In this special book launch episode, Geoff interviews Summer Joy Gross about why spiritual directors are reading and recommending Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection.

This episode touches on the need to balance between intimacy and independence in spiritual life and the benefits of using attachment theory in understanding one's relationship with God.

Summer has just written a book called, The Emmanuel Promise: Discovering the Security of a Life Held by God,  and you can find out more about her work at her Patreon page. 

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In this special book launch episode, Geoff interviews Monica Mauer about why therapists are reading Landscapes of the Soul, and how it can help their clients.

Monica is a therapist, therapist supervisor, and founder of the Center for Family Transformation. Monica talks about the unique and very helpful terminology used in the book to describe the different attachment strategies, such as the JUNGLE, the DESERT, the WAR ZONE, and the PASTURE, and how helpful it is to focus on intimacy and independence over anxiety and avoidance. They also touch on the centrality of joyful connection in relationships and the transformative potential of secure attachments with God.

Find out about the "Life Model Informed Therapy" certification here. 

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

Stay Connected: 

• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support our ministry with a one-time or regular gift.

Here is an audio snippet of our new book. Description below. Please buy and review.

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Does it feel like you experience life in a totally different way than others? Like you are living somewhere else, and you can’t build connection or intimacy with God like others can?

There’s a good chance that you, like so many of us, have tried it all: read your Bible more, gone to church more, prayed more, and delved deeper into self-awareness. But you still struggle with discontent, anxiety, avoidance and doubt. You still feel stuck.

No matter where you find yourself emotionally, relationally, or spiritually, Jesus meets you there and helps you move toward a place of peace and rest. As pastors, coaches, and educators, Cyd and Geoff Holsclaw are very familiar with this struggle, and they are prepared to help. In Landscapes of the Soul, they draw on the science and spirituality of attachment theory, biblical wisdom, and the language of spiritual formation to show us why Christians tend to get stuck spiritually―and how to get unstuck and move forward.

Whether you feel like you’re living in a spiritual jungle, desert, or war zone, you will discover:

• how you are designed to grow good roots through healthy relational attachment
• how things go wrong through your often-distorted survival strategies
• how God repairs your faith, hope, and love for Him, others, and ourselves
• how Jesus quiets your anxious and avoidant faith
• how to incorporate practices for building your security with God

You aren’t meant to live in the anxiety of a jungle, the desolation of a desert, or the chaos of a war zone. God designed you to live in joy and peace in relationship with Him, as if you are in a pasture, under the protective care of the Good Shepherd.

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

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In a sense, this is where all the attachment stuff started, with Cyd telling the "Shepherd Story" to our boys during bedtime. Over and over, year by year, she did this little guided meditation with them. She was doing attachment work with the Good Shepherd even before we had language for it. 

Many listeners and cohort members have asked for a recording of this prayer exercise, so here it is. 

For all the background (attachment theory and spirituality), see our new book, Landscapes of the Soul: How the Science and Spirituality of Attachment Can Move You into Confident Faith, Courage, and Connection (and please review it on Amazon).

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

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• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support our ministry with a one-time or regular gift.

Should Christians be teachable, and how can we discipline desire, that’s what we are talking about today, and stories learning to attach more deeply with God. 

In this episode of the Attaching to God podcast, host Geoff Holsclaw welcomes Dr. A.J. Swoboda to discuss the virtue of having a teachable spirit. The conversation explores the challenges of remaining teachable in a culture that often discourages vulnerability and humility.

Dr. A. J. Swoboda is a professor, writer, and pastor. He is the Associate Professor of Bible, theology, and world Christianity at Bushnell University and leads the Doctorate program in Christian Formation and Soul Care at Friends University. He is the author of many books, recently The Gift of Thorns: Jesus, the Flesh, and the War for Our Wants and A Teachable Spirit: The Virtue of Learning from Strangers, Enemies, and Absolutely Anyone.

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

Stay Connected: 

• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support our ministry with a one-time or regular gift.

What do you do when the gap between what you believe and what you experience feels insurmountable? Where do you turn when trauma leaves you feeling lost, ashamed, and exhausted, spinning spiritually, but still longing for a relationship with God?

In this episode of the Attaching to God podcast, Geoff Holsclaw talks with Michael John Cusick about themes from his new book, discussing the disconnect between belief and experience, particularly in the presence of trauma.

Michael John Cusick is the CEO and founder of Restoring the Soul, an intensive counseling ministry in Denver. He is a licensed professional counselor, spiritual director, and former assistant professor of counseling at Colorado Christian University.  Along with other books, he has recently published Sacred Attachments: Escaping Spiritual Exhaustion and Trusting in Divine Love. 

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

Stay Connected: 

• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
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Is corporate worship just the transfer of information? Or to whip up our emotions into a frenzy? Or does corporate worship do something else?

In this episode, host Geoff Holsclaw engages with Reverend Dr. Joshua Cockayne about corporate worship, joint attention in spiritual formation, and perspectives from developmental psychology, attachment theory, and neuroscience. This episode challenges the traditional dichotomy between cognition and affect, proposing a more nuanced understanding of worship as a communal, transformative experience.

Dr Joshua Cockayne is the Director of the Bede Centre for Church Planting Theology at Cranmer Hall in Durham, UK, where he also lectures on mission and evangelism. He is the co-author of several books, including Dawn of Sunday: The Trinity and Trauma Safe Churches, and more recently, Why We Gather: Psychology, Theology and Liturgical Practice.

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

Stay Connected: 

• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support our ministry with a one-time or regular gift.

Have you felt overwhelmed and flattened by the sheer amount of noise and distraction in your home, your schedule, and your brain?  In our fast-paced culture, is it possible to set up our families and children to thrive?

In this episode of the Attaching to God podcast, host Geoff welcomes Sarah Boyd, writer, child development expert, and founder of Resilient Little Hearts. Sarah discusses her new book, Turn Down the Noise: A Practical Guide to Building an Emotionally Healthy Family in a Chronically Overstimulated World, a practical guide to creating emotionally healthy families in today's overstimulated world. They delve into topics like self-regulation, co-regulation, the importance of play, simplifying home environments, and the balance between stress and joy. 

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

Stay Connected: 

• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support our ministry with a one-time or regular gift.

Is society producing more narcissists, or producing more people susceptible to abuse by narcissists? How has narcissism evolved in our internet age?

In this episode, we explore the evolving nature of narcissism in the internet age and its impact on church communities. We discuss the shift from authority-based to algorithm-based influence, the rise of performative narcissism, and the attack on empathy.

Our guest is Dr. Chuck DeGroat, the Professor of Counseling and Christian Spirituality and Executive Director of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program at Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI.  He is also a licensed and practicing therapist, a spiritual director, author of five books, his newest book, Healing What’s Within. He also wrote When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse.

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

Stay Connected: 

• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support our ministry with a one-time or regular gift.

What are the limitations of our modern approaches to discipleship and spiritual formation? How do our neural pathways connect to our spiritual pathways? Does brain-wiring connect to spiritual warfare? And how does this all connect to our identity in Christ?

In this episode of the Attach To God podcast, host Geoff Holsclaw delves into the intersections of neuroscience and spiritual pathways with Dr. Marcus Warner, president of Deeper Walk International. They explore the limitations of traditional enlightenment and Puritan-based approaches to spiritual transformation, and cover deeper discipleship through the FISH model (Freedom, Identity, Spirit walk, and Heart-focused community).

Dr. Marcus Warner has served as president of Deeper Walk International since 2006. He has written 16 books on topics ranging from brain science to spiritual warfare, including Rare Leadership, The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages, and Understanding the Wounded Heart. Marcus is a conference speaker who works with both ministry and corporate groups around the world.  His passion is taking complex topics and making them practical and accessible for everyone.

Join 5000 others for the 3rd Annual Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. 

Register for FREE (and get Swag Bag gifts sent to your email). 

Stay Connected: 

• Check out our Attaching to God 6-Week Learning Cohort.
• Join the Embodied Faith community to stay connected and get posts, episodes, & resources.
• Support our ministry with a one-time or regular gift.