Attaching to God: Neuroscience-informed Spiritual Formation

Does a seemingly robust spirituality actually mask deep childhood wounds?  Can calls to repentance and forgiveness cause harm instead of healing?  Does the message of the cross sometimes cause more bondage than breakthrough?These are the type of questions we need to ask as more and more people grapple with their own trauma and how the church can be a place of healing and hope, rather than deeper harm.  Joining today is Janyne McConnaughey, Ph.D., nationally known trauma-informed author & advocate.  She is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tabor College and serves as the Board President for the Attachment& Trauma Network (ATN).Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Can complex developmental trauma help us think better about theology and the Bible?  Can theology help us think about trauma?Adrienne Gibson (LCP) talks about about her work with trauma (generational, vicarious, and complex developmental trauma), her shift into teaching trauma to future pastors, how she has seen the for/against pendulum swing regarding therapy and theology, and how she is working to integrate therapy and theology.At the end of the episode Adrienne talks about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences).  Here is a link to that info.Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Did Jesus suffer trauma? Did he experience PTSD? We know Jesus suffered in his death.  But did he suffer throughout his life?As Isaiah 53:3 says, the servant of God is “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”  What if that pain, those sorrows, that grief is better expressed as trauma? That’s what we are talking about today during Holy Week, as we remember Jesus’ path to the cross.  Our guest is pastor (and my good friend) Jeff Cannell, ministering at Central Vineyard in Columbus, OH. Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

What is EMDR? How can it help people heal from trauma? And what's it got to do with faith, hope, and love?These are the questions we'll be looking at with Shane Moe, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with clinical specializations in EMDR, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy.Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

What happens when someone is told a lie from childhood onward? And not just about themselves, but about all our people, their entire race?  And what happens when this racial lie turns abusive, oppressive, traumatic, and violent? In this episode Sheila Wise Rowe helps us understand, identify, and resolve racial trauma.  Sheila has over twenty-five years of experience as a Christian Counselor, Spiritual Director, Educator, Writer, and Speaker.Check out her books, Healing Racial Trauma, and the newly released Young, Gifted, and Black: A Journey of Lament and Celebration.Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Why does God feel so far away? Why are some of us stuck in our head, and some are stuck in our hearts? Maybe it has to do with our style of attachment.This episode features Krispin Mayfield who takes us on a tour of three different attachments styles, helps us understand why they might be holding back our experience of God, and what we can to do about it.Check out his new book: Attached to God: A Practical Guide to Deeper Spiritual Experience.Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Following Jesus while ignoring our emotions is disastrous. But following the "what I feel is real" mantra is equally problematic. So, what is the role of emotion in our discipleship?Becky Castle Miller joins the shows to talk about the discipleship of the emotions.  She writes and speaks on emotional, mental, and spiritual health in the church, and she is working on a new book about Jesus's emotions. Find Becky on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/beckycastlemillerblog/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bcastlemiller/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/bcastlemiller).Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Seems like everyday we are hearing about toxic leadership and spiritual abuse in the church it is enough to make you despair.  It goes without saying, there is a lot of emotionally unhealthy churches around.  But today we are talking with a pastor who wants to turn that around—Ted Kim, from Evanston Vineyard (outside Chicago, IL). Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

The goal of autonomy keeps us from paying attention to what really matters, to what's really happening.  The ideal of freedom keeps us from paying attention to a world beyond ours heads.  Dr. Geoff Holsclaw talks with Jared Boyd (author, pastor, spiritual director, and founder of The Order of the Common Life) about the apprenticeship of paying attention, and what it means for our spiritual formation.Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).

Can contemplative prayer be crucial not only for spiritual growth, but also for mental health? Can it help us overcome the busy brain of modern life?I'm joined with AJ Sherril to talk about his new book, Being with God: The Absurdity, Necessity, and Neurology of Contemplative Prayer. Find AJ on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.Get the FREE ebook, The Brain God Gave Us, when you join the Embodied Faith community (connecting you to new episodes, posts, and other resources).Please subscribe and review on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube.If you would like coaching or spiritual direction that aligns with this podcast, then connect with Cyd Holsclaw here.Dive deeper in our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection, and learn about our trainings and other resources at embodiedfaith.life.Stay Connected: Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort. Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources. Support the podcast with a one-time or regular gift (to keep this ad-free without breaking the Holsclaw's bank).