RT Dialogue

Welcome to Episode 56 of the RT Dialogue Podcast!

We are so thankful that you listen to the podcast, and we know you will enjoy this episode.

Today, we are excited to welcome Cori Page. Cori is a Level II Restoration Therapy therapist, and the founder and owner of Restoration Therapy of Columbus. Cori is also a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist and EMDR trained. She is passionate about a lot of topics, and we are continually impressed with how she uses RT not just in her therapy sessions, but in her work for advocating social change in her local and broader communities.

Mentioned in the Episode

Riverview International Center

Your Pain Has a Name: A Therapist's Invitation to Understanding to Understanding Your Story and Sorting Out Who You Are from What Hurts by RT therapist Monica DiCristina

Just Peacemaking: The New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War by Glenn Stassen

Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thinking About Human Interactions by Roberta Gilbert

Dr. Jaclyn Kirsch

Hannah Chung

In the episode Cori also mentions her friendship with Fuller grad and therapist Rachel Engels and needs for the Minneapolis community:

• Neighbors Helping Neighbors in Need
• Hygiene Bank

Welcome to Episode 55 of the RT Dialogue!

We are glad that you have joined us.

If you are liking the podcast, please subscribe to it on Spotify, Apple or YouTube (or subscribe on all 3).

And please recommend to any other people you think would find the content beneficial.

In this latest episode, we discuss the 7 vital components of an intensive. We have both been trained in the intensive model, and spent a number of years on staff helping co-lead marriage intensives (The Hideaway Experience), as well as doing anxiety intensives. Rhett co-developed the Turning from Anxiety intensive model along with Terry and Sharon Hargrave and Tanner Hargrove. And Lance has written about the intensive model extensively in his doctoral dissertation, Arresting Anxiety: Experiential Training Model for Utilizing Intensive Restoration Therapy.

In this episode we discuss the 7 vital components:

1. focusing on one big goal
2. secluded environment
3. hospitality
4. expert therapists
5. providing tools
6. opportunities to practice
7. power of the group experience

Welcome to Episode 54 of the RT Dialogue Podcast. We appreciate all your support.

This is a shorter episode where we reflect on the beginning of the year, and how we often approach new year's goals/new habits/etc. with clients. And we each share a couple of the big goals we have in mind this year.

Welcome to Episode 53 of the RT Dialogue.

In this episode Lance and Rhett discuss events happening in the RT community (i.e. consult groups, trainings, gatherings, future summit, etc.), as well as discussing how all of us can bring our gifts into the community and look for areas to serve. Obviously we aren't aware of everything, so please let us know of RT things happening in your practice and community.

Check out some of the events in the community at our RT Dialogue Substack.

Highlighted Events/Activities

• Restoration Therapy Texas Gathering (registration is open/limited spots)
• Mark your calendars for Restoration Therapy 2027 Summit in Malibu at Pepperdine (March 5-6, 2027)
• Mike Bishop's Delphi study on The Core Assumptions of Restoration Therapy (click on link to participate)

Opportunities to Get Involved

• Write articles/posts for RT Dialogue Substack
• Volunteer to help with Summit 2027 (planning, "boots on the ground", etc.)
• Organize local RT gatherings
• Write a bio for the RT Dialogue Substack
• Etc.

Welcome to Episode 52 of the RT Dialogue podcast.

This was a real treat for us in getting to interview Dr. Tamara Powell, Assistant Professor of Teaching Practice at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Rhett has known Tamara since 2002 when she started checking out the college ministry he was pastoring at Bel Air Church in Los Angeles. Over the years they have conversed on a lot of topics -- one of them being Restoration Therapy. And now Tamara teaches Restoration Therapy in Week 10 (Peacemaking) of her Communication and Healing class (check out her syllabus on our Substack).

We cover a lot of ground in this conversation, highlighting her journey to RT, and why and how she uses it in her class. We knew this would be a great conversation and we look forward to more conversations with her on the podcast, and at future events.

Mentioned in this Episode

Chuck DeGroat's book, Healing What's Within: Coming Home to Yourself--and to God--When You are Wounded, Weary and, Wandering

St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer (section that Tamara highlighted in the prayer)

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Welcome to the New Year everyone! And a new season of the RT Dialogue with Lance Ahl and Rhett Smith. We are glad you have joined us.

[FYI: There were some internet connection issues in this episode, but it was a great conversation.]

We kick off the new season with Restoration Therapist Hatty Lee. Hatty is the founder of Oak and Stone Therapy which has practices in Pasadena and Los Angeles. She is also the co-author of the beautiful Indwell Guide, which is an "8-step mental health resource designed to empower individuals through visual storytelling, education, and practical tools."

In this episode we spend time learning from Hatty where RT Therapists often get stuck in the therapeutic process. Here wide ranging experience as a therapist, supervisor, practice owner, gives her unique insight into some of the ways therapists get stuck in the practice of RT. We also end the episode with some brief thoughts on why she loves doing intensives so much.

Welcome to Episode 50 of the RT Dialogue Podcast!

We want to give a huge THANK YOU to all of you who have listened this year.

We launched this podcast on February 16, 2025 with the hopes of connecting the RT community. We wanted to bring on different people within the community who were practicing RT, as well as dive deeper into the model. It's been a fun adventure for us, and we are eager to start into Season 2 in January 2026.

We spent some time in this last episode going over some fun numbers from our podcast this year, and talking about our hopes for Season 2, as well as our dreams for the RT community as we move into the new year.

So a big THANK YOU again for tuning in!

Here are some fun numbers for our small podcast (as of Dec. 20, 2025):

Spotify/Apple

• 4,606 downloads of the podcast
• 740 listening hours
• 89 followers
• 303 different unique listeners
• 52.3% female; 43% male; 4.7% not identified
• 8 countries listening
• Episode 4 with Terry and Sharon most listened to episode of the year.
• Top 10% podcast globally for most viewed videos (if you didn't know already -- you can view the video episode on Spotify as well)
• Please subscribe to our Spotify or Apple

YouTube

• 1,700 views
• 374.7 viewing hours
• 51 subscribers
• Episode 7 with Ron Deal was most viewed episode of the year.
• Please subscribe to our YouTube

Substack

• 19,000 views
• 156 subscribers
• 22 different states are subscribed
• 4 countries subscribed (US, Austria, Australia, Mexico)
• Episode 18 with Bisola Adediji was BY FAR the most viewed and shared episode of the year....1,238 different emails opened her episode!
• Please subscribe to our Substack -- which also now has an updated calendar page and other ways to get involved.

When we started this podcast we weren't sure who would listen. But we were going to do it anyways, whether anyone listened or not, because we enjoy chatting with each other, with those in the RT community -- and we just love chatting about RT.

But it's awesome that between all our channels, they were viewed over 25,000 times in the last 10 months. So THANK YOU.

See you in 2026.

Lance, Rhett and RO

Welcome to Episode 49 of the RT Dialogue.

As we near the end of the year we wanted to take an episode to reflect on a few of the books that we find ourselves referencing a lot in therapy over the years.

Honestly, we could have spent hours on this episode and covered dozens and dozens of books, over so many topics. So maybe in future podcasts we will pause and talk about other books that are important to our work.

We also realize as we got more into the conversation that our book selection doesn't reflect a very wide diversity of authors in terms of gender, ethnicity, etc. -- just something we wanted to acknowledge. I know we have been reading widely in our personal lives, but it's not always reflected in the books that we find ourselves referencing consistently.

What are the 3-5 books that you find yourself continually referencing in therapy with clients?

P.S. On this latest episode I totally botched a reference in Parker Palmer's book Let Your Life Speak, where he talks about his depression. Here is the actual quote:

“After hours of careful listening, my therapist offered an image that helped me eventually reclaim my life. ‘You seem to look upon depression as the hand of an enemy trying to crush you,’ he said. ‘Do you think you could see it instead as the hand of a friend, pressing you down to the ground on which it is safe to stand?’

Amid the assaults I was suffering, the suggestion that depression was my friend seemed impossibly romantic, even insulting. But something in me knew that down, down to the ground, was the direction of wholeness, thus allowing that image to begin its slow work of healing me.

I started to understand that I had been living an ungrounded life, living at an altitude that was inherently unsafe. The problem with living at high altitude is simple: when we slip, as we always do, we have a long, long way to fall, and the landing may well kill us. The grace of being pressed down to the ground is also simple: when we slip and fall, it is usually not fatal, and we can get back up.” (pp. 66)

Books Mentioned in the Episode

In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen

Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer

The Silence of Adam: Becoming Men in a World of Chaos by Larry Crabb

A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis

Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps by Richard Rohr

Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging by Brennan Manning

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Living the Spiritually Balanced Life: Acquiring the Virtues You Admire in Others by Ray Anderson

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead by Brene Brown

Feminist Prayers for My Daughter: Powerful Petitions for Every Stage of Life by Shannon K. Evans

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth

The Salt Stones: The Seasons of a Shepherd's Life by Helen Whybrow

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

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquire into Values by Robert Pirsig

Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, The Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit by Brene Brown

Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski

Welcome to Episode 48 of the RT Dialogue.

In this episode we had the privilege of talking with Dr. Erik Salwen who is a Level II RT Therapist and who is also Level I RT Trainer. He is the Associate Professor of Counseling Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary and is in practice at College Station Christian Counseling in College Station, TX.

Erik is passionate about the "theology of RT" and we discussed at length the role of integration in the Restoration Therapy model -- as well as starting a conversation around the topic of forgiveness (we will have to pick back up on this rich conversation next year on the podcast)

Mentioned in the Episode

Dr. Scott Horrell

John Piper

Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger

Theology and Pastoral Counseling: A New Interdisciplinary Approach by Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology by Eugene Peterson

Ohana Fest

Welcome to Episode 47 of the RT Dialogue Podcast.

As we wind down towards the end of the 2025 year we wanted to chat briefly about a question we both receive quite a bit -- which is how to build a referral network as a therapist?

Rhett has been in his private practice for 15 years while Lance is on year 10. So we have some thoughts and ideas that have been helpful for us that we want to share. But we plan to spend some time in 2026 having some people on to talk about the nuts and bolts of building a healthy practice, but today we just wanted to touch briefly on this topic of network building.

We would love to hear from you. Drop a comment below and let us know some things you have done to build a healthy referral network, or groups of people that you feel are vital for therapists to connect with in the process of building the network.