Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol

In this special Q&A episode, Dr. Carol and guests Zion and Avery Montgomery tackle some of your most personal and thought-provoking questions about singleness, relationships, sexuality, and faith. Questions like: Can you truly thrive as a single Christian despite the loneliness you feel within even a church community? What's the difference between healthy sexual desire and lust? And has the church...

What do you do when the life you were expecting falls apart? In today's episode, Dr. Carol's guest and author Katie Kelley talks about how she believed that her background of growing up in a stable, privileged home and following the rules meant avoiding life's deepest hardships. Then came her son's severe autism diagnosis, the adoption of her daughter, an unwanted divorce, and the weight of single...

What if becoming more like Jesus has less to do with how much you know and more to do with who you're becoming? We can read the right books, listen to Christian podcasts and attend great churches. We can even know all the right answers. Yet we may still struggle with anger, insecurity, addiction, the need for approval or unhealthy relationship patterns. In this episode, Dr. Carol talks with profes...

Parenting doesn't end when your child becomes an adult. But parenting them the same way has to. That transition can be harder than many parents expect. When do you speak up, and when do you stay quiet? What do you do when you disagree with their choices? And how do you handle the grief when the close relationship you once shared begins to look very different? In this episode, Dr. Carol talks with...

God didn't create us as disconnected compartments of spirit, soul, and body. In this episode, Dr. Carol along with Avery and Zion Montgomery explore the biblical vision of whole-person health , rooted in the idea that God desires to make us whole in every dimension of our being. They discuss how the coming alive of our spirit when we encounter Jesus is designed to lead us toward greater health in...

You can know your attachment style, understand your personality, read all the books, and still find yourself reacting in the same old ways. Why? Because information is not the same as transformation. In this conversation, Dr. Carol and author and licensed therapist Dr. Alison Cook explore what it takes to move psychological and spiritual insights from your head into the deeper places of your soul....

What if Scripture was meant to be experienced with more than just our minds? In this episode, Dr. Carol talks with biblical scholar and Biola University professor Dr. Jeannine Hanger about what it means to engage the Bible through our whole selves—our bodies, senses, memories, and experiences. Drawing from her work Engaging Jesus with Our Senses , Dr. Hanger explains how Western Christianity can s...

What does it mean to be a sexual person when you're not married? In this replay of a webinar presented at the Sexual Integrity Leadership Summit, Dr. Carol challenges some of the assumptions the church has often made about Christian singles and sexuality. Sexuality doesn't disappear when you're single, and marriage isn't the goal of the Christian life; becoming like Jesus is. Jesus Himself was sin...

What happens when the person who was supposed to help you feel safe, loved, and known instead becomes a source of hurt? In this episode, Dr. Carol talks with Dr. Sarita Lyons, author, Bible teacher, and psychotherapist, about mother wounds —the emotional and spiritual wounds that can shape our identity, relationships, and even our picture of God. They explore how experiences with our mothers can c...

What if learning to follow Jesus more deeply also means learning to recognize what  isn't from Him? In this conversation at Austin Christian University, Dr. Carol shares from her journey from medicine into ministry as she and her host Avery Montgomery explore spiritual growth, personal stories, and intimacy with God. They talk about why our stories matter, how shame drives us into hiding, and why...

What if the sexual struggle you're trying so hard to overcome isn't really about sex? In this conversation, Dr. Carol talks with Dr. Floyd Godfrey about the powerful connection between attachment, intimacy, mental health, and sexuality . We're born with a deep biological need for connection and belonging, but when those needs are wounded or unmet, they can sometimes become fused with sexual desire...

What does it actually mean to follow Jesus—and what can Christians today learn from those who followed Him centuries before us? In this conversation, Dr. Gerald Sittser, professor emeritus at Whitworth University and author of Water from a Deep Well , takes us on a journey through Christian history, from the early martyrs and desert fathers to monasteries, mystics, and missionaries. We explore why...

Have you ever experienced a season where God felt distant, your prayers felt unanswered, or your faith seemed harder than it used to be? What if those moments are not signs that something is wrong, but invitations into a deeper kind of transformation? In this episode, Dr. Carol talks with author Tish Harrison Warren about the unexpected spiritual growth that can happen in seasons of uncertainty, w...

What do you do when a wave of anger, sadness, or anxiety hits? Do you shove it down and push through, or do you let it take the wheel completely? In this episode, Dr. Carol sits down with Zion and Avery Montgomery to explore the "ditch" most of us fall into when it comes to processing emotions, and why neither extreme actually serves us well. They dig into how our emotional habits are often formed...

Do your feelings ever hijack your thoughts and behavior? In today's episode, Dr. Carol sits down with experienced therapist Dr. Eddie Capparucci to explore one of the most overlooked skills in the healing journey: emotional self-regulation. They unpack what it really means to stay regulated as Dr. Capparucci explains how staying within the internal bandwidth of one's "window of tolerance" allows p...

What happens when the very things that are meant to draw you closer to God become sources of fear, anxiety, or pain? Spiritual trauma is more than disappointment with church or difficult experiences with Christians. It happens when faith becomes intertwined with trauma, leaving your nervous system physically reacting to prayer, Scripture, worship, or church as though they are unsafe. In this compa...

In this episode, Dr. Carol sits down with Tony Scarcello to explore his deeply personal journey involving faith, sexuality, loss, and redemptions. Tony shares about growing up in conservative Pentecostalism, discovering his same-sex attraction at age 12, and the depression and substance abuse that followed. He talks candidly about his first sense of redemption at age 16, being fired from his posit...

Why do so many of us walk away from a great sermon or podcast fired up to change... only to fall back into old patterns a week later? In this episode, we explore the critical difference between trying  and  training —and why most spiritual growth advice sets people up to fail. This conversation continues our monthly conversation between Dr. Carol, Avery Montgomery, and Zion Montgomery as we draw o...

Artificial intelligence is changing nearly every aspect of modern life. But what happens when it begins reshaping intimacy, relationships, and human connection itself? In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Carol sits down with Michael Leahy, founder of Braveheart , to discuss the rapidly growing intersection of AI, pornography, addiction, and relational health.   Michael explains how AI systems ar...

In this third installment of the special marriage challenges miniseries, the conversation turns to one of the most painful and complex struggles couples can face: sexual addiction, betrayal trauma, and the long road toward rebuilding intimacy. In this deeply honest conversation, Dr. Carol's guests Clinton and Charity Munoz pull back the curtain on their journey through pornography addiction and be...

In this heartfelt and honest conversation, Dr. Scott and Deana Thayer share the journey that brought them together from painful divorces and personal rebuilding to creating a thriving, blended family rooted in faith, grace, and intentionality. They open up about how difficult seasons unexpectedly became part of God's plan for their lives and how blending two families came with both beautiful momen...

What does take to really build a marriage that thrives, not just survives? In this episode, Pastor Mike Novotny discusses with Dr. Carol the foundational principles for building a lasting and healthy marriage, particularly during the first year of marriage .  From issues like faith, communication, sex, finances, chores, in-laws, and more, Mike delves into one of the most common — and most overlook...

What if the inner conflict you feel isn't a sign that something is wrong with you, but a signal that healing is possible? In this powerful edition of our monthly feature Dr. Carol talks with Zion and Avery Montgomery to explore how sin, evil, and trauma fracture us internally and shape our emotions, relationships, and spiritual lives. Drawing from both Biblical truths and the psychological framewo...

In a culture that often treats sexual abstinence before marriage as outdated, unrealistic, or merely rule-following, Dr. Carol sits down with author, professor, and researcher Dr. Emily McKnight, lovingly known as Dr. Em, for an honest conversation about why waiting for sex before marriage still matters, and why it's about far more than behavior. Dr. Em shares her own journey from sexual brokennes...

In this honest and hope-filled Q&A episode, Dr. Carol tackles some of the most tender and complicated questions surrounding faith, sexuality, betrayal, intimacy, and emotional healing. From pornography and painful marriage dynamics to shame, loneliness, and the longing for deeper connection, this conversation explores what it means to be fully human while following Jesus. Along the way, Dr. Carol...