Episodes

We all wonder what's at the root of the problem. Sometimes you need an encouraging word. Other times you need to dig a little further. Often, we don't stop to discover what is at the root of our challenges, and as a result, they continue to show up on our emotional and physical radars. So, join the conversation at the POSITIVE TALK PODCAST.

Maybe you are the parent or grandparent of an adolescent-aged child. Maybe you are a teen-aged kid. Regardless, you can gain a great deal of wisdom from this week's episode of the POSITIVE TALK PODCAST with hosts Julie Homrich and Chuck Allen. As always, Julie and Chuck merge faith and psychology in their usual helpful and humorous way. Join the conversation!

We all benefit from building healthy boundaries. This conversation can assist you in every relationship in your life. Join Chuck and Julie on this week's episode of THE POSITIVE TALK PODCAST.

NEURODIVERSITY. It sounds a bit daunting, but it is the term for when we or others experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways. Many families have some form of neurodiverse children and parents. Maybe you are a uniquely awesome neurodiverse person. Join Mandi and Julie for a positive conversation regarding neurodiversity on this week's POSITIVE TALK PODCAST.

Peace is one of the most sought-after pearls of wisdom in life. If you search on Amazon for books on peace, you’ll find more than 50,000 results. The fact that there are so many books on this subject means peace is in high demand and is big business. We live in a stormy sea of anxiety and everyone wants to reach out for something that might keep them afloat. Without peace, there’s no contentment and no happiness. The question is, how do we find peace in this stormy sea of busyness? Peace - We a...

When anger controls you, life gets incredibly hard. So many people suffer because of their anger or the anger of others. Here’s a great life lesson - Wisdom is the ability to control your anger. Handling anger is an important life skill. It’s incredibly important to understand the purpose of anger. When we feel angry, we tend to go toward one of two extremes psychologically: we either seek to repress it or we don’t hold any self boundaries at all with our internal experience of anger and let it ...

We are living at warp speed, and often at the speed of no peace in our lives. Science and faith combine to offer a guaranteed solution to our weary and anxious souls - Quietude. Before you discount this topic, take a listen to Chuck, in this week's 17th episode of the Positive Talk Podcast. It will encourage you and hopefully equip you for brighter, better, more peace-filled days ahead.

If you missed last Thursday’s episode, be sure to listen in as Julie gives us some very real help in creating and sustaining healthy boundaries through the holiday season.

We all need BOUNDARIES, especially through the holiday season. Join Julie as she helps us all set healthy boundaries for a far happier holiday!

Clinical Therapist Julie Homrich describes boundaries as “What I will and won’t tolerate in my life.” Boundaries mean we get to choose what and who we allow into our lives, and we also get to choose how we respond when someone doesn’t respect our limits. We can set boundaries with others, and we can even set boundaries with ourselves. Whether we are setting internal or external boundaries, at the core, boundaries are an inside job. In this 15th episode of the Positive Talk Podcast, Julie will di...

The Holidays come with huge expectations. Those expectations are often external, but they can be internal. Ou hope for you is that you might create a season of joy through the lens of healthy expectations and how to best manage them this year. Join Chuck as he unpacks five sure-fire ways to create a healthy and happy holiday season with our expectations.

One of our core beliefs, here at Positive Talk is that we can integrate faith and psychology. This is never more evident than in our personal relationships…our friends. I’ve been blessed with some great long-term friendships. These are the ones that have taught me a lot about what it means to be supportive, caring, consistent, open, and more. CS LEWIS once said that: "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” JOIN CHUCK AND ...

Our social connections are as important to our health as proper diet and exercise. Research has linked social bonding to longer lives, lower incidence of depression and anxiety, and reduced risk of disease. And yet many of us feel lonely. A recent study quoted in Scientific American found that a staggering 47 percent of Americans often feel alone, left out, and lacking meaningful connections with others. This is true for all ages, teens and adults alike. Loneliness is not just unpleasant to us, ...

Religious trauma syndrome occurs when an individual struggles with leaving a religion or a set of beliefs that has led to their indoctrination. It often involves the trauma of breaking away from a controlling environment, lifestyle, or religious figure. In some settings the symptoms of religious trauma can be similar to that of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Listen in as Julie Homrich, LPC unpacks how to positively thrive in, through and beyond trauma.

How do you create or expect a church or religious leader to act, react, or lead? Jesus had a simple method for how we were to avoid the shame and guilt associated with much of the American Church and Her Leaders as He taught and modeled the simple power of GRACE. But in a culture that looks for electric atmospheres, powerful entertainers, and superstar preachers, it's no wonder the American Church has missed the mark so badly. How do we build churches that are on the other side of Religious Trau...

What do you get when you integrate faith and psychology? You get solutions to many of life's most challenging problems. One of those problems might be that you have experienced manipulation that led you to a traumatic experience with the church or a pastoral leader. Julie and Chuck tackle this subject head-on in the ninth episode of the Positive Talk Podcast.

Episode eight of the Positive Talk Podcast jumps into the deep end of the pool, tackling Religious Trauma. What Do You Do When the Church Hurts You? All across the world, people are impacted by churches, typically attempting to do good. But often, people are deeply wounded and hurt by the actions of leaders and structures that have been created to be sources of hope and help. Join Julie and Chuck for this challenging topic on this week's Positive Talk Podcast where we are always integrating fait...

Forgiving yourself is not about forgetting. It is about not bringing the offense up to yourself in negative ways. Forgiving yourself is simply letting go of what you are holding against yourself so that you can move on with God. If God has moved on, shouldn't we do the same? Join Chuck Allen in this poignant chat about the freedom found in forgiving ourselves.

Forgiveness is a fascinating concept, truly one of the cornerstones of mental and spiritual health. Forgiveness is indeed and the very heart of the Christian faith, but is also, I believe at the heart of healthy relationships…most especially the relationship with have with ourselves. There are numerous positive mental and physical effects of forgiveness. The research is clear: holding onto bitterness keeps you in a chronic state of fight or flight, which increases the risk of heart attack, high ...

If you've ever found yourself wondering what do I do when I don't know what to do, then this episode is for you. So often, we are at a loss as to what the next best step is. But, even more often, we need to stop, get still and listen for the right next step. In this episode, Chuck and Julie will unpack the simple steps to discovering your best path forward through the simple practice of peaceful, prayerful meditation. Enjoy!

In this week's episode, Julie and Chuck unpack the concept of creating a new, fresh and better way to think. The concept of thinking about what we are thinking is technically called "metacognition." In Chuck's terminology, it's simply being aware of what you are thinking and then intentionally working through a better way. Because of how we are created, every human has the ability to build a better way to think, which results in better relationships and better decisions. Join Julie and Chuck for...

In a world filled with negativity, stress, anxiety, and hate, Positive Talk Podcast offers a voice of hope, reason, and solutions. Join us for Episode 3, where Pastor Chuck Allen gives us three steps to a more peace-filled life. In his words, "when we are at peace, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, we make good decisions and we build positive relationships."

This episode is all about REALITY. Can reality actually be our friend, and if so, how can we see into today’s garbled messages of negativity, anger, and anxiety and allow our reality to be our friend? Sometimes we tend to focus so much on the negativity that’s happening all around us that it feels overwhelming and we want to just CHECK OUT from life— and avoid reality. The challenge with that is that just because we turn a blind eye to problems both in our own hearts and the world around us, it...

This podcast is all about shedding a bit of positivity on what seems like a world that has turned ridiculously negative over the past couple of years. And, while there are real and significant challenges in our world, there is also, so much to be positive about and so many things that happen and can happen in our own lives that can make our days become filled with more good news than bad news, or overtly critical news. There is some really good news! You are both created with a negative bias, b...