RENAR Voice

Jeff sits down with Robert to ask him about his recovery journey through addiction and his betrayal in his marriage of almost 20 years.  Robert shares how it all brought him into a real relationship with the Lord, transformed him, and brought him into the counseling profession.  Prior to becoming a counseling intern, Robert was a professional civil engineer for 20 years.  Robert serves as the 2021...

Counselor, Liberty associate professor, and current president of the Alabama Counseling Association Dr. Yulanda Tyre joins Robert and Jeff for a conversation on race.  She shares her experiences as an African American woman in the context of development, leadership, opportunities, challenges, and discrimination.  She discusses her views on reconciliation, and some bumps she has experienced along t...

Clinical psychologist and Franciscan University of Steubenville assistant professor Dr. Matthew Breuninger joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the integration of psychology, philosophy, and theology in examining wounds, healing, and radical encounters of God's love.  Dr. Breuninger explains that healing does not necessarily mean removal of our pain, but being set free to love and serve the Lord with...

Clinical psychologist and Franciscan University of Steubenville assistant professor Dr. Matthew Breuninger joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the integration of psychology, philosophy, and theology in examining wounds, healing, and radical encounters of God's love.  Dr. Breuninger explains that healing does not necessarily mean removal of our pain, but being set free to love and serve the Lord with...

Counselor, board-certified biofeedback practitioner, and registered yoga instructor Jenae Spencer joins Robert and Jeff to discuss biofeedback's ability to help shed light on what we experience at every level of our being as spirit, soul, and body.  She shares how it helps inform clients and clinicians about what is occurring within the body in relation to stress, hypervigilance, triggers, trauma,...

Counselor, certified sex and certified sex addiction therapist, Liberty University alumnus, and Liberty residential professor of counseling Dr. John C. Thomas joins Robert and Jeff to talk about sex addiction, or what he defines as a pathological relationship with sex similar to a thirsty man craving salt water.  He explains how sex can become one's attempt to satisfy unmet needs, issues, or strug...

Robert and Jeff invite counselor, educator, trauma specialist, and Robert's site supervisor Anna Zaccardo to discuss her 25+ years of work with trauma.  Anna defines trauma as those intensely distressing life experiences that affect a person holistically and disrupt one's sense of safety, belonging, and meaning.  She discusses trauma in the context of the dark places that impact one's ability to c...

Counselor, Liberty alumna and assistant professor, founder of all the online CSI chapters at Liberty, and originator of this podcast Dr. Krista Kirk joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the most often asked question she hears from students - how do we navigate the moral issues that arise in counseling?  In the spirit of Irvin Yalom's axiom that we bring ourselves wherever we go, Dr. Kirk shares from h...

Counselor and Liberty professor Dr. Mark Myers joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the "courageous conversations" that he and Dr. Melvin Pride began in 2016 as a forum for discussing race and asking questions about the hot button issues.  Dr. Myers shares his experiences as a white man from Colorado raised in poverty having these discussions publicly with Dr. Pride - an African American raised in the...

Psychologist and Liberty counseling professor Dr. Fred Volk explains his “I am wrong” contribution to a thread on CESNET-L discussing science, research, data, truth, and faith.  Dr. Volk reminds us that science is not about proofs, and he recommends cultivating a sense of our own wrongness when judging others culturally, religiously, politically, and professionally.  Thinking like a researcher req...

In this casual and fun conversation, wife, mother, counselor, assistant professor, and director of Liberty's Clinical Mental Health Counseling program Dr. Stacey Lilley "brings the party" and offers a glimpse into the humanity behind our online professors that online students may not always see.  She discusses balance, wellness, priorities, vulnerability, and her efforts to navigate each.  Dr. Lil...

Counselor, supervisor, and Liberty associate professor Dr. Sonya Heckler Cheyne joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the virtual private practice she started in January of 2021 as a response to living in a rural area, being the only counselor in town, and the impact of COVID19 on how services are delivered.  She shares insights into her business model, hiring students and licensed interns, legal and e...

Counselor, marriage and family therapist, Liberty graduate and adjunct professor, military widow, and grieving mother Dr. Alyssa Gavulic tells her story finding meaning and joy through the traumatic losses of her husband from a special operations training accident, her youngest child from a drowning accident, and two of her brothers from suicide and homicide all within less than three years after...

Counselor, Liberty professor, CSI chapter adviser, and registered play therapist supervisor Dr. Robyn Simmons discusses how play therapy works in allowing children to express the themes that adult clients may share through words, especially regarding trauma.  She shares a few of her favorite stories from play therapy, how to become trained and registered, and how to engage parents. Recommended APA...

As online chair of the Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies at Liberty, Dr. Chamberlin led several thousand students and a few hundred professors through 2020's tensions surrounding race and the Falwell sex scandal.  She shares her experiences of finding a voice, having honest and vulnerable conversations with colleagues, and responding with actions rooted in prayer especially with...

Clinical psychologist and Denver Seminary adjunct professor Dr. Julia Sadusky joins Robert and Jeff to lead the difficult conversation of navigating gender identity from a Christian worldview.  Dr. Sadusky is a research fellow of the Sexual & Gender Identity Institute in Wheaton, IL, and serves as an adviser to Preston Sprinkle's Center for Faith, Sexuality and Gender.  She earned her doctorate fr...

Liberty alumnus, counselor, assistant professor, and ACA-NY President-Elect Dr. John Harrichand shares his experiences of growing in the servant-leader-advocate dimensions of the profession as a multiheritage Guyanese immigrant to Canada, a Ph. D. graduate of Liberty, and a foreign worker now teaching at SUNY Brockport.  Serving in numerous leadership capacities with several international, nationa...

Drawing from his own experience with social anxiety, counselor and Liberty assistant professor Dr. Brad Imhoff discusses the journey toward recognizing our own mental health difficulties and hot spots, cultivating vulnerability, taking the first steps of surrender toward freedom, and how experiencing the counseling process ourselves can help us grow in personal and professional integrity. Recommen...

Oakland University professor Dr. James Hansen discusses how the DSM-5 may be necessary for counselors to use, but it does not help people.  Instead, it inserts symptom-based reductionism into talk therapy, contradicts the helping relationship, and violates counselor identity.  Dr. Hansen explains the history of the DSM, and its adoption of descriptive psychiatry beginning with the DSM-III.  Check...

Liberty alumnus, licensed professional counselor, and Liberty assistant professor Dr. Mike Takacs joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the successful private practice he recently started in the Lynchburg area, now fully staffed with licensed counselors, residents, and interns.  He talks about how the practice works, his current role as its founder, and how he balances it with teaching, academic pursui...

Robert and Jeff interview chapter faculty member and school counselor Dr. Deedre Mitchell about advocating for individual students, creating school-wide programming, and sharing diagnoses and treatment recommendations with parents.  Dr. Mitchell shares the importance of intentionally providing a consistent and constant presence while cultivating an awareness of a population's needs one student at...

With improved audio, Robert and Jeff interview chapter faculty adviser, ordained minister, and Liberty assistant professor Dr. John King who shares how integrated practice flows from our identity in and relationship with Jesus Christ.  He suggests finding out where God is moving, and then joining Him there.  No matter the setting or the client, love cannot be bracketed.  Counselors who are Christi...

*Bear with us as we work out the hosting hiccups, barking dogs, and poor audio!* In this first episode of RENAR Voice, our chapter president Robert and secretary/treasurer Jeff interview member and assistant professor Dr. Eric Camden about how counselors and counselors-in-training can develop burnout as a result of low self-efficacy, and how to combat its effects.  Recommended APA citation example...