The Allender Center Podcast

In this episode, Dan and Rachael begin to talk about the connections between sexual and spiritual abuse. Sexual abuse is also spiritual abuse, but not all spiritual abuse involves clear sexual abuse. They discuss the nuances, definitions, and processes of these two types of abuse and the intimate connection between our bodies as image-bearers of our Creator and the violation that occurs when someo...

What goes into the creation of a book? In this special episode, we take a deep dive into the making of Dr. Dan Allender and Cathy Loerzel's new release, Redeeming Heartache: How Past Suffering Reveals True Calling . Special guest host Dr. J. Derek McNeil, President & Provost of The Seattle School, Dan, and Cathy discuss how the idea for the book came to be, the process and challenges of writing a...

No story is without its share of joy, anticipation, trials, and victories, and the same can be said about the founding of The Allender Center. This year we are celebrating 10 years as a center and place where people have found healing from trauma. It has been an immense honor to be able to hear and walk with you through your stories of harm into restoration. Today, Dan and Rachael share memories a...

For the final episode in our series on engaging stories, Dan and Rachael talk with therapist, podcast host, and Allender Center facilitator,  Adam Young. Many of you may be familiar with Adam from his podcast, "The Place We Find Ourselves," and throughout this conversation you'll begin to hear more about Adam's story and how a life-altering encounter with his father set him on a path to become a m...

Listener Resources: Learn more about Sue and her counseling practice - susan-cunningham.com Curious about pursuing your own story work? Learn more about and apply to Story Workshop—applications due August 31, 2021: https://theallendercenter.org/event/story-workshop-october-2021/

Today is the start of a series of episodes we've been eagerly waiting to share with you. We're going to be engaging the stories of some of our dear friends and colleagues in order to help you—our listeners— get a better sense for how to look at and read your own story. In this episode, Dan and Rachael talk with Gwen St. John, a therapist and long-time Allender Center facilitator, about how her exp...

We all need space to play: a concentrated period of time that opens the door for the restoration that our hearts and bodies most desperately need. One of the ways Dan, Rachael, and good friend Dr. Steve Call find restoration is through fly fishing. Over the course of this podcast episode, you'll hear both humorous and insightful anecdotes from all three about their various endeavors into fly fishi...

In the final episode on hospitality, Dan and Becky step into the realms of ideas, experiences, and suffering. What does it look like to be hospitable to an idea, particularly a new idea, that is offered to us? How can we be more hospitable to suffering, and what does that look like? Throughout their conversation, Dan emphasizes the importance of being able to differ with an idea while also being a...

Continuing a conversation about hospitality, Dan invites his wife, Becky Allender, back to the podcast to recount a personal, life-changing experience that changed their perspective of hospitality. Sometimes it is assumed hospitality is setting a 'perfect plate' for guests, however, we need to remove ourselves from the idea that hospitality is simply entertainment. How are you engaging others at t...

Hospitality over this past year for many meant logging onto a Zoom call, however, as we step into a 'new normal' there is greater opportunity to not only embody hospitality but to expand our understanding of what it means to truly 'welcome the stranger.' Listen as Dan talks with friend and fellow professor, Dr. Tremper Longman III, this week on the podcast about Old Testament practices of hospital...

Dan is back this week with Abby Wong Heffter to talk about trauma in light of their upcoming training, Effective Trauma Care, in just a few weeks. Today's episode is invaluable for anyone navigating the lasting effects of trauma from this past year, but particularly so for parents. Abby shares her own experiences of parenting as a mom and step-mom in this season, ways to know if a child has been s...

This week on the podcast, Dan begins the first of two conversations with special guest Abby Wong-Heffter, a teaching staff member at the Allender Center and coordinator of the Concentration in Trauma & Abuse at The Seattle School. Together they dive into the topic of trauma and the parts of Abby's story that reveal how she found her way to becoming a trauma-informed therapist.

Picking up on the episode from last week, today you'll hear the second half of a conversation on food and our bodies featuring guests Matt Tiemeyer, LMHC, and Diane Summers, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD. They discuss a range of topics from the connection between desire, shame, and food, to how we can heal our relationship with food and our bodies. And, as you listen, remember that no matter where you are at i...

Food and how we feel about our bodies can be a place of great conflict, especially as  we emerge from the pandemic. It's imperative we treat our bodies with kindness and be able to name the dangerous influence of diet culture. So today, we're bringing this episode out from the archives! You'll hear the first part of a conversation recorded in 2020 featuring guests Matt Tiemeyer, LMHC, and Diane Su...

This week on the podcast, Dan and Rachael continue their conversation about what flourishing looks like as we emerge into a different stage of the pandemic. Much is reopening, and yet we're also waiting in anticipation for what is to come in the next few months. How can we continue to be faithful in the small without giving in to the urge to jump into major changes? What imagination can we grow fo...

As many communities are beginning to open back up and some semblance of "normal" returns, Dan and Rachael check in with each other and have an honest conversation about how they're doing and what it means to be moving towards wellness. In some ways it feels like we're engaging a new stage of a process versus a clear ending as the pandemic is very much ongoing in many parts of the world, and for so...

Today Dan and Rachael revisit one of the most listened-to topics on the podcast: spiritual abuse. However, before we dive into the conversation, we recognize that we cannot address the reality of spiritual abuse without taking into account that many, many people have encountered violations of various kinds within spiritual contexts. Over the course of their conversation today, the first of two on...

Over the past few weeks on the podcast we've talked about grief on a more personal level in our lives, but we also recognize we're in the midst of an unrelenting season of trauma and grief on a collective scale. So today, Dan and Rachael invite guests Danielle Castillejo, Rebecca Wheeler Walston, and Rev. Michael S. Chen to the podcast to continue a conversation about the nature and impact of coll...

Dan and Rachael continue a conversation about grief on the podcast, this week engaging Jeanette White, Interim Senior Director of The Allender Center. Jeanette, a dear friend and colleague of our hosts, graduated from The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology with an MA in Christian Studies in 2007 and has been an essential member of The Allender Center since its founding in 2011. As you listen...

This week on the podcast, Dan and Rachael begin a new series that takes a deeper look into the topic of grief. In this particular episode they engage in conversation with special guest Mary Ellen Owen , who is a core member of The Allender Center team as well as a mental health therapist with over 20 years of experience. Rachael describes her as a woman with wild depth and someone well acquainted...

In these days of what feels like endless ache and wave after wave of trauma and demand for resilience, we have the opportunity to develop a greater capacity to know who we are and who God is in the midst of this season. Today we're re-sharing the second part of a series on qualities of a well-lived story, and we're excited for you to revisit these conversations with our friends and partners in thi...

Every day we're reminded what it means in this odd and heartbreaking season to live well the Gospel story and the story we have been uniquely called to live. That being said, we feel right now is timely to revisit a podcast series we did about qualities of a well-lived story. Stories so deeply influence how we respond to crisis, events, the people around us, and how we live in the world, particula...

Today we're pausing to share an important conversation with you from our partner, The Impact Movement. They host a series of panel discussions called "Real Talks" which are live conversations about real-time topics at the intersection of faith and justice. A few weeks ago, they hosted a Real Talk called "Stop Asian Hate: Christian Responses to Anti-Asian Racism" featuring Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah,...

Today we're pausing to share an important conversation with you from our partner, The Impact Movement. They host a series of panel discussions called "Real Talks" which are live conversations about real-time topics at the intersection of faith and justice. A few weeks ago, they hosted a Real Talk called "Stop Asian Hate: Christian Responses to Anti-Asian Racism" featuring Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah,...

After spending a few minutes remembering the joys of celebrating Easter last weekend, Dan and Rachael turn to the text to walk through the resurrection story. In today's episode, you'll hear them step back into what the resurrection brings, which is "deadly serious play" as we get to stand before evil and darkness and say, "Oh death, where is your sting?"  Listener Resources Read Luke 24 Listen to...