A Loss in the Western Family
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| Cathy Miller and Esther Wei at |
Cathy Miller Remembered
Cathy Miller, professor in the Marital & Family Therapy program at Western Seminary San Jose, passed on to be with the Lord on the evening of Monday, August 25, 2008 following a recurring bout with cancer. The Western community has her husband Jim and family in our hearts and prayers.
One of our very beloved and cherished MFT Faculty members passed away last night. Cathy Miller had been undergoing intensive treatment for brain cancer in the last few months and now her battle and suffering has ended. The Lord took her home last night to be with Him and in this we rejoice. Our hearts are saddened with our loss but know that she is resting now. There is a sense of peace that surrounds us in knowing God's promise.
For the last two years we have watched and witnessed an incredible woman of faith and passion. Cathy taught, supervised, and practiced counseling while undergoing treatment first for breast cancer and then brain cancer. She modeled, for our students and for Western faculty and staff, a person of strength and compassion, a love for God, her profession and her students. Every so often, she would drop by my office to tell me how much joy this work has given to her.
Cathy exhibited a sense of responsibility, love for others, and a desire for excellence. To the very end, she was tying up all the loose ends, making sure everyone was okay.
We at Western will always remember Cathy as a woman of great faith and passion for her ministry.
In His service,
Judith Needham, PhD, LMFT
Director, MFT Counseling Program
Reflections on Cathy Miller:
I have had many students, trainees, and interns over the years. You often remember the ones who are exceptionally amazing or those who kept you awake at night. Cathy Miller was definitely one of the former. I was blessed to have Cathy in my supervision group at Advent. She had such a quiet, warm grace that exuded from her very being. She was able to catch on to concepts quickly and immediately transfer her knowledge into action with her clients. What struck me most about her was that she had such a teachable spirit and she wanted to learn. She knew how important a gift she had been given.
I often tell my students that their gift of counseling comes from God and my job is just to help fine tune it. There was not a lot of fine tuning to do with Cathy because she was one of the exceptionally gifted students. There is no greater pride than for a supervisor to look up and see her trainee/intern grow into a competent therapist and then become a professor and supervisor of others. I like to think I had a hand in who she became as a professional. I smiled ever so widely when I found out she was teaching at Western.
It was at a faculty dinner awhile back that I found out she had been ill. However, being Cathy, her spirit was one of calm and grace. I remember saying to my husband how much I admired how she was handling her illness. I do know that her faith in God was strong. I had not spoken to her before that dinner for a very long time, but when we spoke, it was if no time had gone by.
She has the easy part now for we are left with that emptiness – her absence. I know she is with our Lord and I praise God for allowing her to cross my path in my lifetime.
Lorraine Kay Hutchinson, Psy. D., LMFT
Professor
Cathy Miller no sooner came on board at New Life Community Services to serve as a supervisor for Western MFT counselors than it was clear she was going to become an “institution.” It was obvious from the beginning that she was not just taking on more “clients,” but was there to help make the whole training program for addiction studies work and work well.
To Cathy, it was never a matter of how much compensation was required for her to drive over Highway 17, but what would work financially for everyone involved including students. From a humble beginning, an outstanding program of supervision was developed that made the most of the wide range of experiences students encountered each week. After doing supervision Cathy would often stay hours longer to make a contribution to weekly clinical staff meetings.
Cathy was a tireless advocate for her supervisees and a quick study on issues new to her. Beyond those qualities, she was as we all remember, caring, fun loving, invested, reliable, faithful, and absolutely committed to serve. Her responsibilities were always on her mind and she will always be in our memories.
Steve Stiles, D.Min.
Professor
After recently receiving the news that cancer had spread to her brain, she wrote:
“Even though it does seem to consume so much of my life, it is NOT my life either. My life is my relationship with my Lord and my family and then my work—clients, interns and students. The people and things I love, that is my life. The cancer is simply another way for God to show His healing and faithfulness in my life. It is something He uses to keep me focused on Him and humbled at His work in my life and the lives of others as well. I have the strength I need at the moment I need it and I know that I can trust God for all of that and so much more.”
