RT Dialogue

Welcome to Episode 76 of the RT Dialogue.

In this episode Lance and I discuss the upcoming RT Summit at Pepperdine in March of 2027. Register now.

And we thought it would be fun, and hopefully insightful, to discuss what we typically do in a first session with a new client. We definitely learn a lot of things from doing this work with each other and our community of RT colleagues. So please comment about anything you learned, or what you do in a typical first session.

Welcome to Episode 75 of the RT Dialogue.

[FYI: There were some internet connections with Eric accidentally falling off, but RO Smith did a great job editing it all together. Thanks RO]

In this episode we were really excited to bring on a couple we met at the RT Summit in Amarillo last year -- Lindsay and Eric Minton of Minton Family Therapy in Knoxville, TN. I remember sitting out at lunch with them on one of the days and just really enjoying my (Rhett) conversation with them. I also just really admired the work that they were doing and the unique perspective that they bring to Restoration Therapy. This will be evident in our conversation with them.

Both are graduates of Fuller Theological Seminary -- Lindsay with her MSMFT, and Eric with his MDiv. Both of them are Level II Restoration Therapists, and Eric is also the author of the book It's Not You, It's Everything: What Our Pain Reveals about the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life.

Mentioned in the Episode

Contextual Family Therapy

Carl Whitaker

Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy

Salvador Minuchin

David Dark -- Belmont

Jacques Lacan

RT Lodge

Welcome to Episode 74 of the RT Dialogue.

In this very short episode, Lance and I talk about the opening of the 2027 Restoration Therapy Summit registration -- and why you all should attend.

We loved being in Amarillo for the 2025 Summit and we emerged out of that time together with a lot of energy and momentum, which is reflected in all the amazing things happening in our broader RT community right now. So we are looking forward to gathering at Pepperdine University in Malibu March 4-5.

Speaker information for plenary keynotes and workshops are still coming in, so please stay tuned as those get updated.

If you have not registered, please head over and register. You can register now for the early bird discount, as well as registering as a student or big groups. We expect to sell out this event, so don't hesitate if you are wanting to attend.

Welcome to Episode 73 of the RT Dialogue

In this episode we welcomed Joanne Russell who is an LMFT practicing at the Restoration Therapy Center of San Diego. It was fun hearing Joanne's story of how she came into Restoration Therapy, and how transformative it has been for her life both personally and professionally.

In this episode we spend some time talking about the varying things that she really loves about RT, as well as some different interventions that really impact the work she is doing -- like the baseball bases intervention.

We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did.

Welcome to Episode 72 of the RT Dialogue Podcast

We were very excited to welcome onto this episode, David Ake. David is the Associate Pastor of Marriage Ministries at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, TX. I (Rhett) first met David a few years ago after he was researching Restoration Therapy and came across my website. I then had the privilege of doing some teaching on RT with he and his staff, and they have also been out to Pepperdine to do Relate Strong training.

David uses Marriage CORE in the marriage ministries at church, and has been implementing Relate Strong as well. We love in the podcast where he talks about the important of tools such as Relate Strong and Restoration Therapy, and how they give us language, tools, and a process to help individuals and couples.

It's exciting to see how RT is being used in pastoral ministries and we are looking forward to more conversations with David and other ministry leaders who are using it in their work.

Mentioned in the Episode

5 Days to a New Marriage by Terry Hargrave and Shawn Stoever

Vital Tools for Relevant Church Leaders: Restoring Relationships and Building Community During Difficult Conversations

Relate Strong

The Mindful Marriage: Create Your Best Relationship Through Understanding and Managing Yourself by Ron and Nan Deal and Terry and Sharon Hargrave

Chuck Swindoll

Welcome to Episode 71 of the RT Dialogue.

On this episode we sit down with RT Therapist Laura Matheson who is a bilingual therapist practicing in Renton, WA. Laura is a graduate of the University of Washington (Go Huskies!) where she assisted with the qualitative analysis of a study under Marsha Linehan, the inventor of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and picked up a minor in Spanish along the way. She is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary where she studied under Dr. Terry Hargrave, and more recently finished RT Level II training with Lance Ahl.

In this episode we explored some of the specialties that Lauren is passionate about (i.e. adolescents) while talking about what it's like to go through Level II training. We really enjoyed getting to spend time with Lauren and hear more about the work she is doing. And we definitely put on the pressure for she and her husband to attend the RT Summit coming to Malibu in March of 2027.

If you are interested in connecting with Laura, you can email her at mailto:[email protected]

Mentioned in Episode

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook

RT Therapist Amanda Tipps

RT Therapist, Dr. Corynne Keirns (RT Dialogue Ep. 66)

The Power of Showing Up: How Parental Presence Shapes Who Our Kids Become and How Their Brains Get Wired by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

Malcolm Gladwell (10,000 hours rule in Outliers)

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson (10,000 deliberate hours)

The Way of Excellence: A Guide to True Greatness and Deep Satisfaction in a Chaotic World by Brad Stulberg (Episode 65)

Welcome to Episode 70 of the RT Dialogue -- or the Septuagint episode as referenced in the beginning of the episode.

This was a really fun episode as we invited on Dr. David Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a theologian, priest, author, professor, and artist. He is a man who wears many hats and brings to his vocation(s) and this conversation, a long history of varied experience. I would consider him a polymath, and we had a wide-ranging conversation that we eventually ran out of time on. So looking forward to having him back on.

Dr. Taylor is an Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, and he first came to my attention in 2017 with the short documentary, Bono & Eugene Peterson | The Psalms. Over the last year I have been very engaged with his Instagram, and would send posts and stories over to Lance. More recently I noticed one of his posts where he talked about a workshop he was doing, EMOTIONS -- The Psalms and the Emotional Vitality of Children and Teens. That workshop along with two of his books, Body of Praise and Open and Unafraid, were catalysts for Lance and I wanting to have him on the podcast.

We feel like the theological and psychological work that he is deeply engaged in, makes for a great conversation partner in our work as Restoration Therapy therapists. It was also great to dive deep into theological integration.

Dr. Taylor lives south of me a couple of hours in Texas, and so I am hoping our paths cross more in the future, and maybe Lance will have him out to surf in San Diego at some point. Thanks for coming on Dr. Taylor.

Mentioned in the Episode

Glittering Images by Susan Howatch

Starbridge Series by Susan Howatch

Unspoken Wisdom: Truths My Father Taught Me by Ray Anderson

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Curt Thompson

“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.” (Henri Nouwen)

Welcome to Episode 69 of the RT Dialogue Podcast.

We are thankful that you have joined us for what we believe is a great episode on a topic that has come up a lot in conversation in the Restoration Therapy community -- forgiveness.

In this episode we look at the forgiveness model in Restoration Therapy, while exploring different different lenses through which we have approached it.

Twice in the last six months, I (Rhett) have presented the Restoration Therapy forgiveness model to ReEngage groups, while also using the handout created by Lance and Jennifer Ahl, where they look at theologian Paul Tillich's relational dynamics of justice, love and power.

[Their handout adapted from the Restoration Therapy model developed by Dr. Terry Hargrave can be seen at the RT Dialogue Podcast Substack, Episode 69 -- along with slides Rhett used]

Mentioned in the Episode

Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation by Miroslav Volf

Love, Power and Justice: Ontological Analyses and Ethical Applications by Paul Tillich

Our professor, Theologian Dr. Ray Anderson -- specifically the book, The Gospel According to Judas: Is There a Limit to God's Forgiveness?

Fuller Studio -- The Gospel According to Judas (Ray Anderson)

Mark 5:1-18

Welcome to Episode 68 of the RT Dialogue!

This episode came about after a text exchange between us and Michael Piciucco regarding a "core tension" that he has noticed in the conversation around emotional self-regulation and co-regulation -- specifically how these play out in Restoration Therapy and EFT. So we asked him to come on and discuss this.

Michael also invited on our good friend Steven Perez as a conversation partner on this topic.

I won't say more about the conversation at this point as we really dive into the weeds -- so please tune and check it out.

Mentioned in the Episode

Restoration Therapy

EFT and Sue Johnson

Hold Me Tight

The Prophet (On Marriage) by Kahlil Gibran

The Mindful Marriage by Ron and Nan Deal & Terry and Sharon Hargrave

On Marriage by Kahlil Gibran

Then Almitra spoke again and said, And
what of Marriage, master?
     And he answered saying:
     You were born together, and together you
shall be forevermore.
     You shall be together when the white
wings of death scatter your days.
     Ay, you shall be together even in the
silent memory of God.
     But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
     And let the winds of the heavens dance
between you.
 
     Love one another, but make not a bond
of love:
     Let it rather be a moving sea between
the shores of your souls.
     Fill each other’s cup but drink not from
one cup.
     Give one another of your bread but eat
not from the same loaf.
     Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
     Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.
 
     Give your hearts, but not into each
other’s keeping.
     For only the hand of Life can contain
your hearts.
     And stand together yet not too near
together:
     For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
     And the oak tree and the cypress grow
not in each other’s shadow.

Welcome to Episode 67 of the RT Dialogue Podcast. We are so thankful to have you joining us on this journey.

This is a little bit of a different episode in that we had a master's level student (Dallas Theological Seminary) on the podcast. Justin Metz is currently training in Restoration Therapy, having already completed Level I with Dr. Terry Hargrave this last February, while also completing Relate Strong training at seminary with Dr. Gary Barnes.

Justin is on staff at The Marriage Place in Frisco, TX, which is great, since we (Rhett) can meet up for coffee regularly to discuss all things RT. We really were inspired by the interventions that Justin is creating and already using in therapy work, and the way that he and his wife have been leading a Relate Strong group at their church.

It's a lot of fun to see the way that varying interventions within the RT community are being built upon and used in different ways -- we see this in Justin as he was inspired by some interventions that Migum Gweon discussed on Episode 34 of this podcast, and Tanner Hargrove's intervention on Episode 26 of this podcast. We think you will especially love his practice of the Pain and Peace Cycle through use of rearview mirror hanging tags...brilliant. And it was insightful to hear how his experience as a ballroom dancer/instructor over the years has informed his couple's work.

Enjoy the episode.

Mentioned in the Episode

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory

Psalm 40 by U2

Athanasian Creed

Sue Johnson and Dancing the EFIT Tango

Rearview Mirror Hangers