Latter Day Struggles

Send us a Positive Review!Join Val as she breaks down one gay man's reasons for staying in the LDS church.  This episode highlights the reality that every person must search for and choose for themselves their own authentic reason for staying (or not staying) in the church and that this decision is deeply and profoundly personal.  Book Referenced in this episode:Why I Stay 2: The Challenges of Discipleship for Contemporary Latter-day Saints, Edited by Robert Rees 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!Join Valerie in her analysis of Zina Petersen's progressively new lyrics to the classic primary hymn "I Am a Child of God", written to emphasize the importance of moving beyond childish simplicity, black and white thinking, right and wrong belief structures, and a covert belief in the prosperity gospel.  In this episode Valerie walks through the power and pain of becoming a true "Adult of God" and how faith deconstruction is an invaluable part of your personal maturation and growing relationship with your divine parents and Savior.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!Join Val and Nathan as they break down the research findings regarding why people finally overcome their tribal desire to “fit in” and and “not make waves” and move into a place of courage, self validation, and even heroism. One's process of growing brave enough to speak truth to power and against the majority narrative involvesheightening ones attention and realizing there is a problem realizing the urgency of the problemfeeling a sense of personal responsibilitybelieving that one has the skills to help reaching a conscious decision to help.  Listen as they break down how each element was a part of their personal journey towards speaking up.Books referenced:The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively, by Todd B. KashdanSupport 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!Join Valerie as she shares some words of wisdom straight from one of her spiritual heroes, father Richard Rohr.  In this episode she shares highlights from one of the most influential thought-provoking and growth-inducing books she has ever read:  Falling Upward.  Discover for yourself whether you are in the "first half of life" or the "second half of life" and how we each move towards true adulthood. Books referenced in this episode:Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, by Richard RohrSupport 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!In this episode, Valerie pushes back on the common belief in the LDS church that the "a la carte" approach to gospel belief is evidence of lack of faith, trust, and commitment to one's spiritual growth.  She builds a case for the "a la carte" approach to building one's beliefs as more risky in the short term (yes, our own agency means we might botch things from time to time) but also as more rewarding for those who take their discipleship seriously and learn to truly apply the atonement of Jesus Christ when necessary.This approach insulates the institution from making promises it cannot keep as it hands power to its constituents and it insulates the church's constituents from the inevitable disillusionment that always follows when an institution over-promises.  Finally, Val talks about the difference between the stances of the "preacher", the "prosecutor", and the "politician" and how each of these styles of relating to one's beliefs are problematic, and how alternatively, the truth-seeking approach of the "scientist" may lead us most accurately to God.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!In this episode, Val and Nathan share how in the church we sometimes use the transitive property of logic to draw sweeping conclusions to issues that merit individual study and personal discernment.  No matter what they told you to teach in the MTC, if one thing is true (or false), then everything else is not necessarily true (or false). 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: When Mom Feels Like a Robot [Part II of II]Join Val in a brief follow up to her last episode discussing the negative psychological, emotional, and relational, and spiritual impact that women often experience due to the LDS church's historical hyper-focus on marriage and childrearing as a woman's primary role in life. This episode focuses on how the men in these women's lives both impact and are impacted by this phenomenon.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: When Mom Feels Like a Robot [Part I of II]Join Valerie in this episode as she breaks down a typical client that comes into her private counseling practice...the numb, exhausted, dutiful, mom. Our work together is to learn more about how she got here and how its possible that she can feel so crappy after having done all of the right things. 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!Join Valerie and Nathan as they address a podcast listener's question regarding "rules" about a variety of dress/grooming related issues that are given at church and seem random, unimportant, and even not appropriate to be dictating to a body of thoughtful, discerning human beings.  In this episode they talk about the concept of the "inverted value system" where some churches involve themselves in the unimportant details of a clean-cut (and therefore "Christian-appearing" membership) while underemphasizing and under-supporting its members issues that can truly connect them with God. 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!Join Val and Nathan as they share some thoughts on why gender and sexuality is a topic that brings up strong feelings in just about everyone. And it should bring up strong feelings, because these are core parts of our individual identities.  Each of us has a journey to discover the depths of ourselves---including who we are in the realms of sexuality and gender.  And when other people or institutions meddle in this sacred process, it hurts people.  Listen to their own process of how their theology and beliefs about gender, sexuality, and God's infinite love for his children has evolved. 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