Latter Day Struggles

Send us a Positive Review!In this episode Valerie is invited to be a guest on "Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt," a podcast where she shares many experiences leading to her choice to commit her career to the psychological and spiritual healing of those connected to her own Latter-day Saint faith tradition.Val shares some personal experiences, some of her reasons for beginning and staying in this nerve wracking space, about the ups and downs of the work she does. Mostly she shares her conviction that what she is doing feels deeply "right" to her core... that when one knows they are in their integrity, other concerns fall away.Join Valerie and host Meagan Skidmore for a fresh, heartfelt look at faith journey—through the eyes of someone who’s walking the path right alongside you.Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: A Look into the Minds of Creators of The Mother Tree & Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos [Part I of II] Why is my job the very best?  Because I get to sit down with two of the kindest, more brilliant and beautiful souls out there--Kathryn Sonntag and Taylor Petrey-- to facilitate a conversation about all things modern Mormon feminism, scripture, symbology, and the feminine divine.  The Mother Tree: Discovering the Love and Wisdom of Our Divine Mother - Kathryn  Knight SonntagQueering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos - Taylor G. PetreySupport the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: A Deep Dive into the Fascinating Cosmos Found in Taylor Petrey's Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos [Part III of IV] One definition of "queering" that Taylor uses in his book is to complicate or expand--and this episode does just that in the realm of the feminine divine.  Buckle up as Taylor and Val walk through his fascinating ideas regarding what Latter Day Saints call Heavenly Mother.  This episode addresses historical and current scholarship around this highly charged topic and offers new ideas on how we might see this part of our theology in a whole new and provocative way. Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos - Taylor PetreySupport the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title:  A Deep Dive into the Fascinating Cosmos Found in Taylor Petrey's Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos [Part I of IV] In this episode Val and guest scholar and author Taylor Petrey set this series up by walking through the focus of Taylor's phenomenal new book, Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos.  They set the stage to blow your mind in the many ways that an open-minded and close reading of scripture makes all kinds of space for a heaven packed with not just heterosexual love and connection.  Welcome to the world of "kinship"!Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos - Taylor PetreySupport the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Valerie & Nathan Hamaker Forced Resignation from the LDS Church [Part III of III] In this final episode detailing the tough events of Val and Nathan's last year trying to collaborate with their local priesthood leaders, they share why they chose to resign their membership instead of experiencing a disciplinary counsel.  They also explorethe fear that some LDS leadership experiences with mental health workers and conclude with their process of letting go of resentment or anger so that they can move forward with true freedom. Please SHARE these episodes. Val and Nathan want the narrative around their need to formally resign from the LDS church to be understood firsthand. Thank you for your love and support at this time! Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Valerie & Nathan Hamaker Forced Resignation from the LDS Church [Part I of III] Please join Valerie & Nathan in this tough 3-part conversation sharing the events that led to what felt to them like their forced resignation from LDS Church this past week. In today’s episode Val and Nathan walk through a timeline of a lot of painful experiences in the past eighteen months with multiple well-meaning local priesthood leaders who ultimately could not overcome their fear of the healing work happening on the LDS Church on the Latter Day Struggles platform.  The episode ends with several truly beautiful testimonials sent to us by many of you, which were sent to all of these priesthood leaders, detailing the impact of our ministry—to no avail. COMING UP...PART II - Friday 3/21 episode: Special full-content listener Q&A episode answering your questions asked on @latterdaystruggles.com Instagram stories today. PART III - Monday 3/24/25: Second half of Val and Nathan’s experiences, on their decision to resign, and their thoughts love, forgiveness, and moving forward with you. *** Please SHARE these episodes. Val and Nathan want the narrative around their need to formally resign from the LDS church to be understood firsthand.  And thank you for your love & support friends.  It means everything.  We can proceed showing a different and better way. Love over fear.  WE HAVE NO REGRETS “[They] drew a circle that shut me out, heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But LOVE and I had the wit to win: I drew a circle that took [them back] in." -Edwin Markham Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part VIII of VIII]Join Valerie in the final episode of a series exploring the beauty of community healing in the context of an LDS faith crisis. In this episode you will meet two current members of Valerie's brand new advanced content group, processing the impact of growing up in a patriarchal world and church. This group dives deeply into how each and every one of us has been deeply impacted by the "Christianization of Patriarchy," and how awareness of our roots brings about healing and wholeness. Valerie made a point to invite both a woman and a man from the new group to join her in this episode, where they could not only share their own personal journeys of awakening but also reflect on what it was like to witness someone of the opposite gender go through their own process of learning and growth. Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part VII of VIII]Join Valerie and four amazing guests who get really brave speaking about their LDS faith journey as they become acquainted with the concept of true community. In this episode Val invites two women and two men to talk about the fear of joining a healing group, especially in light of negative experiences, too common in their lives, when they shared what they were experiencing in church, or with some of their immediate and extended families.Too often, their faith journeys made loved ones uncomfortable, sometimes even bringing up anger, guilt, or shame.Listen as they share how healing it is to know that they "belong" simply because they are children of God on a quest for personal growth. In the Latter Day Struggles growth and processing groups, people learn that you do not have to believe a certain way to be loved, seen, and accepted. Revolutionary, right?Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part VI of VIII]In this Friday episode you will meet Leo, another fellow listener to the Latter Day Struggles podcast and an ongoing participant in Valerie's healing communities.  Leo and Val talk about Leo's true self journey and how he has realized his  estrangement from his true self and how that was closely connected to burying multiple aspects of himself due to the demands of patriarchy.  Leo shares his confusion at the concept of true self and how he eventually realized that reclaiming this part of himself was the key to all healing in every area of his life.  Listen in and see if this resonates with you if you are a man socialized out of your wholeness by patriarchy...or if you are a woman who knows and loves a man who might resonate with Leo's very relatable experience.  Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part IV of VIII]Join Val in this beautiful episode with guest Joy, who shares some tender elements of her faith journey which began long before joining one of the growth & processing communities.Val and Joy talk about Joy's journey finding her "true self" after realizing that the core of her selfhood could *not* be her ability to have the large family she desired.They discuss what happens to a woman when what is "supposed" to happen slams into the reality of actually happens, and how pain and grief are often the catalysts to our deepest growth and personal empowerment.Support the showListen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Donate: ⁠Venmo or Patreon⁠ Visit our Website