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Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part II of VIII]

In today's episode Val and Nathan go deeper into what they have learned about the unique healing process of faith and trust crisis connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You'll learn how our faith crisis journey might be a bit different from other religion's faith journeys and why being in a non-judgmental group of people (who are open to whatever spiritual path you choose) is perhaps the most healing part of the journey. 

 Why?  Because it helps you realize that you ARE capable of being the authority of your own life and your own relationship with spirituality and with your higher powers.  Listen in to find some confidence that there is a neutral space for discovering your own indwelling competencies for spiritual growth!  

Referenced in this Episode: 

Gender Equity & Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family 

Living an Examined Life - James Hollis

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Series Title:  Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part I of VIII]

The LDS faith journey is not an 'individual sport' and although some of us try, we realize that it can't really be done alone. 

 In this episode Val and Nathan walk you through why so many of us try to walk through this "valley of the shadow" alone. 

 We try to  hide what’s happening to us due to what we've been taught about those who doubt, question, and seek for something beyond the correlated gospel. 

Then they talk about what they have learned from hundreds of you who have been instrumental in the creation of a phenomenon that no one expected would happen--little micro-communities of sacred growth and healing happening almost every day of the week on the Latter Day Struggles platform. 

If you want hope that healing your LDS-"crisising" soul is possible, once again, this episode is for you.  And you'll learn why community is so important to the journey. 

Referenced in this Episode:
Gender Equity & Reconciliation: Thirty Years of Healing the Most Ancient Wound in the Human Family

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Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part VIII of VIII]

This is the final episode in a groundbreaking series diving deeply into what a lack of the feminine looks like in both LDS men and the LDS church itself. This episode 
explores the profound ways in which patriarchal systems affect men's ability to discover and develop their true selves because patriarchies encourage the over-cultivation of traits that privilege power over partnership and external achievement over personal growth and development. 

Valerie and Nathan discuss the internal struggles that men face when conditioned to spend their whole lives constructing false self identities, leading to ego inflation, exhaustion, mental health issues, and sometimes a sense of meaninglessness late in life. 

Most importantly, this episode highlights how patriarchal systems distract men from the very purpose of life: to learn how to connect with one's own divinity, with others, and with their divine creators. Nathan's personal experiences and practical insights about his own growth journey provides a heartfelt look at overcoming patriarchal conditioning for a more holistic self-realization.

Referenced in this Episode:
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love - Bell Hooks

Living an Examined Life - James Hollis

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Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part VII of VIII]

In this episode Valerie and Nathan get personal as they share their marriage journey awakening to the impact that patriarchal influences had on their ability to connect and really grow closer as a couple and family. They candidly share VERY REAL moments of early distress and disconnection, especially the struggles that occurred before they realized the core of their struggles. 

What they realized and are still learning each day is that each human being thrives as an individual AND within marriage and family life only as they fully embrace both their divine masculine AND their divine feminine attributes. Before they understand this profound concept, they suffered without a map for healing. 

In short, if imbalanced energies in church are painful, amplify that pain exponentially within in the home.  

Listen to this entire series to expand your potential for health and healing in every important relationship in your life.

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Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & Their Churches [Part VI of VIII]]

In this heart-to-heart episode of Latter Day Struggles, Val and Nathan delve into the profound effects of patriarchal conditioning and its impact on men's abilities to become relationally and emotionally mature. 

Val and Nathan explore how little boys (raised in patriarchal cultures and churches) are often discouraged from cultivating traits fundamental to relational and emotional health due to a transmitted fear that these attributes are too feminine. They explore how this is not only a sad message for little boys, but that this messaging can be devastating for grown men who cannot experience true love and connection in their marriages and family lives. 

Don't miss a single episode of this compelling and possibly life-changing series. Val and Nathan care so much about our individual and collective healing.

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Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part V of VIII]. 

In this compelling episode Valerie and Nathan delve deep into the subtleties of benevolent patriarchy and how it places harmful pressures on men. They explore the unrealistic expectations for men to always be strong, the emotional and psychological costs of these societal norms, and how these pressures can lead to personal and relational breakdowns. 

Once again, Nathan lays it all out there with his own life experiences and talks about the debilitating pressure that he dutifully carried until he realized that this load was not only not necessary, but that it was not helpful, loving, or good for himself or his loved ones. 

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In this enlightening episode, Valerie and Nathan tackle another tough but important topic: the insidious issue of the male superiority complex fostered by systemic patriarchy. They discuss how patriarchal structures teach boys and men, both subtly and explicitly, that they are superior to women, impacting the emotional and psychological development of all genders. 

Nathan shares personal reflections on how he now sees that what he was taught and how he was treated as a boy and man in a patriarchal world and church deeply affected his own behavior and relationships. He invites all men to confront and unlearn these biases so that men both in and around the LDS church can embody their God-given potential, which frankly cannot be realized when their characters are crippled by patriarchal ideas. 

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Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part III of VIII]

Glad you're back! In this episode Valerie and Nathan delve into the impact that the overemphasis on masculine energy has on the ideas and practices within the LDS church because it is an institutional patriarchy. 

Today they focus on the masculine trait of competitiveness and explore how this plays out in unhealthy ways when not balanced with collaboration, its feminine counterpart. 

They then show how the masculine attribute of protection can also go sideways when not balanced with the feminine trait of emotional connection. In each case, they will offer on-the-ground examples that you might have felt uncomfortable about but never thought to connect to the deprivation of feminine energies within the church. 

This episode and series was designed to show that healthy humans and systems need the divine, balancing energies of the masculine and the feminine and that there are very real consequences when both are not honored and celebrated. 

As they say, once you see it, you cannot "not" see it. Val and Nathan are honored to be a part of this eye-opening and healing journey towards balance and personal and institutional healing. 

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Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men and their Churches [Part II of VIII]

In this episode Val and Nathan move from the theoretical to the practical and talk about what it actually looks like on the ground when divine masculine and feminine energies are not appreciated, balanced, and celebrated. 

They use a handful of specific masculine attributes that are prominent within LDS culture and practice to demonstrate what imbalance looks like, what feminine attributes might be called upon to provide the needed counterbalance, and how all humans involved in imbalanced collectives are stagnated in their growth and development. 

If you have always wanted "words" to describe some of the "senses" you have had while on your faith journey, Val and Nathan think this series is going to blow your mind. What they have learned in the study and preparation of this series has changed their perspectives in countless ways. They are so excited to share this information with you, their podcasting family!  

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Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men and their Churches [Part I of VIII]

Val and Nathan's series tackling the common traits connecting psychologically/spiritually underdeveloped people with men strongly socialized in a patriarchy went NUTS in response, shares, and downloads (episodes 283-288) as expected.  

Why?  Because our LDS faith expanding community seems to be STARVING to learn more about what health and wholeness looks like when women and men are both seen and treated as equals.  

No fear, there is SO MUCH to say on this topic...at least eight more episodes!  

In this opening episode of a new series diving even deeper into the on-the-ground costs exacted on men due to their patriarchal wiring, Val and Nathan start by creating a framework for what healthy masculinity and femininity could look like in every human being socialized as equals (no matter their gender!)  

This episode focuses on how masculinity/maleness and femininity/femaleness are often used interchangeably and deeply misunderstood in this patriarchal world where we've all be raised.  This episode sets the record straight on this topic as a foundation of the rest of this series.   

This entire 8-part series aims to foster a more balanced understanding of both masculine and feminine traits within all people regardless of gender, particularly within the context of the LDS faith community as we confront the relational and spiritual harm caused by patriarchal structures of every shape and size.  

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