If you are new to Growing Humans, we encourage you to start with this podcast's first episode! In this conversation, we - Valerie and Alis - share a bit about how this learning space came to be and our intention behind the articles, podcast and, very soon, the Growing Humans Course.
In a nutshell, we hope to create a safe space for any adult who plays a role in raising children - be they parents, grandparents, or educators - to slow down and take time to reflect on themselves. This is not a space about HOW to raise our kids, but about what it takes to continue growing ourselves, into ever more conscious, mature, wiser versions of us. We are not going to talk about what to do in relation to our children but explore how to be in relationship to ourselves.
In each episode, we will share what we have learnt in our own research and practice of human development, as well as in our own messy experience as parents. We will invite guests who can share their own hard-won experience in the hope of learning more about how all of us, grown-ups, can continue ‘growing up’ so we can become the ‘biggest’ versions of ourselves and the wisest guides we can be for the children in our lives.
We play the role of hosts, curators and space holders for what we hope will become a vibrant and nurturing community where all of you - readers, listeners and course participants - can come together to both share and learn from all the resources we will curate, but most importantly from each other.
All the articles and podcasts will remain free to anyone who is seeking a bit of inspiration and a nudge for reflection and experimentation. If you choose to become a paid subscriber, you will help support our work and make it sustainable for the long run and you will also gain access to the comments section on every post and the chat space here on Substack - where we invite you to share your own experiences, ask questions, come up with ideas for new episodes or articles. We will organise periodic special events - webinars, fireside chats - for our paid subscriber community and offer you a 50% discount on our upcoming course “Growing Humans” (launching in September 2024).
About Valerie and Alis
Dr. Valerie Livesay
Valerie is the foremost thinker on fallback in adult development, our experiences of being unable to show up with our full capacities to think, feel, and act with the full suite of options that were available to us just moments before. Her work in this field—developed through original research with the leading theorists and practitioners in the human development space, as well as deep, longitudinal exploration of the lived experience of fallback—expanded the understanding of how adults grow. Valerie’s research revealed that rather than a stairway to heaven, our experience of development is quite frequently one step back, two steps forward. Indeed, the times when we don’t show up our best can paradoxically be a tremendous catalyst for our growth.
Following careers in the nonprofit field and later in higher education in both administration and faculty roles, Valerie’s present endeavors seek to extend the concepts and experiences that she studies, teaches, and writes about outside of the halls of academia, to the lives of all people trying to navigate the tricky business of showing up in alignment with their intentions in the many contexts of their world.
Valerie accompanies individuals through their discovery of Self, using the analogy of theatre to set the stage for their historical and unfolding story. She serves as a documentarian, bringing to light the lesser known, lesser loved, and occasionally forgotten roles and scenes that make up one’s full ensemble and storyline. Through her writing, speaking, consulting, coaching, and workshop offerings, Valerie invites the many characters that comprise the full ensemble of one’s self to dance together to better meet their intentions.
Valerie is the author of Leaving the Ghost Light Burning: Illuminating Fallback in Embrace of the Fullness of You in which she reveals both the despair and ecstasy that accompany a knowing of the fullness of one’s self through the stories of four individuals and their experiences of fallback. This book allows the reader to find the fullness of themselves in the journey of development and the experience of being human.
Valerie earned her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. She holds a master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management and a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego. You can read more about her research and her learning programs on her website https://www.ghostlightleadership.com.
Valerie lives in San Diego, California with her husband and two children who serve simultaneously as the most frequent protagonists of and an audience to her experiences of fallback and the greatest source of her desire to do better.
Dr. Alis Anagnostakis
Alis is a group facilitator, coach and adult development researcher walking the fine line between the study and the practice of leadership development and human transformation. Over the past 17 years, her work has focused on designing and implementing learning journeys that help foster leaders’ maturity and practical wisdom. She is also an ICF (International Coaching Federation) accredited coach and coaching educator, training and mentoring professional coaches inside and outside organizations.
Alis holds a Masters’ degree in Positive Psychology applied to Leadership and has completed her PhD studying leaders’ consciousness transformation as they navigate long-form executive programs. Her research illuminated a previously under-explored aspect of adult (vertical) development, showing that growth into later stages is facilitated by embracing and skillfully navigating complex, contrasting emotions.
As the founder of the Vertical Development Institute (VDI), Alis aspires to create a meeting place for the various schools of thought in the field. In working with leaders, teams, and organizations internationally, she hopes to make the practices of adult development ever more accessible, at a time when mature leadership seems more needed than ever.
She curates existing research on adult development on www.verticaldevelopmentinstitute.com and writes about applied vertical development, as well as hosts a podcast on this topic at https://www.verticaldevelopment.education/.
Alis lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Australia with her husband, 9-year-old daughter and their beloved dog Otto – all of whom are lovingly nudging her to go beyond research and walk the talk of vertical development every day.
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Dive deeper
Join our in-depth, self-led developmental course for adults who raise and educate children - Growing Humans: How Raising Children Raises Us. As a paid subscriber to this substack, you will receive a 50% discount on the price of the program (you will receive the code when you activate your paid subscription).
Head on to the program page to learn more.
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As a paid subscriber, we’ll welcome you into a smaller, closer-knit community where we regularly meet, share, and learn together. You will have access to the chat and comments on every article, as well as dedicated, facilitated fireside chats for the community.
You will also receive a 50% discount on our self-led program for parents and educators: Growing Humans: How Raising Children Raises Us.
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