Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: “On the Inside of the Edge” Exploration w/ Christian Kimball [Part I of IV]Welcome to the first of a WONDERFUL four-part mini series with guest Christian Kimball, author of the beautiful book Living on the Inside of the Edge.   In today’s episode Chris and Val will focus on the topic of how prone we as Latter Day Saints (as are others in early stage spiritual and psychological development) are to think in BINARIES:  good/bad, right/wrong, in/out. Their invitation is to break out of binary-thinking and begin to see your relationship with the church on your own terms, emphasizing that your relationship with your current spiritual practice WILL CHANGE, because our life’s experiences change us all.  In Friday’s episode Val and Chris focus on finally *truly* growing up in our relationship with the church! This episode digs into the concept of obtaining a differentiated [read: adult-to -adult] relationship with the church and how this adult-to-adult dynamic might look on the ground in real life relationships, especially with your bishop. Helpful podcast-related resources:Living on the Inside of the Edge: A Survival Guide, Christian Kimball⁠Support the show**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...

Subscriber-only episodeSend us a Positive Review!Series Title: Valerie’s 2023 Sunstone Symposium Address [Part II of II]In this episode Valerie shares the second half of one of her  2023 Sunstone Symposium  addresses focused on her findings following hundreds of intense hours working with members of the LDS church in faith and trust crisis this past year.  These observations might be of particular interest as they come exactly 10 years following the creation of an exhaustive report (linked in full below) created for (then) President Dieter F. Uchtdorf as a way to help LDS general authorities better understand the nature of the suffering of so many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in faith and trust crises.  Valerie’s analysis in today’s episode covers the following (among other things):The typical internal traumatic experience of individuals in early LDS faith and trust crisis.The relational/interpersonal struggles of those in LDS faith and trust crisis. The psychological interventions that Valerie uses to help people heal from the trauma of faith and trust crisis. How people look and feel as they heal from this experience both in relationship to themselves, others, and the LDS church.Please feel welcome to join one of Valerie’s space-limited Faith Crisis and Expansion support and processing groups.  As a trauma therapist she continues to help our LDS faith expansion community become psychologically healthier and spiritually well in and around the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Enroll at latterdaystruggles.com. Helpful podcast-related resources:Faith Crisis Report: https://faenrandir.github.io/a_careful_examination/documents/faith_crisis_study/Faith_Crisis_R28e.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0HEjV8dDVB9J1__x6ISIgHBRFw5TL06l-mr38edrjdAqbVZbp7Ox2ZvuU&fse&s=cl&fs=e&s=cl**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...

Valerie shares her findings on the main causes of LDS faith crisis, including emerging issues in 2023. She discusses the psychological perspective of those in crisis and the relational suffering due to rhetoric. Valerie also talks about the interventions she uses to help people heal and how they look and feel as they recover. The podcast covers diverse demographics, challenges faced in relationships, and the importance of recognizing faith crisis as a normal part of growth.

Subscriber-only episodeSend us a Positive Review!Series Title: Tribute to Carol Lynn Pearson's Groundbreaking Play "Mother Wove with Morning" [Part II of II]In this episode Valerie is joined by feminist and queer rights author, poet, and activist Carol Lynn Pearson honoring women throughout time who have sought the feminine divine.  Carol Lynn’s classic one-woman play “Mother Wove the Morning” is an invitation to walk back in time and learn how women always have sought their Mother. Carol Lynn feels that perhaps a most sacred “work for the dead” we can each do is honor and follow those who have gone before us in their search of the lost feminine divine.  She does this very thing with a dramatic flare in both her full length play (linked at the bottom of show notes for purchase on her website) and through her performance of a part of this theatrical work right here on today’s episode.  If you have ever loved the creative flair of Carol Lynn, this episode will having you smiling with love and gratitude for her passion, talent, and feminist ministry. Please enjoy the ENTIRE PLAY and SCRIPT available for purchase at carollynnpearson.com where she also has a myriad of other books that will delight and educate you about many important issues of our day.**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Tribute to Carol Lynn Pearson's Groundbreaking Play "Mother Wove with Morning" [Part I of II]Following last week’s deep dive into the talk “To the Mothers in Zion”, you are likely struck by the need to better understand the fraught roll of women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 20th and 21st century.However, the struggle to understand the unequal status of women is not just an LDS in nature.  It is MUCH bigger than that.  And it is deeply connected to the loss of our collective knowledge of the feminine divine.This is what this week’s Latter Day Struggles episodes plans to explore.And who better to take us on this journey than own beloved poet laureate, author, and feminist extraordinaire—Carol Lynn Pearson.The specific topic of this two-episode series is Carol Lynn’s one-woman play titled “Mother Wove the Morning”.In Carol Lynn’s typically beautiful and dramatic way, we learn all about women throughout the ages their ongoing search for the divine face of God.Monday’s episode offers context to the creation of this play—her personal experiences that led up to the realization of this idea, where, how, when it was performed and how it was received.She shares her experience deciding to address the feminine divine in an era where feminist and heavenly mother scholarship was under the critical scrutiny from the leadership of the church and how she decided to answer the call notwithstanding the risks.In Friday’s episode Carol Lynn will delight us all with an overview of the cast of characters whom she selected to perform through her and actually performs a portion of the play for us all to enjoy!If you loved the little portion that you heard on the podcast, don’t hesitate to go to her website carollynnpearson.com and buy the entire play and the book that goes with it.  It is time for a resurrection of this amazing one-woman play in the ongoing celebration of the feminine face of God with whom so many of us are finding deep connection.Support the show**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...

Subscriber-only episodeSend us a Positive Review!Series Title: Analysis of Ezra Taft Benson's "To the Mothers in Zion" Infamous Address [Part II of II]Join Valerie and fellow therapist Dr. Julie Hanks for a heartfelt conversation about the address given in 1987 by Ezra Taft Benson called “To the Mother’s of Zion”, which impacted thousands of women’s experiences of motherhood for decades.Julie and Valerie are LDS women, wives, and mothers themselves and were in their adolescence when this address was given, eventually becoming the position statement for acceptable womanhood in the LDS church for decades.In this episode they reflect on the profound impact this talk had on their lives as young, highly motivated, but devoted-to-the-church women, navigating the complexities of emerging womanhood, their own personal hopes and dreams, and desires for both motherhood and also personal development beyond motherhood.The fruits of this address for each of them? A lot of guilt, shame, anxiety, and fears that they were "bad” women, mothers, and daughters of God for having desires beyond that of caregiving.In their typical respectful but direct way, Julie and Val evaluate many teachings from this talk from the perspective of psychological, developmental, spiritual, and relationship health and offer thoughts and feelings about different and healthier ways that we might model a path towards adult womanhood.The offer hope for a wide open space where women can choose if motherhood is right for them and how motherhood might look if that is the direction they go.They encourage courage, autonomy, personal authority, and self confidence as the foundation of healthy womanhood—whether that be full-time motherhood, a choice not to be a mother, or motherhood blended with other personal and professional pursuits. Every choice is worthy.  Because women are infinitely worthy and capable of choosing for themselves the lives they want to lead. The talk addressed in this episode: https://emp.byui.edu/satterfieldb/pdf/tomothersofzion.pdf**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...

Former leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Ezra Taft Benson, discusses his infamous talk 'To the Mothers of Zion.' The podcast explores the historical context behind Benson's stance, including the Red Scare, feminist movement, civil rights movement, and the LDS church's commitment to codified gender roles. It also delves into Benson's involvement in the ultra-conservative John Birch Society.

Subscriber-only episodeSend us a Positive Review!Series Title:  How & Why Power Hierarchies Were Created [Part VI of VI]In this six part series Val and Nathan took on the daunting task of exploring with you the phenomenon of how human beings since the beginning of time have created systems of dominance.In the past several episodes they defined why power hierarchies are created, how this plays out in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the six-step process followed in creating systems of dominance. They used a variety of examples of what this looks like both within the LDS context and zooming out much broader in time and place.This week they are ending this series focusing on strategies for change in hopes to awaken our own minds and hearts to how we might contribute to a healing of our own systems where dominance continues to wound those seen as “other”.TODAY’S final episode of this series breaks down the last few recommendations that we can each integrate into our own growth journeys as we endeavor to become more and more capable of truly loving our fellow humans.Topics addressed includes ways that we can get involved in speaking up against systemic marginalization and how we can leverage our own self interest in this process—knowing that even if we are currently in a powerful “in-group”, our status could easily change due to any number of life’s circumstances and while this system is in place, we will inevitably eventually be wounded too.**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title:  How & Why Power Hierarchies Were Created [Part V of VI]In today’s and Friday’s (final) episode of this series we will be covering several recommendations given by the brilliant scholar Gerta Lerner on how we as individuals within our own systems can break down hierarchical systems of oppression.The recommendations explored today are as follows:Accept differences in others.  Don’t just tolerate them.  Val and Nathan go into some detail about how this might look on the group within the culture and theology of the LDS church.Once we acknowledge, honor, and accept the differences of unique others  in our individual relationships, allow them to be a complex composite of a a multitude of characteristics (not simply a representative of their grouping that makes them different).Although we enjoy these loved ones in 1:1 situations and don’t focus on their differences, we DO NOT “move on” in social situations where institutionalized marginalization is taking place.  ***Tune in for much more on this topic!Personally notice when we move into stigmatizing others.  Val and Nathan talk about how this is such a human self-preserving temptation.FRIDAY’S final episode of this series breaks down the last few recommendations that we can each integrate into our own growth journeys as we endeavor to become more and more capable of truly loving our fellow humans.  Books referenced in this episode:Decolonizing Mormonism, edited by Gina ColvinUniversal Christ, by Richard RohrSupport the show**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...

Subscriber-only episodeSend us a Positive Review!Series Title: How & Why Power Hierarchies Were Created [Part IV of VI]In this part four of this series studying the psychological phenomenon of the  creation of marginalized populations Val and Nathan tackle the six step process in how populations create power hierarchies and select those over whom they rule.As a reminder, steps one through three are as follows:Mark the difference between yourself and another type of personStigmatize the differenceInstitutionalize the discrimination against stigmatized groupThis episode tackles steps four through six: Allow for exceptions in the stigmatized populationBlame the stigmatized group social problems of the cultureTurn various oppressed populations against each other by encouraging them to create hierarchies between themselves.  This ensures that they will sustain the larger system of dominance and oppressionThe last two episodes of this series explores how individuals can contribute to the reversing of this systemic phenomenon. Each individual's heightened consciousness around issues of hierarchy and oppression slowly moves the world in the direction of increased love and connection. Book being referenced in this series: Living with History: Making Social Change by Gerta Lerner**More sensitive or more psychologically advanced themes are saved for paid Friday episodes to protect the content creators from being mischaracterized by less familiar consumers.**LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO FRIDAY EPISODES(Watch a 2-minute how-to video)THEN subscribe to Fridays here. TROUBLE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIPTION? Email: support@buzzsprout.comCONSULTING: Interested in doing individual or couples work with Valerie or a member of her trained team? Time-limited packages with Valerie and extended work with her team of coaches and therapists are available ⁠⁠here!⁠ SUPPORT GROUPS: Next support & processing group coming March 2025. To register/learn more, visit here.OFFICE HOURS FOR FRIDAY SUBSCRIBERS: Register here.CLASSES: Visit our library.SUPPORT: Make a one-time donation to ⁠her business Venmo...