The Allender Center Podcast

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 the grocery store, in your neighborhood, or at work? What does it mean to offer care and welcome from the heart? Throughout the episode you’ll hear more of Dan and Becky’s stories as well as how they are actively changing in order to become more hospitable in their day to day practices.

Listener Resources:

Read a blog post by Dr. Dan Allender titled “Forgotten Hospitality

Listen to the first episode in podcast series “A Summer of Hospitality

Direct download: TAC387-Hospitalitypt2-v2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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 hospitality, the inequality of hospitality, and much more.

Listener Resources:

Read a blog post by Dr. Dan Allender titled “Forgotten Hospitality” - https://theallendercenter.org/2021/07/forgotten-hospitality/

Listen to the first episode in podcast series “A Summer of Hospitality” - https://theallendercenter.org/2018/06/summer-hospitality-1/

Direct download: TAC386-Hospitalitypt1-v1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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 significantly affected by trauma, and how to tend to your own mental health. 

Effective Trauma Care is coming up this July 22-23! Learn more about what Dan and Abby explore over this two-day event and register today. 

Resources

Listen to a podcast episode, “Parenting in the Midst of a Pandemic”

Direct download: TAC385-TraumaETCpt2-v1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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.

Direct download: TAC384-TraumaETCpt1-v2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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 in your journey with food or in this season of heightened stress, it is never too late to “turn back to kindness.”

 

Listener Resources:

Matt Tiemeyer practices at Blue Harbor Counseling

Diane Summers practices at Hope Nutrition Therapy Center

Read an interview with Matt and Diane about Redeeming Food & Body

Direct download: TAC383-FoodBodyReshare2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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 Summers, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD about how we can step into greater kindness around food and our bodies.

Direct download: TAC281_FoodBodyreshare1-EDIT1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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 for what we are anticipating in this next season of life, particularly as we begin to allow our hearts, bodies, and relationships to flourish?

Direct download: TAC381-FlourishingCovid2-v1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:30am PDT

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 some instead of gaining more energy we’re beginning to process the impact of this past year.  So, as Dan and Rachael discuss, how can we be honest with ourselves about expectations, what we’re feeling in our bodies, and how can we move into reopening with intentionality?

Listener Resources:

Read a blog post “Honoring Our Bodies in the Midst of Embodied Trauma”

Listen to a podcast, “Parenting in the Midst of a Pandemic”

Listen to a podcast episode with guest Dr. Steve Call, “Connection in Marriage During a Pandemic”

Direct download: TAC380-FlourishingCovid1-v1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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 this topic, you’ll hear more about how to define spiritual abuse in Christian contexts, tools used by spiritually abusive leaders to maintain power and control, and the insidious nature of spiritual abuse.

Listener Resources:

Register to attend Confronting Spiritual Abuse on June 5

Listen to a podcast episode, “Narcissism and the Church with Chuck DeGroat”

Listen to our very first, three-part podcast series on Spiritual Abuse

Listen to a podcast episode about the particulars of “Mind Control and Dogmatism in Spiritual Abuse”

Direct download: TAC376-SpiritualAbuse-v1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT

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 collective grief. As you’ll hear Dan say, you may not see how your story fits into this conversation, but “part of the development of wisdom is to enter a world we may not be familiar with” and we encourage you to be open to hearing the wise words these guests have to share.

Listener Resources:

Read a blog post by Danielle Castillejo “Emergency Mental Health Care: How Therapists of Color Contend with Racial Trauma”

Direct download: TAC377-Grief3-v1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am PDT