RENAR Voice

Can I be OK not knowing? Can I sit in the uncertainty? Can I stop my constant checking behaviors? Can I find deliverance from the false promise of relief that my rituals never satisfy?

Counselor (VA and WV) and Liberty alumnus and assistant professor Dr. Brandon Waggoner joins Robert and Jeff to discuss obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), scrupulosity, and exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy.

He compares OCD to a monster that constantly asks "But what if it's true" and suggests that it must be trapped by living in the uncertainty in learning that, ultimately, it's going to be OK.

For helpful resources on OCD, visit the International OCD Foundation.

For more from Dr. Waggoner, visit his faculty page here.

* This episode also marks the last episode recorded with cohost Robert while still a student of the School of Behavioral Sciences at Liberty University - congratulations Robert Switala, MA!

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, May 9). Ep. 38: OCD and "Ultimately, it's going to be OK" - Dr. Brandon Waggoner [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

Fr. Isaac Mary, CFR joins Robert and Jeff to share his experience receiving counseling as a man who is a Catholic priest - what led him to it, his resistance to counseling, his experience of the therapeutic process, and his life since.

He discusses performance and perfectionism, looking for healing without knowing what he needed, possible misdiagnosis, understanding his emotional life, the experience of growing in wholeness toward authentic self-gift, and how the therapeutic relationship ultimately led him to greater reliance on God the Father.

Fr. Isaac is a member of the Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR), a mendicant religious order of lay brothers and priests devoted to prayer, fraternity, hands on work with the poor, and proclaiming the Gospel in the tradition of St. Francis of Assisi.  He entered the friars in 2000, was ordained a priest in 2010 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, and currently serves the materially and spiritually poor in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Follow the friars in Derry on their Facebook page here.

*Apologies for sound quality issues

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, April 25). Ep. 37: *Client Voices* - A priest walks into counseling [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

Clinical psychologist (CT & NY) and Jeff's internship supervisor Dr. Tim Lock joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the hardship, misconceptions, and challenges of forgiveness.  He discusses forgiveness and validation, self-forgiveness, and cases from over 20 years of clinical experience.  He also reflects on forgiveness regarding clergy sexual abuse, and failures of ecclesial leadership.

For Dr. Lock's new book Choosing Forgiveness: Unleash the Power of God's Grace, click here. 

Visit Dr. Lock at the Goretti Center for Healing and Forgiveness here.

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, April 11). Ep. 36: The beautiful difficulty of forgiveness - A special feature with Dr. Tim Lock [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

Counselor and Liberty associate professor Dr. Kuhnley joins Robert and Jeff to explore Fred Rogers as embodying counseling theories, empathetic relating, and the transforming power of meeting hostility with non-defensiveness.  She sheds light on the longstanding mentorship he enjoyed from child psychologist Dr. Margaret McFarland, after whom Daniel Tiger's little sister is named.  And with an alternative way of ending our episodes, enjoy witnessing Dr. Kuhnley employ with Robert and Jeff a bit of what Rogers may have done for us all.

For The Mister Rogers Effect: 7 Secrets to Bringing Out the Best in Yourself and Others from America's Beloved Neighbor, click here.

For the six minute YouTube video of Mr. Rogers testifying before Senator Pastore, view here.

For more from Dr. Kuhnley, visit here and follow her on Instagram at @the.empathetic.counselor.

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, March 28). Ep. 35: The Mister Rogers Effect - Dr. Anita Knight Kuhnley [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

From parental wounds including infidelity and divorce, early experiences of God, eight years of seminary and life as a Franciscan friar in the South Bronx, broken attempts to pursue holiness, the experience of being a client, meeting his wife who was miraculously born at 21 weeks, and delivering babies on his couch, and his experience online at Liberty as a Catholic, our cohost and chapter's founding secretary/treasurer Jeff Mazzone shares his story with cohost and founding president Robert Switala.

Jeff is a December 2021 graduate of Liberty's online clinical mental health counseling program, and the 2021 recipient of the Ronald E. Hawkins Distinguished Counseling Student Legacy Award (Founding Dean Award). 

He has recently relocated with his family to Fredericksburg, VA, and is a resident in counseling at Revelations Counseling & Consulting in Stafford, VA. 

Jeff can be reached at [email protected].

For more on the religious order mentioned throughout the episode, visit them here and at their podcast here.

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Dr. Imhoff returns to the podcast to reflect with Robert and Jeff on what happens when counselor educators pour themselves into their students despite the relationship building often missing from online learning.

Dr. Imhoff shares stories from his own journey through graduate and doctoral studies, and the lasting impact he experienced from specific mentors who intentionally invested in him.

Visit Dr. Imhoff's faculty page here.

* Spotify users - visit

 for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, March 7). Ep. 33: The transformative impact of relational mentoring on counseling students - Dr. Brad Imhoff [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

It's St. Valentine's Day, so let's talk about the wonderfully charming traits of narcissism that win us over quickly, but then leave us disappointed, unsatisfied, hurt, and confused.

Counselor (MO), Liberty alumna and assistant professor Dr. Kerry Marsh joins us to talk narcissism.  She sets the record straight about narcissistic traits as descriptive rather than just diagnostic, and then discusses the unsustainability of narcissism in relationships, why we love narcissistic people, how narcissism works so well for the narcissist, codependency in relationships with high degrees of narcissism, the stages of narcissism in romantic relationships, and possible origins of narcissism rooted in adverse childhood experiences.

Visit Dr. Marsh's faculty page here.

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, February 14). Ep. 32: The sizzle and fizzle of narcissistic romantic relationships - Dr. Kerry Marsh [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

Counselor (FL and NC), and Liberty University alumnus and assistant professor Dr. Chris Ostrander joins Robert and Jeff to discuss perceptions of pornography addiction and self-identifying in cases where criteria for addiction may not be present.  Dr. Ostrander touches on reasons for usage, externalization, attempts at self-regulation and stress relief, sin and shame, where the distorted practice of religious beliefs may lead toward obsessive-compulsive patterns, usage among both males and females, and insight both from his clinical experience and what the research continues to demonstrate. 

Additionally, Jeff shares how adolescent and teenage usage impacted his marriage years later, and Robert offers a way to reframe recovery slogans to focus on enduring vulnerability over terminal addiction.

Visit Dr. Ostrander's faculty page here.

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, February 1). Ep. 31: Perceived pornography addiction -  Dr. Chris Ostrander [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

Dr. Jesse Fox, counselor educator, author, associate professor at Stetson University, and president-elect of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) joins counseling students Robert and Jeff following his sharing to a counselor educator email listserv (CESNET-L) his co-authored letter to CACREP expressing concerns over the 2024 revisions possibly removing religious and spiritual competencies from counselor education standards.

*Apologies for Jeff's early sound issues within first minutes.

For ASERVIC's letter to CACREP, click here. 

For ASERVIC's spiritual and religious competencies, click here. 

For ASERVIC's white paper on spirituality, click here.

For the Spiritual and Religious Competencies Project, click here. 

For more on Dr. Fox's scholarly work, click here.

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2022, January 10). Ep. 30: Safeguarding counselor identity with religious/spiritual competency - A special feature with Dr. Jesse Fox [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.

Counselor and supervisor (OH), Liberty University alumna and assistant professor, and CSI chapter president of Liberty's Rho Eta Nu Gamma Dr. Teresa Phillips-Harris joins Robert and Jeff to discuss the foundations of moral injury in combat veterans, and the similar dynamics of moral injury and self-forgiveness when dealing with sexual shame from past sexual behaviors, particularly prior to one's "B.C." days.

For additional resources, check out Brené Brown's books Rising Strong and Gifts of Imperfection.  For more on moral injury in combat veterans, check out the Litz et al. 2009 seminal research article here. 

* Spotify users - visit here for episodes pre-dating Ep. 23

Recommended APA citation example: Switala, R. P., & Mazzone, J. (Producers). (2021, December 13). Ep. 29: Moral injury and sexual shame - Dr. Teresa Phillips-Harris [Audio podcast episode]. In RENAR Voice. Rho Eta Nu Alpha Rho of Chi Sigma Iota, Liberty University.