine the level of their mental disorder (if they have one), and then to observe and talk with them.

The type and severity of mental illnesses determine which part of the prison inmates are kept in: prisoners are assigned to blocks with minimum, medium, or maximum security. Inmates with severe mental illnesses who are at risk of committing suicide are placed in blocks where people are kept even without clothes, and are only given blankets.

In our prison, inmates of two major criminal gangs are kept in such blocks – the Crips and the Bloods. Their “resume” includes drug dealing, murder, street theft, and auto theft. I first learned about their existence in prison. And – yep, there are fights there, and you can definitely feel the fear!

Other inmates are serving time for minor offenses – some don’t pay child support, others behave inappropriately in public...

Some people get scared the first time they end up in prison. Sometimes they even want to take their own lives. So I need to notice the nuances in inmates' mental state that should be pointed out to the director – the prison's clinical psychologist, lawyer, and guards.

– Tell us about your path into this area of psychotherapy.

– Before I started working as a psychotherapist in prison, I spent 15 years as a priest. After getting a degree in clinical psychological counseling, I began working with families and couples. These were the people who most often came to me at church. Now I could professionally help them resolve current psychological challenges of an individual or a couple, and support their adjustment to difficult life situations.

Next, to become a licensed psychotherapist, I needed to accumulate 4,500 hours of work, which amounted to 3 years. After getting my psychotherapist license in New Jersey, I got my first job at a rehabilitation center working with families. The center admitted drug addicts, alcoholics, and gamblers. I worked there for 2 years, and at the beginning of 2022, a colleague suggested I apply to work at a prison.

At first, this place seemed scary to me, but even then I had heard that many people there turned to God.

I've been working there for 5 years now alongside colleagues – psychologists, psychiatrists – and other medical staff: therapists, dentists, nurses – whom the prisoners need.

– What percentage of inmates have real mental illnesses?

In the prison where I work, it's about a quarter to half of the inmates, and 15–25 percent of them have serious mental issues, including schizophrenia. For some, it's genetic, for others, the main cause is drug use.

– Is their illness often detected when they're already in prison?

Yes, with many of them we could be around and not even suspect that they're sick or that an illness is starting. Some of the inmates are homeless, others suffer from psychosis or use drugs, and some have lost their jobs or gone through a divorce. Often their families don't notice the illness, and we end up identifying it for the first time in prison.

– Is there a difference in your communication with male and female inmates?

With women, at the first meeting I also ask general medical questions, then find out if they have experienced emotional, sexual, or physical abuse in the past. For 95 percent, there has been such abuse. Men don’t talk as openly about this part of their lives, but through conversations I find out that more than 50 percent of men have experienced abuse.

If they feel comfortable talking to me, they share the details.

"I was 8, 12, 17 years old,” they would say... “My uncle, dad, some stranger did something to me... And that became a reason to get to know drugs. At first, you just forget yourself, and then an addiction appears..." And then – families fall apart, people lose their jobs, and become homeless.

I often ask myself: why does God allow this? Why does He allow criminal violence, and then people get sick, suffer from psychoses and other illnesses? I don’t have an answer, but we all carry our own cross in life, and it also tells me that we all have our way of carrying the cross, and we carry a cross of a certain size, of a certain weight. I tell them about Orthodoxy, about the cross – the main symbol of the Christian faith, the instrument of humanity’s salvation. They think about it, and for many it becomes clear. Then we continue conversations about God, and some are released, and I don’t see them anymore.

– What percentage of them acknowledges the existence of God?

– About 75 percent. Most of the believers are African American and Mexican, mostly Catholics and Protestants. I've met Orthodox Christians a few times. In our prison, there’s a Catholic priest, a Protestant pastor, and an imam.

When I walk past the room where the Catholic priest is saying mass, I honestly feel a bit of friendly envy. I wish I could serve too! But that depends on the number of prisoners of a certain faith. In our prison, there are almost no Orthodox. They only show up occasionally, and stay for a short time.

Nevertheless, two-thirds start talking about God, about religion. And then, depending on the situation, besides providing psychotherapeutic help, I carry out my pastoral work with them.

I return to my office and, depending on the conversation and the person, I make printouts from the Bible and writings of the Church Fathers for them. As I’ve noticed, this gives positive results. After talking about God, a person gains hope.

I remind the prisoners that humans are made in the image and likeness of God, and that the first book of the Bible is the Book of Genesis. I often hear: “I know! – And what does it say?” That we are made in the image and likeness of God.

“Really?” – And they start thinking. And then a conversation about Christ begins. Jesus Christ came to earth and interacted with sinners, ate with them, taught, forgave, healed. And we are the same people who were around Christ. We judged, threw stones. And this also gives them a sense of reality, of tangibility. And I hope they feel better after hearing such words.

I often tell them stories from the lives of the saints, and we talk about Christ's commandments, about what humility, self-sacrifice, and love mean. They reflect, they agree. And some look at me with surprise that I know something about God and the Church.

– So these conversations are like confession, then?

Yes, my most sincere and deep confessions happen in my work office and in prison. I won’t judge our church people. Maybe they’re shy about being honest during confession, afraid the priest will think badly of them. "Didn’t observe fasting days, sinned by talking too much, took some money from my wife without asking," they say. “Well, sometimes I cursed...”.

And then... Some sins are told to one priest, others – to another. So they don’t think badly of you.

I personally advise people to choose one spiritual advisor. You don’t need to go to a new priest every time. It’s to your detriment and won’t bring any spiritual benefit.

Whether at work, in the secular world or in prison, few things in confession and conversations scare me, embarrass me, or make me feel disgusted. Even in prison, I came to realize more deeply how sinful we all are, but that we are capable of returning to better ways and discovering good qualities within ourselves. And, of course, I leave all confessions in the church, I don’t take anything home.

Of course, there are deep confessions in the temple too, but overall they’re rare. And in my conversations with the prisoners, I mostly hear remorse.

– Is this sincere remorse or just the beginning of remorse?

I think that’s the path to repentance. After all, I don’t tell them that I’m a priest. They become aware, they feel it... Sometimes I even talk to prostitutes. And I myself think that my work has opened my eyes to our fallen state in a deeper way.

And sometimes it’s the opposite: a person is so evil that they don’t even think about repentance.

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a murderer who had stabbed his wife. I’ll skip the details of how he did it. But in talking with me, he said, “Why am I sitting here?” A hateful look, angry eyes. I’m a little scared of people like that.

– Do you work in an open space?

Usually in an open space, but there are also closed rooms, and the specialist who works with inmates observes through glass, and no one else can hear our conversation.

– How do you distinguish between psychology, psychotherapy, and psychiatry? In which cases should you see psychologists, who should go to psychotherapists, and who needs psychiatrists?

– Psychology studies the human psyche, their inner world, and the state of their soul; human behavior: memory, attention, speech; emotions and feelings, communication between people in the family and in society.

There are child psychologists, family psychologists; if we talk about prison, then clinical psychologists work there. They work with those who have suicidal thoughts or have attempted suicide. They try to determine whether a prisoner can be returned to their original residence or if they should be kept away from other inmates.

Psychotherapy is a therapeutic psychological impact on a person's psyche and body, aimed at solving emotional, personal, and behavioral problems. This is what I do, trying to help inmates and my office clients – couples, families – cope with depression, anxiety, fears, and improve their relationships with those around them.

If I see that a person is developing psychosis, if they have depression, a split personality, if they hear voices, say something incomprehensible – I send them to a psychiatrist. In prison, the doctor usually prescribes medication, and over time it's not hard for us to notice positive results, after which the psychiatrist stops the medication.

– What's the difference between gloominess and depression? Where does sin end and illness begin?

The concept of “despondency” relates to spiritual life and is one of the passions, when a person loses hope. Saint Evagrius associated despondency with the temptation of the “noonday demon,” which is mentioned in prayers.

For example, in Psalm 90 ('He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High...') one of the most well-known protective prayers in Christianity, often turned to in difficult and dangerous times – in Church Slavonic we read: “deliver me from strife and the noonday demon.” The last phrase is translated as “deliver me from sudden attacks and the noonday demon.”

“Noonday demon” – in the patristic interpretation (for example, by St Athanasius the Great) – is the spirit of despondency, a state of spiritual slackness and melancholy.

When it comes to monks, people with despondency find it hard to stay in one place, they constantly crave change. They struggle to pray and to observe monastery duties.

The Venerable John Cassian says: “Despondency shows itself in irritability, spiritual laziness, unwillingness to pray, aversion to duties, and a desire to escape current circumstances.” I’ve observed and see these passions in both clergy and laypeople.

Depression is a psychological and medical condition in a person, characterized by a low mood level, loss of interest in life, in family, sleep and appetite disturbances. A person experiences severe fatigue, hopelessness, feelings of worthlessness, has disrupted sleep, and may have suicidal thoughts. Many of my patients say: “Why live on? I know it’s wrong and sinful, but these thoughts just come to me.”

Depression doesn’t mean that a person is always gloomy, and vice versa. But I would say that in all these cases, if the person figures it out and wants to, they need a psychologist, a psychotherapist, and a priest.

– If someone close to you shows signs of a mental illness, what are these signs, and what red flags should you pay attention to?

Thoughts of suicide, depression, loss of interest in everyday life.

– What should you do if a priest says, “You don't need to see a psychologist or psychiatrist, you don't need to take medication,” for depression, for example?

A priest still needs to get to know a psychologist or psychotherapist, find out what they do, what kind of work they carry out, and then together can be such a force! Both spiritual and psychological. Before COVID, I gave a lecture at the Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, and many priests’ attitudes toward psychotherapists changed.

– In the Church, do you notice symptoms of illness in parishioners?

I notice that something is off with a person. At the church where I serve, at the request of the administration, I talked with a young man who was harassing girls. He was asked not to come to the church because he was behaving inappropriately and making young female parishioners uncomfortable. They threatened to call the police and file a complaint against him.

Ans another case: One day, after the holiday service on the eve of Great Lent, when the bishop and clergy were already in the altar, a man almost completely undressed in the church. We had to call the police and psychiatrists, and they literally carried him out of the church.

Most often, it’s people with depression. In the church, if needed, I tell them that I’m a priest as well as a psychotherapist, but in prison, only my colleagues know that I’m a priest because you never know how it might affect a patient.

– During confession or in conversation, do you tell someone that they need to see a psychologist or psychiatrist?

In the Russian Church, not everyone approves of priests professionally offering psychological counseling. Many people have told me: why do you need to study psychology, you're a priest. Other priests are more open to this practice, especially the younger generation of clergy and lay believers. Sometimes I advise a person to see a doctor, and for the doctor to at least prescribe medication for a short time. Mostly, this happens with depression.

Over the past 6 years, I’ve given reports more than once at pastoral meetings, diocesan gatherings, and youth congresses, and now many priests refer their parishioners to me, and many come to me themselves.

– Which seminaries in America teach the basics of psychology? How is psychological counseling used in working with future priests?

– A few years ago, Holy Trinity Seminary (ROCOR) in Jordanville introduced a psychology program. This course is taught by a licensed psychotherapist. There is also a psychology subject in the Chicago online correspondence seminary. Psychology is also taught at the St Vladimir’s Seminary under the Orthodox Church in America and at the Holy Cross Greek Seminary in Brooklyn.

In the Orthodox Church in America, before ordination, a candidate needs to have an interview with a psychologist – for the sake of the Church’s safety and to ensure that the candidate being ordained is fully suitable.

It's not always possible to recognize a mental illness before ordination, and sometimes after ordination, a priest starts showing odd behaviors. A check-up with a specialist can show whether a candidate is ready to handle the priesthood – it's a blessed duty, but not an easy one. It's particularly tough for young priests to hear a confession and then carry everything they've heard with them! At some point, a person might not be able to cope, and you can't always predict how it will affect their mental health.

– Has your view of people in the Church changed over the years you’ve been working in psychotherapy?

Both my view and I myself have changed, but I don’t think it’s because of my work. I’ve gotten older. I’ve seen a lot in life. I think that played a bigger role.

Do I look at other people differently? Sometimes it's hard to figure someone out. In prison, you have to be ready for the fact that you can constantly run into lies. You never know who's telling the truth and who's not. I know that during our conversations, the inmates tricked us a few times.

We are people broken by life, by our own experiences. One has gone through a divorce, another the death of a spouse or child, yet another may be dealing with a mental illness.

Overall, most of the people who come to me are believers, and in church, parishioners are more open than outside its doors. I know that none of us live without sin. And how someone comes to the Church—whether to just check a box or to meet Christ, the saints, and the sacraments—is usually unknown to us.

– What would you, as a priest and psychotherapist, advise your parishioners and our readers?

– Live carefully, knowing that another day is given to you by God, and I’ll repeat the words of the cathedral builder where I began my service – Archpriest Valery Lukyanov: “Life is given for good deeds.” Fr Valery had a little box that was gifted to him in Gethsemane. If you opened it, you read: “Life is given for good deeds.” In other words, live kindly, for the sake of God, aware of your own sinfulness, and know that every day gives us a chance to make things right.

Live carefully, because every person you meet might have been through a lot in life, and you don't know it. You say a harsh word to one person, and it can really hurt or anger them, while it won't bother another, because they've heard a lot and are used to it.

And one more thing. With a word, you can give a person hope exactly where they have already lost it. Sometimes they think about suicide, but we don’t know about it. What kind of person is this? What are they going through? That’s why you always need to be careful – with words, actions, and thoughts.

Interview with Archpriest Serafim Chemodakov by Tatyana Veselkina/
September 28, 2026.

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