In this episode, Dan and Rachael begin to talk about the connections between sexual and spiritual abuse. Sexual abuse is also spiritual abuse, but not all spiritual abuse involves clear sexual abuse. They discuss the nuances, definitions, and processes of these two types of abuse and the intimate connection between our bodies as image-bearers of our Creator and the violation that occurs when someone commits abuse against another. We enter into this episode knowing the topics of spiritual and sexual abuse carry a certain kind of heaviness for many of our listeners. Particularly in this season, please tend kindly to your body and know that you can return to listen another time if this is not right for you today.

Cathy Loerzel, co-author of 'Redeeming Heartache' and an expert in trauma healing, joins J. Derek McNeil, President of The Seattle School. They discuss the book's creation, sharing insights on navigating trauma, especially in a pandemic context. Loerzel and McNeil explore the collaborative writing journey, emphasizing community support in storytelling. They also address the healing power of personal narrative, the significance of celebrating individual stories, and the balance of joy and grief in communal healing.

No story is without its share of joy, anticipation, trials, and victories, and the same can be said about the founding of The Allender Center. This year we are celebrating 10 years as a center and place where people have found healing from trauma. It has been an immense honor to be able to hear and walk with you through your stories of harm into restoration. Today, Dan and Rachael share memories and tales with Becky Allender and Jeanette White, Interim Senior Director, both former guests of the podcast and founding members of The Allender Center. You’ll get to hear true behind-the-scenes stories of how The Allender Center came to be and what drives them to continue this work today.

For the final episode in our series on engaging stories, Dan and Rachael talk with therapist, podcast host, and Allender Center facilitator,  Adam Young. Many of you may be familiar with Adam from his podcast, “The Place We Find Ourselves,” and throughout this conversation you’ll begin to hear more about Adam’s story and how a life-altering encounter with his father set him on a path to become a mental health counselor. Follow along as Dan and Rachael engage his story by asking key questions, from how he experiences beauty to how he lives as someone attuned to and in the middle of the trauma around him. Listener Resources: Learn more about Adam and his podcast “The Place We Find Ourselves” Curious about pursuing your own story work? Learn more about and apply to Story Workshop—applications due September 20, 2021

Listener Resources: Learn more about Sue and her counseling practice - susan-cunningham.com Curious about pursuing your own story work? Learn more about and apply to Story Workshop—applications due August 31, 2021: https://theallendercenter.org/event/story-workshop-october-2021/

Today is the start of a series of episodes we’ve been eagerly waiting to share with you. We're going to be engaging the stories of some of our dear friends and colleagues in order to help you—our listeners— get a better sense for how to look at and read your own story. In this episode, Dan and Rachael talk with Gwen St. John, a therapist and long-time Allender Center facilitator, about how her experience growing up shaped who she is today as someone with high sensitivity, and how this led her to become a “reader of people and the world.” Listen closely to the ways Dan and Rachael engage her stories of harm with care and kindness, and how they invite her to stay in her body while recounting these stories. Listener Resources: Do you relate to high sensitivity? Take a quick survey, recommended by Gwen Learn more about Gwen and her counseling practice Curious about pursuing your own story work? Learn more about and apply to Story Workshop—applications due August 31, 2021

We all need space to play: a concentrated period of time that opens the door for the restoration that our hearts and bodies most desperately need. One of the ways Dan, Rachael, and good friend Dr. Steve Call find restoration is through fly fishing. Over the course of this podcast episode, you’ll hear both humorous and insightful anecdotes from all three about their various endeavors into fly fishing and, even if you yourself are not energized by fishing, you can’t help but be swept up by their delight. And as you listen, ask yourself: Why do we need something that so deeply captivates us? Listener Resources: Listen to the podcast series, “A Summer of Play” Read blog post “It’s Summer, Let’s Play!” by Robyn Whitaker Listen to podcast episode “Play, Anxiety and Resilience: How to Help Kids in a Pandemic” featuring special guest Dr. Pam Davis

In the final episode on hospitality, Dan and Becky step into the realms of ideas, experiences, and suffering. What does it look like to be hospitable to an idea, particularly a new idea, that is offered to us? How can we be more hospitable to suffering, and what does that look like? Throughout their conversation, Dan emphasizes the importance of being able to differ with an idea while also being able to welcome it and ask questions that are not defensive, but have a kind of hospitality that will allow us to be transformed by what we’re engaging. Listener Resources: Listen to the first two episodes of this series on Hospitality Read Romans 12:9-21 (MSG) Read a blog post by Dr. Dan Allender titled “Forgotten Hospitality” Listen to the first episode in podcast series “A Summer of Hospitality”

Continuing a conversation about hospitality, Dan invites his wife, Becky Allender, back to the podcast to recount a personal, life-changing experience that changed their perspective of hospitality. Sometimes it is assumed hospitality is setting a ‘perfect plate’ for guests, however, we need to remove ourselves from the idea that hospitality is simply entertainment. How are you engaging others at the grocery store, in your neighborhood, or at work? What does it mean to offer care and welcome from the heart? Throughout the episode you’ll hear more of Dan and Becky’s stories as well as how they are actively changing in order to become more hospitable in their day to day practices. Listener Resources: Read a blog post by Dr. Dan Allender titled “Forgotten Hospitality” Listen to the first episode in podcast series “A Summer of Hospitality”

Hospitality over this past year for many meant logging onto a Zoom call, however, as we step into a ‘new normal’ there is greater opportunity to not only embody hospitality but to expand our understanding of what it means to truly ‘welcome the stranger.’ Listen as Dan talks with friend and fellow professor, Dr. Tremper Longman III, this week on the podcast about Old Testament practices of hospitality, the inequality of hospitality, and much more. Listener Resources: Read a blog post by Dr. Dan Allender titled “Forgotten Hospitality” - https://theallendercenter.org/2021/07/forgotten-hospitality/ Listen to the first episode in podcast series “A Summer of Hospitality” - https://theallendercenter.org/2018/06/summer-hospitality-1/