💥Your Captain’s Story💥

Hi!  My name is Leslie Adamson. I’m the founder of Trinity Anchored Formation, a certified Catholic Coach, Catholic convert, and adult Third Culture Kid. I’m a wife, mother, grandmother, and caregiver. But above all, I’m a beloved daughter of the Most Holy Trinity—a truth I didn’t fully embrace until my mid-50s.  Now, that identity shapes everything I do!

🔥My Journey to the Missing Pillar

My journey began not in the pews of a thriving parish, but in the chaos of an unchurched, alcoholic home, where faith formation, ordered self-acceptance and unconditional love were foreign concepts. Later in life, through the long, sanctifying road of homeschooling, building a first-generation Catholic domestic church, and ministering to many families, I began to recognize a heartbreaking pattern.

While many well-meaning catechized parents, teachers, ministry leaders, and even clergy diligently practiced and taught intellectual, spiritual, and vocational formation, one essential pillar that was often overlooked was human formation.  The very foundation which St. John Paul II emphasized in his profound teachings on personalism.

Without it, even the most faithful efforts risk being built on sand rather than rock.

🔥Human Formation: The Forgotten Foundation

St. John Paul II made this clear in his apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, where he wrote:

“Human formation…is the basis on which the other aspects of priestly formation—intellectual, spiritual, and pastoral—are built.”(Pastores Dabo Vobis, 43)  

Throughout Church history, great saints like Augustine, Teresa of Ávila. John Bosco, and Thomas Aquinas (through his philosophy of psychology) affirmed that no lasting spiritual or intellectual maturity is possible without deep personal integration.

When human formation is neglected—especially in the family of origin—I’ve seen the fallout firsthand: fractured identities, a deep sense of not belonging, unhealed wounds, unresolved grief, repeated patterns of sin, self-imploding secrets, harsh judgment, unforgiveness, and a painful loss of intimacy with God, self, and others.

I’ve lived through seasons of that fragmentation myself. I know what it’s like to feel unseen, harshly judged, and bypassed at the most human level—despite doing all the “right” things on the outside.

🔥 What Happens Without Human Formation?

In the absence of solid human formation, when people are confronted with circumstances they didn’t choose, can’t understand, do not like, or cannot change, the pain and suffering is often minimized and avoided—leaving unprocessed perceptions and unresolved misunderstandings. Without the means to process pain, people often default to these avoidant coping strategies—emotional detachment, cognitive denial, intellectual rationalizing, and even spiritual bypassing just to survive.  

Left unchecked, these poor coping mechanisms harden our hearts and entrench us in sinful behavioral patterns (cf. Acts 7:51). The inauthentic masks we wear for perceived protection gradually become so familiar that, over time, we begin to mistaken them for our true identity. 

Yet in truth, our sacramental bodies—temples of the Holy Spirit—are designed to make visible what is invisible. And when the interior disorder can no longer remain hidden, the breakdowns come visibly to the surface:

• Marriages fall into crisis
• Parents become overwhelmed and reactive
• Children internalize unspoken wounds, erupt in dysregulation, or withdraw entirely
• Adult children severe family ties
• Grandparents are abandoned 
• Caregivers burn out
• Perhaps most tragically—many adults leave the Church altogether—offering cultural justifications with groundless excuses for what are often unaddressed hidden wounds aka God-holes.

Inside parish life, the same dysfunction appears in different disguises:  burned-out church staff, clergy and ministry leaders stretched beyond capacity, resignations, disengaged students in parish religious education programs , and parishioners drifting away—leaving gaping holes in the Church’s mission and community vitality.

🔥What Happens When Formation Is Restored?

On the positive side, I have witnessed what happens when this foundational pillar is reclaimed.  

When Catholics experience solid human formation, they begin to heal from the inside out. They shed masks, rewrite false narratives, and rewire deeply embedded habits. Their personalities—once stifled obstacles of misunderstanding—become bridges for others to encounter Jesus Christ, the Redeemer.

They grow in their capacity to fully receive God’s unconditional love—and reflect it back into the world through their own uniquely gifted hues.

True identity, unwavering sense of belonging, ordered self-acceptance, regular practice of virtuous habits, authentic relationships, and a clarity of divine mission begin to emerge—no longer driven by fear, but anchored in grace.

🔥Why I Founded Trinity Anchored Formation

After years of witnessing the fallout of fractured identities and diminished human formation in both homes and parishes, I knew God was calling me to be a part of the solution.

I founded Trinity Anchored Formation to help fill this critical gap—bringing healing and restoration from the inside out, and equipping Catholics to rediscover who they are, where they belong, how they connect, and why they’re here.

This work isn’t about self-help, self-idolization, or any other disordered practice of putting self above God. It’s about grace-enabled integration—where identity is reclaimed, ordered self-acceptance is redeemed, virtues are habituated, relationships are renewed, and apostolic mission is lived with clarity, courage, and joy.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock.”  — Matthew 7:24

💬 Ready to Begin Your Journey?

If you’ve ever felt unseen, unrooted, or spiritually bypassed—you’re not alone—and you’re not stuck.  There’s a way forward. This is your invitation to rediscover the fullness of who you are, anchored in grace, formed by truth, and sent in love. Let’s walk it together.

👉To begin…