Mormon Mixed Faith Marriage Podcast

I was taught divorce is not an option and believed that for many years. Here I discuss the pros and cons of putting divorce on the table. I also address some things to consider if faced with a divorce.

Marriage researcher John Gottman teaches about the four horsemen that herald a divorce. Here I share how I leaned to decrease the four horsemen in my mixed faith marriage using coaching tools.

Here I give you a three step process on how to fall in love again after a faith transition.

Here I talk to a colleague of mine - Chris Rich. We are both life coaches and both in a Mormon mixed faith marriage. We share a little of our stories and talk about some of our favorite coaching tools for mixed faith marriages. Find more about Chris at https://www.chrisrichcoaching.com.

When faced with a faith transition and a mixed faith marriage we panic a little and start to assign blame. Blame is often the first thing we reach for in an uncomfortable situation, but it is rarely helpful. Here I teach about blame and offer another option.

Here I offer more detail around the concepts of emotional adulthood and emotional childhood. When you can step into emotional adulthood you can create more space in your marriage for acceptance and connection.

In this episode I teach you something from my group coaching program- Loving Your Mixed Faith Marriage. Here I walk you through setting a goal in your relationship. I talk about two common obstacles that come up when we work towards a goal: 1. Manuals and 2. Conditional Love.

Often people are interested in improving their marriage and interested in developing communication skills. However, commitment is often necessary to make real changes. Interested is not always enough. Here I talk about the difference between being interested versus committed in improving your mixed faith marriage.

Here I talk with my sister about faith and marriage. She and her husband left the church and have a very different marriage then I do. Here we discuss her marriage and how it’s shifted as their faith shifted.

In this episode I talk about the partnership model versus petitioner model. I provide a definition of partnership and compare and contrast the partnership model with the petitioner model. For years I showed up as a petitioner and it created a lot of frustration. Understanding the two models can help you decide how you want to show up in your marriage.

In this episode I talk about some common obstacles that prevent you from supporting your spouse from love and in a sustainable way.

Love feels so good. Sometimes we limit or put conditions on feeling amazing. Here I talk about conditional and unconditional love and how we limit our ability to feel love.

Here I ask a series of questions to explore what you believe about your mixed faith marriage. Your brain is a powerful tool that will bring you evidence to support your belief system. Are you setting yourself up for success or suffering with your current belief system?

Selfishness is often at the root of many marriage problems. Here I challenge a common definition of selfish and suggest an alternative one.

A faith transition and a mixed faith marriage may cause you to feel grief and loss. Maybe you have experienced the loss of your same faith marriage, loss of community, loss of standing in that community, loss of family traditions and foundations. It can be helpful to take a look at the grief cycle in this context to help you navigate all the emotions. Here I talk about how the grief cycle applies...

Boundaries can be an important part of a mixed faith marriage and participating in a mixed faith extended family. Here I talk about the difference between a boundary and a request and how to implement a boundary.

In this short but important episode I talk about fear. Fear can present as a series of questions with very scary answers. Fear can undermine how we show up. And it doesn’t have to.

I hear a lot that it is important to be on the same page in a marriage, especially in parenting. Here I discuss that for many having different faith journeys is an example of not being in the same page. This can cause incredible pain. One approach is to look closer at the belief that you and your spouse need to be in the same page. That belief may be hurting more than helping.

Acting in a passive aggressive way is unfortunately common in a mixed faith marriage. Here I tell you about common ways passive aggression may appear in a marriage and why we often default to it.

There are often several phases that are part of a mixed faith marriage. Here I talk about the - Ignore it and Hope it Goes Away Phase, The Walking in Eggshell Phase and Why Can’t They Just Change Phase (among others). There is also a Happily Ever After phase. It’s also known as acceptance.

Here I address 10 things that indicate you need help in your marriage. Often we put off getting help. An investment in your marriage pays off for years and with compound interest!

Here I talk about how to deal with those painful things our spouse’s sometimes dish out to us in a mixed faith marriage.

Many clients come to me with a deep concern around what others will think about their faith transition or their spouse’s faith transition. It can be a paralyzing fear. Here I discuss why we have this fear.

If you are facing a baby blessing, baptism, ordination or other event you may be anxious or concerned about how to even approach the event. Here I discuss my own experiences with our children and suggest some questions to ask yourself to help you manage these events.

Making decisions in a mixed faith marriage can be painful- but it does not have to be. If you want to make decisions around kids, baptism, Sunday attendance and more it is helpful to take a close look at your current decision making process. If decisions ultimately leave you frustrated, it may be time to change the decision making process used in your marriage.