The Allender Center Podcast

How can the church support people and their mental health well? Can the church move beyond offering simple platitudes or just referring people to professionals and moving on? Can we better become a community that knows how to listen, stay present, and walk alongside people in their suffering? In this conversation, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen welcome Daniel Whitehead, CEO of Sanctuary...

We have a very special invitation for you, listeners: For the first time ever, the Allender Center Podcast is going LIVE!  Join the co-hosts of the Allender Center Podcast, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen, MDiv, in Nashville for an evening of conversation, story, music, and unexpected moments as they explore beauty, courage, hope, and what it means to live "on earth as it is." Special gu...

What is the relationship between anxiety and grief? For Sara Billups, that question became deeply personal during a season of significant loss. Her latest book, "Nervous Systems," was released while she was caring for both of her seriously ill parents. Her dad died that same month, followed by her mom just six weeks later. In this conversation, Sara joins Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen...

Friends, there's something we want to share with you about the Allender Center Podcast: For more than a decade, we've released a new episode nearly every week. That's 650+ episodes in 10 years. All free. We're immensely proud of what we've created together. And we're deeply grateful for the people who have listened, written to us, and made these conversations part of their lives. Now, we've decide...

If you've heard us talk about Recovery Weeks, or you've been thinking about joining us, you might be wondering: What exactly happens during those six days? Recovery Week is a focused, immersive experience designed to help survivors explore the ways their stories of past sexual abuse have shaped their lives. In this episode, Dr. Dan Allender is joined by longtime Recovery Week facilitators Wendell...

In 1988, Dr. Dan Allender led the very first Recovery Week. Nearly four decades later, these immersive experiences continue to offer sacred space for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to come together, face the impact of what happened, and find care and restoration for the profound heartache they've experienced. But how do you know if Recovery Week is right for you? Do you need to do any prepara...

Today's teenagers are growing up in a world of both unprecedented connection... and disconnection. Teens have constant access to information, social media, gaming, pornography, and now AI. They can turn to a screen for advice, distraction, or even a sense of social connection. Yet many teenagers are feeling increasingly alone, while anxiety, depression, and self-harm remain prevalent concerns.  At...

We spend a lot of time preparing for big moments: years of school, months of planning a wedding, or working toward a major event or big trip.  But how often do we think about what happens after? Dan recently came home from some significant events and found himself living that question in real time.  In this conversation with Rachael, they explore the process of extraction—the vulnerable, often ove...

What do you do with the parts of yourself you'd rather not have? Maybe you've learned to stay small, keep the peace, take care of everyone else, or work hard enough that you don't have to pay much attention to what's happening inside. Maybe you're deeply aware of other people's needs but have a harder time knowing what you need. Or maybe you've done a lot of personal work and still find that old w...

As political division, cultural anxiety, and deep polarization continue to reshape the Church, many pastors find themselves carrying impossible expectations. They're called to shepherd people through fear, conflict, and uncertainty while navigating their own grief, exhaustion, and questions. Last year, Dr. Rose Madrid Swetman joined Dan and Rachael to explore the growing burdens facing pastors and...

Why does it sometimes feel like the moment we begin to experience healing or clarity… life gets harder? In this episode, Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen explore the often-unseen ways evil works to undermine our hearts—not only through obvious suffering, but through shame, distraction, accusation, fear, and despair.  Drawing from Ephesians 6, they unpack the "schemes of evil" that seek to kee...

What happens when trauma doesn't just wound your heart—but your experience of God? In this deeply thoughtful conversation, Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen welcome therapist and author Colleen Ramser to discuss her remarkable new book, The Shattered Soul: Restoring Wholeness and Rebuilding Your Faith After Spiritual Trauma .  Rather than offering another conversation about "church hurt," Coll...

What makes someone a good friend? We often think about showing up well for the people we love. But what if being a good friend also means learning how to receive care—and even extending that same compassion to ourselves? Dan and Rachael begin this conversation with a simple story about a bus ride that never happened. What unfolds is something bigger: Why is it so hard to ask for help? What keeps u...

Some people seem to enter the world with an unusual sensitivity. They notice what others miss. They feel deeply. They ask questions long before they have words for them. And while that can be a profound gift, it can also be an incredibly lonely way to grow up. This week, Dan and Rachael are joined by therapist, writer, and Noble Workshops founder Sam Eldredge for a deeply personal conversation abo...

Today's episode is dedicated to your questions! Recently, we invited our email subscribers to submit the questions they'd like Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen to explore on the podcast. Thank you to everyone who responded with such honesty, vulnerability, and courage. Hosted by Melissa Dowell from the Allender Center, this conversation explores questions about what healing really looks like,...

What does true maturity actually look like? Is it age? Experience? Having the right answers? Many of us grew up assuming we would recognize maturity when we saw it. We looked to parents, pastors, leaders, and institutions to show us what it meant to be wise, trustworthy, and faithful. Yet over time, some of those assumptions have been challenged. People we admired have disappointed us. Systems we...

This week, Dan and Rachael sit down with survivor, advocate, and Narrative Focused Trauma Care alumni Kate Ouimette-Wedell for a conversation that is both heartbreaking and deeply hopeful. After moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music, Kate was trafficked and spent more than a decade in the commercial sex industry. In this episode, she shares part of her story with remarkable courage, of...

Faith, power, and politics have become deeply intertwined in our culture, leaving many Christians asking hard questions:  Is this what following Jesus is meant to look like? And how do we stay faithful when the way of Jesus seems so different from the voices claiming to speak for him? In this episode, Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen welcome Rev. Rob Schenck back to the podcast for an honest...

Is there still more to your story? It's a question that can feel surprising, especially if you've spent years reflecting on your past, pursuing healing, or engaging your story. Yet in this conversation, Dr. Dan Allender, Rachael Clinton Chen, and Wendell Moss explore how story continues to reveal new insights about who we are, how we've been shaped, and how God is meeting us in the present. You'll...

What happens when shame takes root in a story? And how does contempt become one of the ways we learn to survive it? Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen explore the complicated relationship between shame and contempt, and why understanding these dynamics matters so deeply for healing and human connection. Shame can leave us feeling exposed, powerless, defective, or alone. And contempt often e...

Have you ever felt like you were living between worlds? Maybe you've moved across countries or cultures. Maybe your family story carries immigration, missionary work, military life, trauma, loss, or displacement. Or maybe, even surrounded by familiar people and places, you still carry an ache for belonging — a longing to feel fully known, rooted, and at home. Today, Dan and Rachael sit down with E...

How do we live faithfully in a world where stories no longer seem to anchor us to a shared reality? Returning to the Allender Center Podcast, Pastor James A. White joins Dan and Rachael to wrestle with the confusion, distortion that shape our cultural moments, both past and present.  Together, they explore the idea of "story wars"—the deeply human tendency to create narratives that help us survive...

Welcome back to the second half of this powerful conversation with Jay Stringer. Building on the foundation of his book, "Desire,"Jay moves us deeper into one of the most provocative ideas of the conversation: Sometimes our desires must disrupt and even destroy something in order to make way for something more true. This isn't destruction for destruction's sake. Iconoclasm is the breaking of false...

What if desire isn't something to suppress or fear, but something to honor and steward? In this two-part conversation, therapist and author Jay Stringer joins Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen to explore that very question through the lens of his new book, "Desire: The Longings Inside Us and the New Science of How We Love, Heal, and Grow." From the very beginning, it was clear this topic could...

We've all been there. When quickly a "just checking something" moment turns into 20 minutes lost scrolling. How hard it is to stay present with the people right in front of us. And how confusing it can be to guide our kids through a world we didn't grow up in. In this episode, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen sit down with Dawn Wible, founder of Talk More. Tech Less., to name what many of...