Latter Day Struggles

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 showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

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 showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

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 showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

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 showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

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 showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

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 showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

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 showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men and their Churches [Part I of VIII]Val and Nathan's series tackling the common traits connecting psychologically/spiritually underdeveloped people with men strongly socialized in a patriarchy went NUTS in response, shares, and downloads (episodes 283-288) as expected.  Why?  Because our LDS faith expanding community seems to be STARVING to learn more about what health and wholeness looks like when women and men are both seen and treated as equals.  No fear, there is SO MUCH to say on this topic...at least eight more episodes!  In this opening episode of a new series diving even deeper into the on-the-ground costs exacted on men due to their patriarchal wiring, Val and Nathan start by creating a framework for what healthy masculinity and femininity could look like in every human being socialized as equals (no matter their gender!)  This episode focuses on how masculinity/maleness and femininity/femaleness are often used interchangeably and deeply misunderstood in this patriarchal world where we've all be raised.  This episode sets the record straight on this topic as a foundation of the rest of this series.   This entire 8-part series aims to foster a more balanced understanding of both masculine and feminine traits within all people regardless of gender, particularly within the context of the LDS faith community as we confront the relational and spiritual harm caused by patriarchal structures of every shape and size.  Support the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!Series Title: Cutting Edge Research on the LDS Faith Journey Experience [Part I of II]You're in for a wonderful two episodes here as Valerie welcomes researcher and author Jana Reiss for a conversation brimming with details about Jana's current project (a forthcoming book!) centered around the diverse personal experiences of hundreds of people on the LDS faith spectrum. In order to not give too many spoilers for the next two episodes, you'll need to tune in to hear what she is learning in both her surveys and oral history interviews about people like yourself and also about people whom you love on different places of the spectrum. In this info-packed two part conversation they hit (among other things!): sociopolitical influences on the LDS faith journey navigating sexual ethics during/after the faith journeythe role of "edge" dwellers on potentially helping our LDS faith spectrum learn how to talk to one anotherJana's research is in part an effort to help us wherever we are on the LDS spectrum understand one another better...which we couldn't love more here on the Latter Day Struggles podcast! Jana's book The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church can be found HERESupport the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website

Send us a Positive Review!When someone starts a podcast in the LDS faith journey space, one question that is often asked is this: "Have You ALWAYS had this much courage?" Join Valerie in this episode as she asks this question to friends and colleagues Susan and Cynthia of "At Last She Said It". In this episode Susan & Cynthia share very different stories about their journeys that led them to the airwaves. Their stories are each unique in part because their temperaments are totally different, and perhaps that is what makes their work so relatable, engaging, and inspiring. So whether you are an introvert (like Susan) or an extrovert (like Cynthia) there will definitely be something in this episode for you if you're looking to find that backbone and voice of your own to use in some realm of your life! Support the showSupport the show Listen, Share, Rate & Review EPISODES Friday Episodes Annual Subscription $89 Friday Episodes Monthly Subscription $10 Valerie’s Support & Processing Groups Gift a Scholarship Download Free Resources Visit our Website