When Gathering Light

Victoria and Matt are joined in the studio by Harry Winters. Harry was the Pastor of The Akron Christian Reformed Church in Highland Square for 33 years. Victoria and I became members of the church a year before Harry retired.   Today we are discussing a tricky little issue called pride. A word with very few synonyms with good reason. There are positive and negative aspects of pride, and we offer...

Matt and Victoria are joined in Akron Recording Studio with Jeff Gray, LPCC and licensed minister. Jeff has decades of experience working with marriages, families and ministers. He is passionate about educating ministers and other groups in self-care, emotional health, and the effects of spiritual abuse. Jeff loves to see an individual have a true revelation of their identity in Christ, aside from...

Matt and Victoria are joined in Akron Recording Studio with Jeff Gray, LPCC and licensed minister. Jeff has decades of experience working with marriages, families and ministers. He is passionate about educating ministers and other groups in self-care, emotional health, and the effects of spiritual abuse. Jeff loves to see an individual have a true revelation of their identity in Christ, aside from...

Thanks for stopping by for a new episode of When Gathering Light. Victoria and I are joined in the studio today by our good friend Rob Lavy. We will be talking about Rob's healing journey which includes reconstructing his faith and finding new purpose in his career because he serves a loving God. We will discuss the new product that he has created with some encouragement from his wife Christi...

Join Victoria and Matt as they settle back into Akron Recording Studio for their 2026 season. They recap what has been going on for them and discuss Matt’s new book “Prodigal Daughter”. Matt shares what it has been like for him to create his first book of fiction about a woman who navigates the complex dynamics of alcohol addiction and her hard-fought battle for sobriety.  If you are interested in...

Join Matt, Victoria and their guest, Laurie Bohrer, as they discuss interpersonal dynamics between siblings throughout one's lifespan. We are born into our unique family systems, and we can be defined by birth order in our formative years.  Matt, Victoria and Laurie explore what it looks like to move beyond birth order in our family systems to foster healthier adult relationships with sibling...

Join Matt and Victoria as they discuss what it means to foster post-traumatic growth and resiliency in your healing journey. As we navigate trauma-informed therapeutic interventions in our recovery, we often focus on what happened and can lose sight of what can be gained on the other side truth.  Victoria and Matt discuss what it means to move beyond maladaptive ways of coping with our histories t...

Many of us have heard about the inner wounded child, but what about the inner wounded teenager within us? Victoria and Matt welcome back Laurie Bohrer, a licensed therapist, to explore the many facets of the inner wounded teenager.  We explore how this part of us can show up in our adult life and how we react to this often-unannounced broken part of us. We befriend our own rebellious inner teens a...

As we begin Season 3 of "When Gathering Light" we return to a topic that often has a resounding effect in our relationships with significant others, spouses, family and friends and that's our trauma histories. We are all survivors of something. Whether we have survived smaller difficult events or larger woundings, we aren't always cognizant of how they will reveal themselves in...

Join Matt and Victoria as they explore some of the anxiety inducing aspects of our twenty-first century world and how we can potentially create self-care micro-adjustments to reduce the effects on us. Do we go online to have our voice heard, sometimes to our detriment? Do we join groups on-line to feel a part of something even though we can find ourselves struggling with the messaging? What if our...

Many of us are being called to be caregivers for our parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings and friends. Victoria and Matt talk about some of the challenges, frustrations and the potential for God's grace in the middle of this often-affirming journey. Is it our job as a Christian? Can we tap into a new understanding and a deeper relationship with our loved ones? Can we have meaningful...

Join Victoria and Sharon Tittl as they discuss the importance of attending to the mental health of athletes. The 2024 Summer Olympics increased awareness of the mental health of athletes, such as Simone Biles. Many of us will never be elite athletes, yet the importance of attending to our mental health in sport is still important. Additionally, Victoria and Sharon explore life after competitive sp...

Victoria and Matt discuss the complexities of codependent relationships and behavior. Victoria talks about Melody Beatties' powerful book "Codependent No More" as an excellent resource for dealing with these often-unhealthy relationships in our lives. Whether we are unhealthily supporting an addict or our need to control another's behavior is destroying relationships, there is...

Hi Everyone! In this episode Victoria and I talk about the Holy Spirit. I grew up in the Catholic Church where the 3rd part of the Trinity was referred to as "The Holy Ghost". That was a wild concept for a child to grasp. A ghost that was Holy...oh my! Our goal today is to start a dialog about what we have discovered about the Holy Spirit to hopefully start a conversation in your home an...

Join Matt and Victoria as they invite Laurie Bohrer into the studio to discuss what it means to be the scapegoat in family systems theory.  Scapegoat originates from the Bible’s reference to a goat upon which Aaron cast all the sins of Israel and then banished to the wilderness. The goat, though presumably blameless, was essentially punished for the sins of the people of Israel. Christ became a sc...

Join Matt as he opens up a brave and honest conversation with First Responder, Jeff Goodlet, about his journey in healing with Jesus.  The world is a stressful place. You can see this stress boiling up in our relationships and on our streets and highways. Mental health has never been more important than it is today. But what if your job is filled with peril and calamity on a daily basis? I have in...

Are we in need of change within our family system? Victoria and Matt discuss change, the risks, the rewards, but mostly open a dialog about the often-vital need for change within our family systems. Every family system has some degree of dysfunction! How do we navigate our own healthy ways of coping and growing within these systems. Is God moving us towards change? Does the life of Jesus offer us...

*Trigger Warning Episode about dissociation and complex PTSD Join Matt and Victoria as they dive into Matt's story of how dissociation protected him as a child and throughout his life.  Matt models the importance of story work as he unfolds for the listener his personal relationship with detaching from self so he could survive early trauma.  This protective barrier became second nature to him...

Join Victoria and Matt, with their guest Jaime as they explore the sacred nature of grief. Jaime talks of her suffering and the wonders of God’s love during the many in-betweens she endured with the loss of her father. We explore the choices we can make when faced with despair, loss, and grief. Jaime walks us through the grace-filled process she allowed God to take her into and out of in that diff...

Hi!  This is Victoria and Matt and this is the second season of When Gathering Light. We want to thank everyone who tuned in during our first season. We certainly enjoyed our many guests, and hopefully we brought some light to our listeners.  We now turn the page to season two. Today we are going to get a little personal and reflect on 2023, specifically the second half of the year when Matt strug...

Join Matt and Victoria as they sit down with Dan McGown to discuss multiple 12-step programs that support addicts and their loved ones.  We continue to try to bring the most topical mental health issues to "When Gathering Light". We have discussed addiction in different forms. However, we have not talked about what it’s like to love someone battling addiction. We have invited our friend...

Join Matt and Victoria as they explore the impact of unresolved anger and frustration in relationships.  They open up about their own personal journeys of growth in the art of fighting with dignity and respect of one another.  They often wonder how long Jesus held on to his anger before flipping the tables in the temple.  Healthy expressions of anger can be cleansing in a relationship and serve as...

Join Matt and Victoria as they talk with Dr. Rob Miller about his recent experiences in suffering and the personal value he has gained from this deeper union with Jesus.  Dr. Rob is a licensed psychologist, clinical counselor-supervisor, and social worker who brings over twenty-five years of experience providing vast administrative and clinical services. His dedication is continually demonstrated...

Join Matt and Victoria as they navigate each other's systems (internal and external) in marriage.  They encourage the listener to begin a fundamental discovery of their own parts to benefit relationships with self and others.   This episode continues the conversation about systems theory and the application of it to our own personal healing journey.  

Join Matt and Victoria as they explore with Nick Angelis, the owner of Ascend Health Center, newer mental health medications such as  Spravato and Ketamine infusions as well as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) as options for treatment resistant depression and anxiety.   Nick Angelis CRNA, Owner of Ascend Health Center  Nick Angelis graduated from Youngstown State in 2004 and worked in multi...