In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen talk with Heather Stringer about her creative process of stepping into a moment in someone’s story in order to create a ritual. Heather invites us to pause, gather a few items, and participate in a special ritual to account for the past few days and to ask: How do I need to move toward myself during this time? Resources: Visit Heather Stringer’s website to learn more about her practice of ritual-making.

Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen invite Heather Stringer, a facilitator at The Allender Center, therapist, and ritual-maker, to begin a conversation about the importance of ritual and routine in a season of traumatic disruption. What does the loss of our previously held routines mean for each of us, and how can creating rituals become life-giving during this time? Resources: Read a blog post by Heather Stringer about tuning into our bodies.  Listen to an episode of Makers and Mystics: Ritual Making and Performance Art Watch a presentation Heather gave at The Seattle School titled “Breaking Frozen Seas: How Rituals of the Body Transform Clients and Communities”

In their final conversation, Dr. Dan Allender, Diane Summers, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD, and Matt Tiemeyer, LHMC, explore ways we can heal our relationship with food and our bodies. No matter where we are in our journey with food or disordered eating, it is never too late to “turn back to kindness.” Resources: Matt Tiemeyer practices at Blue Harbor Counseling Diane Summers practices at Hope Nutrition Therapy Center Follow Covid19 Eating Support on Instagram for around the clock community care meal support Read more about Elly Satter’s division of responsibility in feeding.

“We are all too willing to turn over our awareness around our bodies to something outside of ourselves, whether its praise or shame of some kind.” Picking up their conversation from the first episode, Dr. Dan Allender, Diane Summers,RDN, CEDRD-S, CD, and Matt Tiemeyer, LMHC, continue talking about the connection between desire, shame, and food. Not only are we at war with food, we are also at war with shame in regards to our relationship with our bodies and how we relate to the people around us.  Resources: Matt Tiemeyer practices at Blue Harbor Counseling Diane Summers practices at Hope Nutrition Therapy Read more about NEDA’s The Marginalized Voices Project

“Why are we at war with food?” Dr. Dan Allender hosts two guests, Matt Tiemeyer, LMHC, and Diane Summers, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD , to begin a three-part conversation about the war many of us wage against food and our bodies. In this strange space we find ourselves, food and how we nourish our bodies can become a way of gaining control, particularly for those with stories of harm. Throughout their conversation, you’ll hear how Matt and Diane entered the world of eating disorder treatment, the impact of our trauma stories on our relationship with food, and the insidious influence of diet culture. Resources: Matt Tiemeyer practices at Blue Harbor Counseling Diane Summers practices at Hope Nutrition Therapy Read an interview with Matt, Diane, and their friend Kate about Redeeming Food & Body

Rachael Clinton Chen and Dr. Dan Allender have a poignant conversation about making space for the tension and grief of Holy Saturday. In the protestant Christian tradition, the movement from Good Friday to Easter Sunday often bypasses Saturday—the day Jesus “spent time before the face of evil itself.”  How then do we engage the reality of Holy Saturday, to sit well in the space between the despair of Friday and the joy of Sunday? Resources: Read Psalm 22 Read Romans 8

We find ourselves in the midst of a collective trauma that both exposes, overwhelms, and compounds past traumas. In this new reality, as we come upon the end of the Lenten season, “how do we live as though the resurrection is more true than death?” Rachael Clinton Chen offers words of grounding and hope as she invites us into a different kind of preparation for Holy Week. Resources: Read Psalm 23 Listen to voices from the Asian American Christian Collaborative

Do I believe God is still good even in the midst of profound suffering I don’t understand?”   Our world continues to change in monumental ways. In this episode, Rachael Clinton Chen and Dr. Dan Allender engage the implications and anxieties brought about by Covid-19, but also turn our attention to the goodness, power, and protection of God.  Resources: Read Psalm 91 Veritas Virtual Forum: Coronavirus and Quarantine

In their final conversation about authority, Rachael Clinton Chen and Dr. Dan Allender return to complex waters to discuss mutual submission, what good authority looks like, and what it means for us to submit to those in authority.  Oftentimes words like submission are difficult to hear because they have been misused by those in positions of authority. So, how do we reclaim similar words and phrases, especially those found in scripture, that have been so often used to create chaos?  Resources: Listen to the first two episodes in this series on Authority Remembering the context of Dan and Rachael’s conversation, read Romans 13

What does it mean to be a Christian in a moment like this? How then, shall we live?  Rachael Clinton Chen and Dr. Dan Allender continue to talk about the impact of Covid-19 and the rapid ways our world continues to change, even in the few days following our first episode. Throughout their conversation you’ll hear words of hope, encouragement, and some practical ways to help us connect with our bodies and engage the realities of trauma.  “Can we honor that we’re all in trauma, as a nation, as a family, as an individual, and can we begin to bring knowledge about trauma to our friendships and conversations?” Dr. Dan Allender Resources: Read Psalm 91 Read a blog post about Collective Trauma Listen to a conversation with Dr. Dan Allender about Trauma and the Body