LISTEN: Senite Sahlezghi Explores Mental Health, Youth and Human Dignity with Respect Life Radio

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The teenage years have always been a time of growth, discovery and challenge. But being a high school student in 2025 is something uniquely noble and uniquely fragile.

“What a noble age this is to be a high schooler, but also how precarious and really how fragile it is to be one in 2025, in the twenty-first century,” said Senite Sahlezghi on a recent episode of Respect Life Radio. “Holding both in tension, some of the things I’ve seen working at the high school and with youth in other places is this desire and need to be affirmed in their dignity, to be told they are good and that their life has hope and that they are worthy. I think doubts in those respects, in those avenues, lead to experiencing depression, experiencing anxiety, experiencing concerns in relationships.”

Sahlezghi, a school counselor at St. John Paul the Great High School in Denver and a consecrated virgin of the Archdiocese of Denver, joined the podcast alongside Emma Ramirez, respect life director, and Jennifer Torres, respect life community engagement coordinator, for a conversation on the intersection of mental health, youth ministry and the pro-life call to honor each person's inherent dignity.

Their dialogue highlighted how the Church’s mission to defend life extends far beyond legislative efforts or political debates — it is a call to uphold the dignity of every human person, especially those struggling with questions of identity, worth and belonging.

Catholic teaching as a guide

“One of the treasuries of the Church that we have is Catholic Social Teaching,” Sahlezghi explained. “The fundamental call that all of them build off of is the innate dignity of every human person. So the Church’s mission is to uphold that dignity and the sanctity of every human life.”

That conviction shapes her daily work with students. In the words of Mother Teresa, she aims each day to “Find them. Love them.” For her, counseling is not about solving every problem but about encountering young people where they are and helping them recognize that “the love of Christ is always available to them” — a love that reveals their worth as sons and daughters of God.

“All of us humans desire to belong and to have connection and to be in places where we can be ourselves in our joy, in our hopes, in our sorrows, in our insecurities, in our sadness — that’s the human experience,” she said.

Pilgrims along the way

In her work, Sahlezghi often walks with students as they wrestle with profound questions: Who am I? What does life mean? What does hope for my future look like?

“My hope has been, and I think it’s borne fruit, that the love of Christ is what I want to share with them. I want to know them as the daughters and sons of God that they are, and to walk alongside them,” she said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily being a sage or anything like that. It’s just how do we be pilgrims along the way together.”

She described her role as not only loving and knowing the students but also helping them “become more of who they are as motivated and impelled by the love of God.” Moments of clarity — those “light bulb moments” when teens realize God’s love for them — are at the heart of her ministry.

In short, her mission is “to be witnesses to love to them and with them,” she said.

A message for all

What Sahlezghi sees among teenagers is a truth for everyone: all people long to be accompanied, to be reminded of their dignity, and to know they are loved. Ramirez pointed to the many apostolates in the Church — from Marisol Health to the Sisters of Life — that embody this mission of accompaniment.

Whether part of these ministries, apostolates and missions or not, the pro-life call to uphold and honor each person's dignity is at the heart of being a Christian. Loving our neighbor as a reflection of our love for God is paramount to the Gospel, to the Christian life and to the pro-life mission.

Beyond high school, each person needs to be reminded of their inalienable dignity and belovedness. Citing Pope St. John Paul II, Sahlezghi concluded, “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”

It is a reminder not only for those working in mental health or youth ministry but for all Christians: the pro-life mission begins with seeing and loving the person in front of us, revealing to them the truth that they are made in God’s image and infinitely worthy of love.