

Latter Day Struggles
Valerie Hamaker
The Latter Day Struggles Podcast addresses beliefs and issues within the LDS faith that are challenging to talk about but vital to discuss for those trying to navigate their relationship in or around the church. Valerie and her guests invite psychological maturity, theological health, and institutional integrity.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 14, 2025 • 58min
312: Why Gender-based Wounds Can Only be Healed in Mixed-Gender Communities
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

Mar 10, 2025 • 1h 4min
311: By the Mouths of Four Witnesses: Community Healing in LDS Faith Crisis
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

Mar 7, 2025 • 46min
310: A "Masculine" Man's True Self Journey Home to His Healthy Feminine
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

Feb 28, 2025 • 40min
308: "I Am Not My Ability to Bear Children": A Tender Journey Towards True Self Discovery
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

Feb 24, 2025 • 55min
307: On the Process of Awakening to Our Worthiness as the Factory Setting
Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part III of VIII]In this episode, Valerie and Nathan set the stage for why those who commit themselves to Val's healing groups say that what they learn about the concept of the "true self" can be life changing.Val and Nathan talk about why this idea not only gives us access to full healing from LDS faith and trust crisis, it also offers a path to a more full, peaceful, and confident life.The "true self" concept is a fundamental aspect of Val's Latter Day Struggles group curriculum. Members discover how to heal from their Mormon faith crisis through understanding who they are and what they believe. A year later, members will graduate knowing so much more about themselves, tapping into a well of personal growth and freedom they never thought possible.This episode kicks off a series of voices that follow, where Val invites three different women and men to share their transformative experiences learning about their own "true selves". The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself - Michael SingerAwareness: Conversations with the Masters - Anthony De Mello The Different Drum - M. Scott PeckSupport 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

Feb 21, 2025 • 54min
306: "I Didn't Think Feeling This Safe was Possible in a Group of People"
Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part II of VIII]In today's episode Val and Nathan go deeper into what they have learned about the unique healing process of faith and trust crisis connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You'll learn how our faith crisis journey might be a bit different from other religion's faith journeys and why being in a non-judgmental group of people (who are open to whatever spiritual path you choose) is perhaps the most healing part of the journey. Why? Because it helps you realize that you ARE capable of being the authority of your own life and your own relationship with spirituality and with your higher powers. Listen in to find some confidence that there is a neutral space for discovering your own indwelling competencies for spiritual growth! Referenced in this Episode: Gender Equity & Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family Living an Examined Life - James HollisSupport 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

Feb 17, 2025 • 47min
305: What? I Belong Here No Matter What I Believe?
Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part I of VIII]The LDS faith journey is not an 'individual sport' and although some of us try, we realize that it can't really be done alone. In this episode Val and Nathan walk you through why so many of us try to walk through this "valley of the shadow" alone. We try to hide what’s happening to us due to what we've been taught about those who doubt, question, and seek for something beyond the correlated gospel. Then they talk about what they have learned from hundreds of you who have been instrumental in the creation of a phenomenon that no one expected would happen--little micro-communities of sacred growth and healing happening almost every day of the week on the Latter Day Struggles platform. If you want hope that healing your LDS-"crisising" soul is possible, once again, this episode is for you. And you'll learn why community is so important to the journey. Referenced in this Episode: Gender Equity & Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human FamilySupport 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

Feb 10, 2025 • 44min
303: Alone Together: Redefining Masculinity & Femininity to Heal LDS Marriages
Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part VII of VIII]In this episode Valerie and Nathan get personal as they share their marriage journey awakening to the impact that patriarchal influences had on their ability to connect and really grow closer as a couple and family. They candidly share VERY REAL moments of early distress and disconnection, especially the struggles that occurred before they realized the core of their struggles. What they realized and are still learning each day is that each human being thrives as an individual AND within marriage and family life only as they fully embrace both their divine masculine AND their divine feminine attributes. Before they understand this profound concept, they suffered without a map for healing. In short, if imbalanced energies in church are painful, amplify that pain exponentially within in the home. Listen to this entire series to expand your potential for health and healing in every important relationship in your life.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

Feb 3, 2025 • 48min
301: What Patriarchies Teach Men about Weakness & Vulnerability
Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part V of VIII]. In this compelling episode Valerie and Nathan delve deep into the subtleties of benevolent patriarchy and how it places harmful pressures on men. They explore the unrealistic expectations for men to always be strong, the emotional and psychological costs of these societal norms, and how these pressures can lead to personal and relational breakdowns. Once again, Nathan lays it all out there with his own life experiences and talks about the debilitating pressure that he dutifully carried until he realized that this load was not only not necessary, but that it was not helpful, loving, or good for himself or his loved ones. 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

Jan 27, 2025 • 44min
299: What Happens When Collaboration & Connection are Neglected at Church
Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part III of VIII]Glad you're back! In this episode Valerie and Nathan delve into the impact that the overemphasis on masculine energy has on the ideas and practices within the LDS church because it is an institutional patriarchy. Today they focus on the masculine trait of competitiveness and explore how this plays out in unhealthy ways when not balanced with collaboration, its feminine counterpart. They then show how the masculine attribute of protection can also go sideways when not balanced with the feminine trait of emotional connection. In each case, they will offer on-the-ground examples that you might have felt uncomfortable about but never thought to connect to the deprivation of feminine energies within the church. This episode and series was designed to show that healthy humans and systems need the divine, balancing energies of the masculine and the feminine and that there are very real consequences when both are not honored and celebrated. As they say, once you see it, you cannot "not" see it. Val and Nathan are honored to be a part of this eye-opening and healing journey towards balance and personal and institutional healing. 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