About this episode
Send us a Positive Review!With well over a million downloads since its first drop in March of 2022, the Latter Day Struggles podcast has established itself the place to find peace, healing, community, and words to describe your Latter-day Saint faith and trust crisis. It is where thousands have come to realize that deep within themselves is a True Self capable of mapping out their own spiritual journey and integrating their Latter-day Saint background into this journey on their own terms. In this "Best of Latter Day Struggles" episode, Valerie establishes herself as a Latter-day Saint mental health professional with a unique capacity to love her LDS faith enough talk about the beliefs and practices that are causing harm to members of the church worldwide. The bottom line? Healthy spiritual wellbeing is correlated with healthy mental health. If my church beliefs and practices are making me sick in any way--these beliefs need to be courageously examined. To those of you who have been on this journey since Valerie started the podcast (the "OGs") and to those who just learned about it last week and do not know where to start--pleasea enjoy this classic episode that got Latter Day Struggles on the map and has led to the healing of thousands of people in LDS faith crisis in the past 3 years. Timestamps:00:00 – Introduction and Overview02:06 – Four Stages of Faith Development04:28 – Moving Beyond Stage 108:06 – Limitations of Stage 212:02 – Moving Toward Stage 414:43 – Contextualizing Faith Traditions15:28 – Stages in World Religions16:01 – Institutional Roles in Faith Development16:32 – Supporting Complexity and Skepticism18:00 – Therapist’s Perspective19:02 – Healthy Family Systems and Faith Development20:48 – The Role of Adolescence22:01 – Ownership of Belief24:43 – The Dangers of Over-Resistance26:37 – Richard Rohr's Perspective on Faith Development28:34 – Transitioning to Complexity31:49 – Hope Beyond Skepticism34:07 – Institutional Challenges36:58 – Misconceptions About Atonement38:44 – Institutional Self-Reflection40:09 – Marginalization and Fear-Based Narratives43:00 – Letters from Listeners: Shock and Isolation46:59 – Ambivalence and Hope in Skepticism50:03 – Understanding Faith Development Stages53:45 – Creating True Community56:00 – Transitioning Through Chaos57:30 – The Emptiness Stage59:00 – Achieving True Community01:01:00 – Maintaining True Community01:03:00 – Conclusion and Call to ActionSupport the showSupport the showListen,
