The Well Mind Podcast

Hilary Grosskopf is a leadership strategist, award-winning author, and yoga teacher. She integrates her experience in the modern working world with her knowledge of yoga to produce original content for learning professionals. Hilary’s leadership experience in the corporate world inspired her to start her own company, Awake Leadership Solutions, in 2017. ALS is an education company that offers guid...

Time of Grace lead speaker and author, Pastor Mike Novotny, is my guest in this episode of The Well Mind. Mike has been the pastor at The Core in Appleton, WI for 7 years and joined Time of Grace just a couple of years ago. Through his work with Time of Grace, he published his first book entitled 3 Words That Will Change Your Life . We discuss his book and use it as a jumping off point for discuss...

The Well Mind Podcast is a space for meaningful conversations about a broad range of wellness related topics, with a special emphasis on mental wellness. How is your professional life impacting your overall wellness? How can we support the younger generation as they explore their career path? What are the intersections between your career, values, identity, and faith? These are just a few of the t...

James Hein returns to The Well Mind to dive further into our spiritual wellness. In this episode, James and I explore the many facets of suffering and how it impacts our life, wellness, and relationships. Our discussion is wide ranging, touching on our experiences of guilt and shame, grief and loss, and the search for meaning and purpose. We talk about injustice, theodicy, anthropocentrism, and ou...

Please join me in welcoming Jason Bowman to the podcast. Jason is a yoga teacher, a meditation practitioner, an avid cyclist, speaker, and writer. He, along with his brother and elite athlete, Dylan Bowman, co-founded Pyllars. Pyllars takes a holistic approach to coaching running and endurance athletes by providing resources to support and promote physical fitness and emotional fitness. The Pyllar...

Athletics, exercise, and physical health have made appearances in previous episodes. Specifically in episode 2 I talked with Benson Langat, who is an elite runner and therapist. Then in episodes 9 and 10, I talked with Zoe Rom, Associate Editor of Trail Runner Magazine and Lizzie Kasparek, registered dietician, respectively on running, body image, nutrition, and fitness. We wade back into these fa...

Join me in welcoming Ed Frey to the Well Mind community. The Well Mind Podcast is a space for meaningful conversations about a broad range of wellness related topics. In this episode, that topic is forgiveness. Forgiveness is an incredibly important practice that supports our relational, emotional, and spiritual health. So if that’s the case, then why is it so hard for us to apply forgiveness afte...

Katelyn Bolte joins me in episode 18 of The Well Mind Podcast. This is a conversation focused on adolescent mental health and parenting teens. Katelyn is a mental health counselor and the director of a day treatment program for adolescents. Katelyn was a wonderful guest. We cover a lot of ground during our discussion as we talk about schooling during the pandemic and the transition back into schoo...

In this episode, we venture into new territory. If you’ve listened to previous episodes, you know that much of our conversations on the podcast are focused on different aspects of personal wellness. I take us in a different direction with this one. I’ve invited epidemiologist and public health expert Dr. Jason Paltzer to join me for this conversation. Jason is a faculty at Baylor University in Wac...

The Well Mind welcomes Dr. Jennifer Londgren back to the podcast for episode 16. I asked Jenna back into the studio to reflect back on the past year with me and talk through our experiences with a growth mindset. I selected a number of questions for us to work through in our discussion. The result is a very personal hour discussing themes and topics related to failure, gratitude, letting go, and s...

It was a blast hosting the first LIVE episode of The Well Mind Podcast! I welcomed three mental health professionals that currently serve as counselors for students at Bethany Lutheran College. In an effort to directly address the contemporary challenges that college students are facing, I asked listeners and students from three different campuses here in southern Minnesota to submit their wellnes...

The Well Mind welcomes Chaplain Don Moldstad to episode 14 of the podcast. Keeping with the family and relationship focus again this episode, I visit with Chaplain Moldstad on the work he does with couples preparing for a life together in marriage. He serves as the campus Chaplain here at Bethany Lutheran College and often works with couples through premarital counseling. We explore the good and b...

The Well Mind welcomes Dr. John Seymour to episode 13 of the podcast. 2020 is in the rearview mirror and 2021 is in front of us. I’ve yet to dive into the topic of family wellness and I thought that this would be a fantastic place to start in the first episode of the new year. I’ve known John for over 15 years. He was my advisor and mentor during my graduate studies at MSU-Mankato as I began the j...

The Well Mind welcomes Dr. Mark Paustian to episode 12 of the podcast. I am thrilled to introduce Mark to the Well Mind community. He is one of those people that immediately communicates trust and compassion simply through his presence in conversation. He has been a formative mentor for me and we talk about the way our paths have been interwoven through the years. We take an intimate and vulnerabl...

Welcome to The Well Mind Podcast. I’m your host Dr. Ben Kohls. This is episode number 11 and the first solo show for me. Today’s topics have been and continue to be critically important to me. As a mental health counselor, I am constantly trying to understand how people can persist, learn, and grow in the face of adversity. This has led me to seek out as much knowledge as possible about resiliency...

The Well Mind welcomes Lizzie Kasparek to episode 10 of the podcast. Lizzie works for Sanford Power as a Registered Dietician providing nutrition consultation for athletes across the lifespan. She is an athlete herself, focusing primarily on endurance running, and understands what it takes to fuel properly to get the best from yourself. We begin this episode with some general discussion around the...

The Well Mind welcomes Zoë Rom to episode 9 of the podcast. Zoë is an athlete, journalist, an Associate Editor for Trail Runner Magazine and is the host of DNF, a podcast focused on telling stories of failure in running and in life. In her podcast, she talks with everyday runners and some of the most successful elite trail runners in the world about their failures. She believes that the greatest s...

The Well Mind welcomes Jeremy Ballew to the podcast in the episode. How healthy are you at work? It’s estimated that the average American spends 90,000 hours at work across the lifespan. Who we are and how we are at work has a huge impact on our overall health and wellness. Jeremy works in the field of EAP, which stands for Employee Assistance Program. He works as a consultant and trainer; helping...

The Well Mind welcomes Luke Italiano to the podcast in the episode. He is a pastor, writer, husband, and father. He also lives with the burden of depression. The National Institute of Mental Health reports depression as one of the most common mental health issues in the US. An estimated 17.3 million Americans were experiencing a major depressive disorder prior to the pandemic. Emerging research in...

Today’s guest is licensed professional counselor, Taylor Heath. Her professional focus is counselling people that are experiencing struggles with mental health and addiction. In this episode, Taylor shares her expertise on attachment. Attachment begins at birth as we form connections through the child-caregiver relationship, but it continues across the lifespan and influences our adult relationshi...

Thanks for joining me for another episode of The Well Mind Podcast – a space for meaningful conversations about a broad range of wellness topics. I’m curious, when you hear the term “Christian Counseling,” what thoughts come to mind? I think that it’s safe to say that there is a pretty broad range of opinions on what constitutes Christian Counseling, or how Christian counselors are trained, or eve...

Michelle Markgraf is my guest in this episode. She has been support person and advocate for survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault for 10 years. She was previously the executive director of a center for counseling and advocacy services for domestic violence. Now she provides educational workshops across the country aimed at empowering survivors and training those that want to su...

I’m your host Dr. Ben Kohls. The Well Mind Podcast is a space for in depth conversation about a broad range of wellness related themes and topics. By education, I am a clinical mental health counselor and counselor educator. I am passionate about personal growth, living well, and thriving in relationships. Today we take a journey into the crossroads of spiritual wellness and mental wellness. Pasto...

This is episode 2. I’m your host Dr. Ben Kohls. How are you living your life? It’s a tough question and it’s a question today’s guest was recently asked and one that I hope we can all reflect on. Benson offers his insights on this question and so much more in today’s conversation. Benson recently completed his master’s degree in social work and is now serving as a therapist for Family Services in...

Welcome to the first episode of The Well Mind! In this episode I talk with Dr. Jennifer Londgren about a number of different topics. We explore the self-care mindset, identity as motivation for behavior, building meaningful connection in our time of distancing and disconnection, how to change your state, recognizing and dealing with burnout, and building sustainable habits for wellness. Jenna is a...