The following comes from a July 12 Catholic San Francisco article by Christina Gray:

Despite a committed and active faith life, St. Dominic parishioner Chris Smith suffered silently during a long estrangement from her adult daughter.

In 2014 she found unexpected freedom from the tyranny of her emotions and eventual reconciliation with her child through a lay prayer ministry that helps break the power of “spiritual bondage” in the lives of believers. With the blessing of Dominican Father Michael Hurley, pastor, Smith is working to coordinate a similar ministry at St. Dominic called “Unbound: Freedom in Christ” by hosting a workshop July 23 at St. Dominic parish hall in San Francisco.

The Unbound ministry was founded by a Catholic couple, Neil and Janet Lozano, based on Neil’s book Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance. According to its website, the mission of the ministry is to equip Christian clergy and laypeople around the world to help people take hold of the freedom that they have been given in Jesus Christ, and then help others do the same.

“I felt lighter, freer, cleaner, and clearer than ever before,” Smith told Catholic San Francisco.

After her experience she went through training to serve as a lay member of the ministry. “What I experienced made me want to dedicate the rest of my life to helping other believers, especially Catholics, experience freedom in Christ.”

Smith said her own experience taught her that even good Christians can experience oppression of the spirit through negative influences which can manifest in harmful patterns of behavior or thinking, such as addictions, victimization, depression, extreme negativity, promiscuity, rage, marital strife, perversions – virtually any bondage caused by an “unclean spirit.”