Pursuing Uncomfortable with Melissa Ebken

Robert Uttaro is currently in his 15th year as a rape crisis counselor and community educator. Inspired by his undergraduate studies in Criminal Justice, he continues to embrace a lifelong commitment to activism and advocacy for survivors of sexual violence. Serving as a counselor, Uttaro supports rape survivors and their significant others through mental, emotional, spiritual, and legal issues. H...

CHAD PEEVY gave himself permission to break and untangle the mindsets he inherited growing up in an emotionally and physically abusive family in rural Arkansas. Childhood trauma caused depression and anxiety to follow him into adulthood, but Chad developed a method for managing those. He realized he could do much better than just survive; he could thrive. Today he writes, teaches, and speaks about...

Have you ever wondered if you could be Christian and gay? Or if you could be Christian and support and love people who are gay? The answer is YES. This episode digs into the scriptures to reveal God's acceptance and blessing of same sex relationships and marriage. Support the show More From Melissa and Pursuing Uncomfortable: Resources fiLLLed Life Newsletter YouTube Leave a review Pursuing U...

Ms. Thee is a Top 50 Global Thought Leader for AI, Privacy, and Safety with demonstrated experience in delivering revenue and solving complex business technology, governance, privacy and risk challenges at scale. Ms. Thee is a consultant to some of the world's most innovative healthcare, and global technology companies including Microsoft and UCSF’s Center for Digital Healthcare Innovation to...

Lisa Michelle Zega is a Life Coach for spiritual people experiencing loss that mere religion can’t hold. She guides them to process grief through LOVE and move from the emptiness of rigid certainty to the vibrancy of a life flourishing in hope and mystery. She helps them metabolize grief to assimilate its nutrients, learning, and wisdom and release the waste, so they can begin again with joy, conf...

Edward Di Gangi was adopted at birth in New York City. An only child, he made no effort to explore his heredity until, at age 69, a visit to a cemetery where members of his adoptive mother's family were buried stirred his interest. Over the past three years, through extensive archival research and DNA testing, Ed has peeled back the layers of his once-unknown family. Set in the 1940s, as Amer...

Throughout her career, Dr. Ynge has been challenged by Western medicine’s reliance on treating symptoms typically with drugs, ignoring other factors that seem obvious. She spent years studying ancient healing sources and Chinese truths that she then incorporated into the development of The Allergy Kit. Her extensive education in both Eastern and Western ideologies allowed her to create an easy, po...

Denise is a sought-after international empowerment life coach who fully believes in the power of awareness, self-care, knowledge and time. Denise has a gift and is able to combine her 31 years of award-winning teaching, and first-hand experiences as a Mom of 3 incredibly well-established, happy and prosperous children to support the successful coaching roles she enlists. Denise takes pride in bein...

Dr. Nicole D. Bradford is a published author, life coach, entrepreneur, and speaker with two decades of experience in the field of education. She energizes and equips others to take action and live audaciously authentic lives. She stresses the importance of creating the life that you desire and taking steps to move from pleasing others to doing what makes you genuinely happy. It is very important...

A former perfectionist who struggled with setting boundaries, Jeanine spent years of her life in a toxic relationship feeling unhappy, unfulfilled, and undervalued. Amidst a battle with cancer, Jeanine experienced a transformational mindset shift that unlocked her untapped potential. This shift unleashed the start of new thoughts and beliefs that grew into courage and confidence to take massive ac...

Maria T. Finch is an Inner Intelligence Coach at Silence the Mindcluck. Mindcluck means what you think it means…the mind chatter everyone experiences that can derail even the best moments. Maria works with high achievers who are unsatisfied in one or many aspects of their lives. She guides them to silence their mindcluck and tune into their inner intelligence to build and execute strategies that s...

Kathryn Lund is an author and speaker from the north of England. She brings her experience of personal grief and living with a neurofunctional disorder to her work. Her novel, The Things We Left Sleeping is out now. Follow Kathryn Instagram Website Support the show More From Melissa and Pursuing Uncomfortable: Resources fiLLLed Life Newsletter YouTube Leave a review Pursuing Uncomfortable Book

Claire holds a B.S. in Packaging Science from Clemson University and is a 200hr Certified Yoga Teacher. After nearly 7 years as a Packaging Consultant in the corporate world, she transitioned into managing her own business as a soul-guided mentor for 20-30 somethings. Claire is passionate about encouraging and inspiring young people to feel empowered and deeply connected with themselves so they ca...

Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister with a Ph. D. in political communication, is president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way. He writes about faith, culture and politics at publicwitness.wordandway.org. Word and Way Subscribe to A Public Witness Follow Word and Way Twitter Facebook Follow Brian Twitter Facebook Comment on/ask questions about this episode here Watch on YouTube Support the show More...

After experiencing and healing from many painful experiences, Betsy realized that her mission in life is to help other women identify and heal from unresolved traumas that keep them in a stuck cycle so that they can thrive instead of just survive. Many women don’t realize they have unresolved trauma, as they move through their lives wondering why they are not as successful as they’d like to be. Be...

   Urmi Hossain is a full-time female worker in the financial services industry. She has been working in this industry for about six years and comes from an educational background in Finance. She is currently pursuing her CFA designation.    In her free time, she volunteers for causes such as women's empowerment and giving back to the non-privileged.    She is a big proponent of self- investi...

Matt is a 6ft 4inch heavily Tattooed strongman, who lives to serve. After 2 unsuccessful marriages, and several jobs in the corporate world, he decided to follow his heart. 6 years ago he qualified as a PT.  This started him on the road of compassion, forgiveness, and battling with getting to know himself. Matt's sole purpose is to normalize talking about emotions, support accepting and lovin...

A child of the ‘50s and ‘60s, Connard dropped out of engineering school in 1968, and as a result of the draft, served in the US Army, including a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam. Following an honorable military discharge, he received a BS in Sociology at Western Kentucky University and then an MA in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling from the University of San Francisco. As a licensed therapis...

Dr. Garzitto has been developing, promoting and implementing positive communication practices and conflict support skills for over 27 years. Her Doctoral research focused on helping communities, “learn how to get along”. She has partnered with organizations such as BMO, RainMaker, 7Geese, TorontoStarts, Chartered Professionals HR BC, Access Youth, University of California, and MPower Lives. She is...

Michelle is writing a memoir about growing up with a parent with schizoaffective disorder. It will be a disjointed and bumpy ride sharing her experience trying to advocate for and support her mom, who struggled with her mental health. It has become a way for her to process their complicated relationship, and to honor an equally complicated, yet incredible woman.    Follow Michelle at her website a...

As a world-record-holding strongwoman, personal growth expert Kathryn Bennett is an 40 under 40 award winner, celebrated speaker and advocate for developing mental toughness. With a background in change management and Lean Six Sigma process improvement, Kathryn's professional career spans industries including tech, healthcare, and engineering/construction. Kathryn used the mental fortitude an...

   Dr. Susan Landers is a neonatologist who worked full-time in the NICU for over thirty years and raised three children to young adulthood. She achieved many academic and professional accomplishments, and she encountered challenges along the way, both in her career and in her mothering.    There was one particularly difficult event during her midlife that she endured which propelled her to make c...

   Cai Graham is a Parenting & Teen Mentor, Podcaster, International Speaker and Amazon #1 bestselling author of The Teen Toolbox™.    Her mission is to help parents to support their children so that together we can build a mentally healthier and happier generation of young people.    Cai is a Mum of two 'adorable' young adults, Jack 28 and Alice 26 - so she has been deep in the pare...

   Clifford Starks is a Coach and Consulting looking to help entrepreneurs get their time back by focusing on what they love and delegating out what they don’t. So that they can live in their greatest truth and create impact that changes the world. Clifford says Greatness starts with a vision and then turning that vision into a reality. Follow Clifford: Facebook LinkedIn Check out this episode on...

   Rachel is a Nashville based author, and advocate for parents that have been falsely accused in the child welfare system.  Her book Fractured Hope: A Mother's Fight for Justice has been featured in top podcasts such as the Jesse Kelly Show, The Highwire with Del Bigtree, and the Freedom Network.    Rachel's personal experience of having her children illegally removed makes her the perf...