After decades of having these conversations in the counseling room and side by side over coffee with friends, we were compelled this year to create a podcast resource to inspire, equip, and train you to use your everyday conversations to connect others to the love of Christ.
Because we learn better together, we want to encourage you to gather and discuss the podcast. Simply sign up for our emails to receive 3 conversation starting questions, visuals, and handouts for each episode.
S4 Ep. 9 / Perfectionism
Have you ever felt like you are constantly striving for something that is never quite good enough? Or maybe you just feel like you're always falling a little short? If so, then this episode might be especially for you. This week’s common struggle is perfectionism. Whether we can see it in small areas or all throughout our lives, perfectionism can quickly become exhausting, exacting and exasperating! However, the gospel provides freedom from the many things that can drive the perfectionism in all of us.
Bonus Episode / Elyse Fitzpatrick
In this episode we talk about how we can know all the right things and be doing them well, but miss the gospel. For the listeners that feel full of questions, this podcast is for you. If you are the person who has worked really hard to do all the right things and find the right answers, then this episode is most definitely for you. Listen now and hear Elyse talk about her journey and how the trajectory of life changed when the profound beauty of the gospel truly reached her heart.
S4 Ep. 8 / Fear of Man
We were created to be known and know others deeply - but people pleasing distorts that into an inordinate desire for approval or inordinate fear of disapproval. These desires and fears can lead us into patterns of overcommitment, excessive worrying, over sensitivity, and over achievement.
S4 Ep. 7 / Bitterness
Bitterness can cause us to feel powerless and will begin to shape how we view the world around us, how we see the past, and how we anticipate the future. If it continues we can begin to lose hope and forget that God is writing the story and we can trust Him in it.
S4 Ep. 6 / Depression
Depression is a common but complex struggle that all of us will encounter in our own lives or in the lives of people we love. Looking at it holistically they address our physical and spiritual lives, the influence of other people, and the influence of the enemy.
S4 Ep. 3 / Anxiety Part 2
It’s important for us to acknowledge that a lot of the time anxiety is inviting us into grief - but it can be easier for us to feel anxiety than engage in the grief underneath. Maybe we need to begin to ask ourselves what grief is the Lord asking me to enter into and lament before Him
S4 Ep. 2 / Anxiety Part 1
Anxiety is one of the most common struggles that we all face today. And it can be no small thing. We experience anxiety as a whole person so it impacts our thinking, feelings, body and behaviors. In this episode Alex and Brenda discuss how anxiety affects us holistically and how to address these different factors so we can truly move towards turning our worry into worship. This doesn't mean that we won't face anxiety! But we can have more tools and frameworks to be able to navigate it as it comes, both in our own lives and as we walk with others we love.
S4 E1 / Wisdom for Life's Common Struggles
This season of Conversational Counseling is all about offering wisdom for life's common struggles. In this episode Brenda and Alex begin with introducing the six topics that will be discussed throughout the season that are common to us all.
S3 Ep.7/ Miserable Counselors: Key elements of everyday ministry
Let’s be honest, sometimes as we walk with one another, we just miss it. None of us are perfect and sometimes we get on people’s nerves and even outright hurt them.
S3 Ep. 6/ Ministry of Words: Key elements of everyday ministry
Before we speak, we really have to remain humble enough to recognize that we don’t have all the answers. But when the time does come to speak up, how do we know what to say? What to not say? It’s so nuanced and unique in each situation.
S3 Bonus Episode/ A Conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson
On this episode of Conversational Counseling we are thrilled to have Dr. Curt Thompson share the incredible science of the brain, the Scriptures, how important physical presence is, cultivating community, telling our stories more truly, paying attention to our bodies, suffering, transformation, and more!
S3 Ep. 5/ Asking Questions: Key elements of everyday ministry
Many of us can think of someone who is just really good at asking questions. It can seem like an unobtainable skill, yet it’s really something we can all grow in!
S3 Ep. 4/ Listening: Key elements of everyday ministry
So often, when trouble comes to those we love, we are tempted to be quick to give advice. But the Gospel calls us to listen before we speak. And in our listening, to really seek to know and understand the other person rather than to just try to get information and facts out of them.
S3 Ep. 3/ Ministry of Presence: Key elements of everyday ministry
If we’re going to care for someone, we have to be present with them. But it’s not just being a body in the room, it’s being truly present. Really being an embodied presence so they feel like they’re in the presence of Christ.