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Attaching to God: Neuroscience-informed Spiritual Formation
Attaching to God connects relational neuroscience and attachment theory to our life of faith so you can grow into spiritual and relational maturity. Co-host Geoff Holsclaw (PhD, pastor, and professor) and Cyd Holsclaw (PCC, spiritual director, and integrative coach) talk with practitioners, therapists, theologians, and researchers on learning to live with ourselves, others, and God. Get everything in your inbox or on the app: https://www.grassrootschristianity.org/s/embodied-faith
Episodes
103 episodes
099 Reframing Mental Health: From Fixing a Machine to Fellow Wayfarers (with Dr. Warren Kinghorn)
While modern psychiatry has improved many patients’ quality of life, it falls short in addressing their relational and spiritual needs? Can we draw on theological wisdom and scientific evidence to reframe our understanding of mental health care...
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Season 6
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Episode 99
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36:15
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098 Freedom and Acceptance (Pt. 2)
"Freedom appears very nearly the only value about which people still agree unanimously," says Jacques Philippe in his little book, Interior Freedom. But how does freedom connect to happiness, love...
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Season 6
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Episode 98
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32:45
097 Confessions of an Amateur Saint (with Mandy Smith)
Instead of pretending to have it all together or insisting that you’re the problem, do you long to see more Christian leaders be honest about their own faith struggles? What benefit could there be to having a front-row seat to the moments that ...
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Season 6
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Episode 97
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49:24
096 The Shape of Joy (with Richard Beck)
In a world where mental health issues and loneliness are at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever to find ways to cultivate joy, community, and meaning in our lives. But how exactly do you do that? Maybe we need to turn outwar...
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Season 6
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Episode 96
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31:35
095 Healing What's Within (with Dr. Chuck DeGroat)
Like many of us, you carry a weight of buried pain. You feel secretly fractured within. There’s a constant churn of unprocessed feelings of shame, anger, grief, or loneliness. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Chuck DeGr...
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32:03
094 Strange Religion and the First Believers (with Nijay Gupta)
The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on us today. The first Christians believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. Many in the ancient world saw it as bizarre, even dangerous, b...
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Season 6
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Episode 94
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34:01
093 Why You Haven't Given Up on the Soul If Speaking About the Brain (Jim Wilder)
Everyone is talking about slowing down, slow food, a slow life. I have friends who host the “Slow Theology” podcast. But is going slow the best to understand the SOUL? (What does that even mean?)Recently, people l...
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Season 6
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Episode 93
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38:10
092 Freedom and Acceptance (Pt. 1)
"Freedom appears very nearly the only value about which people still agree unanimously," says Jacques Philippe in his little book, Interior Freedom. But how does freedom connect to happiness, love...
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Season 6
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Episode 92
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33:10
091 How A Psychologist Came to Believe in Miracles…and More (Book Conversation)
Geoff and Cyd talk about the impact of reading Why I Believe: A Psychologist's Thoughts on Suffering, Miracles, Science, and Faith, by Dr. Henry Cloud, specifically...the place of
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Season 6
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Episode 91
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29:42
090 Risky Play, Fun, and the Life of Faith
Why do kids climb trees, run really fast, and spin until they fall over? What is the benefit of risky play? And what does that have to do with attaching to God and our spiritual life?In this episode, we look at the research regarding pl...
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Season 6
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Episode 90
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22:43
089: Our Attachment Wounds and God's Promise (with Summer Joy Gross)
Emmanuel—God with us. We have heard this promise of God’s presence. But might our attachment wounds skew, distort, or hinder us from embracing this reality? Do we live as slaves to our attachment strategies rather than as beloved children of Go...
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Season 6
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Episode 89
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35:17
088: Don't Do Nothing about Mental Health in the Church
There is an innate need in all of us to know that there is something more beautiful than the dark places of the world we live in. After two losses within their community just prior to the 2020 pandemic, St. Andrew Methodist Church in Plano, TX ...
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Season 6
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Episode 88
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32:29
087: Geoff's Second Half of Life "Crisis" and why the new name
The inaugural episode of season six, and all about "Geoff's Second Half of Life 'Crisis' and why we renamed the podcast" (and note, 'crisis' is in scar quotes).Welcome to Season 6, of what is now called the Attaching to God<...
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Season 6
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Episode 87
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34:35
086: Non-Toxic Masculinity (with Zachary Wagner)
The problem of toxic masculinity is much bigger than contemporary expressions of Christianity. Mistreatment of women and men dehumanizing others is a feature of human culture fraught with sin. But the church is called to be salt and light...
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Season 5
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Episode 85
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31:26
085: Forming Spiritually Resilient Children (with Dr. Holly Allen)
Many children today are growing up amid adversity, whether brought on by family difficulties or larger societal crises. All children need to be able to deal with stress, cope with challenges, and persevere through disappointments. While we cann...
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Season 5
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Episode 85
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36:34
084: Mental Illness or Spiritual Issue? And how they connect (with Dr. Matthew Stanford)
Research tells us that when people suffer from a mental health crisis, the first person they turn to for help is not a physician, a psychiatrist, or a social worker, but a pastor, a priest, or a minister. Unfortunately, many church leaders are ...
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Season 5
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Episode 84
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38:46
083: Does God Hate? Or, Making Sense of God's Emotions (with David Lamb)
Does God hate? Is God emotional? Emotions feel irrational, impulsive, and problematic for God, especially when we think about hate, jealousy, or sorrow. But the truth is the Bible is full of all sorts of stories that express God expressing emot...
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Season 5
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Episode 83
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37:03
082: On Getting Out of Bed; Or, on Living with Mental Anguish (with Alan Noble)
For many people, sorrow, despair, anxiety, and mental illness are everyday experiences. And while we have tremendous advancements in therapy and psychiatry, the burden of living often comes down to some mundane choices, like "Should I still bot...
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Season 5
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Episode 82
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33:31
081: From Therapy, to Trauma, to Attaching to Immanuel (God With Us) with Stephanie Rossing
How do we help people get their brains back online? Can the Spirit lead us through a process of healing without triggering re-traumatization? And how can we attach more deeply with God?Guest ...
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Season 5
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Episode 81
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39:50
Is Joy Even More Central Than Love? (Thanksgiving Double Feature)
(This and the previous episode are part of a special Thanksgiving Double Feature Rewind of past episodes that are good to revisit in the ups and downs of a holiday)What is so important about joy? The great commandment is to lov...
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Season 5
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26:27
The Psalms as a Guide to Joy, Sadness, and Anger (Thanksgiving Double Feature)
(This and the next episode are part of a special Thanksgiving Double Feature Rewind of past episodes that are good to revisit in the ups and downs of a holiday)What if the Psalms aren't just old religious poetry, but guideposts...
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26:27
080: Finding Freedom in Constraint—Reimagining Spiritual Disciplines with Jared Patrick Boyd
We often think that freedom comes through casting off what controls us, and that we need to find our true selves apart from community. But what if it is the constraints of the spiritual life that set us free? What if it is focused practic...
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Season 5
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Episode 80
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36:40
079: Being the Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms (Dr. Andrew Root)
When atheists want spirituality, how should the church respond? In a secular age offering a buffet of spiritualities, all focused on the self and personal transformation, how is the Christian view similar or different than these alternative pat...
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Season 5
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Episode 79
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41:56
078: Formative Spirituality, Agency in the Bible, and Being Human (Dr. Richard Middleton)
What is spiritual formation? Is that even a very good term for life with and in Jesus? What are we being formed into anyway? Or, maybe we should ask “when” are we being formed?In this episode, we talked with Dr. Richard Middleton about f...
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Season 5
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Episode 78
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35:27
077: Why Humility and Hope is Essential for Therapists & Pastors (Dr. Chuck DeGroat)
What character formation is required for soul care professionals, people like therapists, pastors, or spiritual directors? And what does this mean for everyone who follows Jesus? It is humility and hope, says Dr. Chuck DeGroat. It i...
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33:13