The Positive Talk Podcast

The World Health Organization defines burnout as feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance, or feelings of negativism or cynicism and reduced efficiency. This means that if you’re exhausted, feel disconnected from the people and things that matter most to you, have difficulty cultivating a hopeful mindset, and aren’t operating at your best, you could be experiencing burnout. The name mirrors what happens when a flame goes out—you feel like you’ve lost your spark- you’re burnt out. 

Join Julie and Chuck for this essential and entertaining conversation on the Positive Talk Podcast.

They are unavoidable. They are frustrating. They can be terrible. But they do not have to define you; you do not have to engage in all of them.

Join Julie and Chuck as they discuss arguing without "losing it."

This week's Positive Talk Podcast is a super-practical look at a subject we all deal with - ARGUMENTS!

Join therapist and co-host Julie Homrich on this week's Positive Talk Podcast as she unpacks a revolutionary way to help parent your children through S.P.A.C.E.

S.P.A.C.E., which stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, is a new treatment method proposing a change to this model. The S.P.A.C.E. program is designed to help children feel less anxious, but the parents and caregivers participate in treatment sessions — not the kid.

This is a constructive conversation for parents struggling with anxious kids. Join Julie for this important episode.

Are you feeling buried under an avalanche of tasks, responsibilities, and commitments? Do you wake up every morning with a sense of dread and anxiety about managing everything on your plate? Overwhelm can be crippling and exhausting, but it's not a life sentence. In this week's Positive Talk Podcast, Julie and Chuck explore practical strategies for working out of overwhelm and regaining control over your time, energy, and focus.

Whether you're a busy professional juggling multiple projects or a stay-at-home parent trying to keep up with household chores, these tips will help you regain the reins and feel more empowered in your daily life. So grab a cup of coffee (or tea), and let's get started!

What do we do when we seem to remain "offended?"

The “mental ingredients” of offense we’d have to take into account in today's episode include, 

1.) The triggering event

2.) Our perception of that event (we used the term “The story I am telling myself is…”) and then,

3.) Our ability or inability to move through the anger, so it doesn’t fester into resentment.

How exactly do we do that? We’re going to discuss that today.

Join Chuck and Julie for this helpful conversation on the Positive Talk Podcast.

Why are we so offended by everything? It seems like every day; there is someone or something that we are offended by. Whether it's a political candidate, a commercial, or even a Facebook status, we can't seem to help but be offended by something.

This week’s Positive Talk Podcast will examine what makes us so offended. From examining our biases to understanding words' power and how they can affect us. But more importantly, how can we live UNOFFENDABLE.

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.

COMPASSION - True compassion requires us to, first of all, pay attention, because when we are preoccupied with our own lives, we won't enter this process. But an exciting thing happens in the brain once we notice a need or see a crisis, like at Robb Elementary School. Our distress/threat circuitry lights up. We call it "empathetic distress," where we start to feel a bit of pain for someone else. Unfortunately, many of us get stuck in empathetic distress.

Moving forward in compassion will likely cause us to act on it. Join Julie and Chuck as they discuss how we can act and react positively through compassion on the Positive Talk Podcast.

After you leave the therapist, what can you do for the other 167 hours this week? We all wonder, at times, how to effectuate change in our lives, right? What is it that helps people change thoughts, behaviors, and actions? There are several mechanisms of change, but today, we will provide insight into an efficient change process and help you move from knowledge to action. You can make considerable changes in your life as you learn to become your therapist!

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 2: HOW TO BE YOUR THERAPIST

We all deal with the anxiety and stress that comes with UNCERTAINTY. 

The question isn't if we will deal with uncertainty but how we will learn to cope, tolerate and even lean into uncertainty. Learning how to hold our predetermined assumptions and feelings about certainty and uncertainty is essential to living with greater peace and purpose. Join Chuck and Julie for an honest and positive conversation about our uncertainty. This episode is a powerful reminder of how we crave certainty as we launch season three of the POSITIVE TALK PODCAST.

In a very special episode of the Positive Talk Podcast, Julie joins Mandi Allison for a truly important conversation about how we know that it is time to seek help. Sometimes we just need more than what friends and family can offer in our mental and emotional health quest. Join Julie and Mandi as they unpack when it is time to seek professional help. We all have our "pain points" and ignoring them or numbing them will never resolve them. This week's episode is a positive look at how and when to discover real help.

When we feel like spiritual help hurts more than help, we might need to have a fresh look at a serious issue in a positive light - Spiritual bypassing can harm, hurt, and leave people traumatized for decades. Know how you can work your way through being spiritually bypassed, or even being the spiritual bypassed. Join Chuck and Julie for this important positive conversation on so many levels.

This is a challenging subject. But, as usual. Julie and Chuck offer a positive take on confronting the ugly in the next two weeks. Suppose you’ve felt like your pain was invalidated by a well-meaning person telling you to “pray harder” or insinuating you’re struggling physically or emotionally simply because you don’t have enough faith. In that case, you’ll want to tune in today and next week. The subject? SPIRITUAL BYPASSING!

We would all agree that the world seems out of sorts these days, but what can we do about it? It seems so daunting to consider what your part of our job might be as we attempt to instigate better in these turbulent days. Join Julie Homrich, LPC, and Pastor Chuck Allen for a positive conversation about what we can do to make our world a far more peace-filled place to live...together.

We all feel it, know it, and experience it—that anxious, restless feeling in our world today. There is a not-so-subtle undertone of anger and angst in almost every sector of our society, and we have a way to combat that positively. Join Julie and Chuck for this life-altering conversation as they discuss an equation that can help lead you to a more peace-filled and purposeful life!

Last week, on the Positive Talk Podcast, we discussed what happens when our kids have a meltdown. In this week's episode, Julie and Chuck unpack how we can assist our children through a meltdown and how we can parent so that each meltdown can be redeemed. If you are a parent, then you have felt the guilt of the big question - Am I failing as a parent? NO! You need a few tools to help you lead and love that allow you and your child to move forward in a more positive direction. Join Julie and Chuck for this super-helpful conversation!

If behavior is a form of communication, what are our children telling us when they have emotional meltdowns? And let's face it, every parent has been there - their child's meltdown.

Even the best of parents can’t always avoid their child having a meltdown, but we ALL can learn how to respond positively in ways that set our family up for success.  

It is possible to stay connected with your child while setting clear boundaries during a meltdown.  

Join Chuck and Julie as they discuss brain-based approaches to moving through meltdowns in a meaningful way.

The Meltdown. That time when your frustration, anger, exhaustion, and impatience collide, and you just have a complete meltdown. We’ve all had them, and it’s not pretty. In this week's episode of the Positive Talk Podcast, Julie and Chuck help us avoid more meltdowns, and positively recover from them. Because recovering from a total emotional meltdown can seem like the most impossible of tasks. But, with a little conscious thought and gentle self-care, it is possible to get back on the horse again after a meltdown. Join the conversation as Julie and Chuck merge FAITH & PSYCHOLOGY on the Positive Talk Podcast.

The life you desire to create is directly proportionate to your ability to tolerate its opposite.
The life you want is waiting for you, but it’s only going to become a reality for you if you can tolerate its opposite in the process.
Time and time again, individuals are stopped along their journey. Just because they failed once doesn’t mean their failures define them or their project will never work. It simply means, as Thomas Edison believed, they found one more way it didn’t work. But that means they are one step closer to achieving the result. FINDING A WAY THROUGH CHANGE AND PROGRESS IS ESSENTIAL TO OUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT!

The world is such a terminal state of change, and we all hate it when change is done to us.
Join Chuck and Julie as they unpack how we can move past contemplation into significant change.

The Positive Talk Podcast merges faith and psychology to help our listeners discover a more peace-filled and purposeful life!

Welcome to change! For some of us, change is what we crave. But for some, change is a trip through "ulcer gulch."

People don't always refuse change because they don't want to change. More often than not, people refuse to change because they believe they can't change.

Understanding the nature and phases of change can help us navigate our way through healthy change, with healthy mindsets. 

Join Julie and Chuck for this power-packed, two-part series on CHANGE CAN BE SO HARD!

It is difficult to wrap your head or heart around pregnancy and postpartum mood disorders. On the one hand, the world wants you to be your happiest self. On the other hand, you can feel defeated, hopeless, and often, helpless. It's not simply a mother's challenge. Men experience this in significant ways as well. Back in the day, we knew this as the "baby blues," but today, we recognize this as a tangible season of mental and emotional distress that can impact every facet of you and your family. Relationships, decisions, even the smallest of choices can become monumental efforts. But there are some positive ways out of this season. Join Julie and Chuck for this week's conversation, as they merge faith and psychology, once again on the Positive Talk Podcast.

Everywhere we turn, it feels like we are all walking on the edge of depression. With the constant instability of this ever-changing world in which we live, we could all use a positive word. If you or a loved one, maybe even an acquaintance feel like you are on the edge of depression, and need a little encouragement, join Julie Homrich, LPC for this powerful discussion.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Reach out for help:
Georgia Crisis + Access Line: 800-715-4225.  

National Suicide Prevention Hotline
800-273-8255

Let's face it, we all deal with anxiety. Some more than others, but the real question is the same for all of us. When is anxiety actually anxiety, and how do I recognize it, face it, and redeem it? Join the conversation as Julie Homrich unpacks "ANXIETY" in this week's episode of the Positive Talk Podcast.

Join Chuck and Julie for this powerful conversation about how we can take control of our own HOPE. Hope is the hardest when things are the most difficult. But that’s when we need it the most. We all have the opportunity to re-write the narrative of our story in some capacity and begin to identify ourselves in a new way. This is the fruit of hope. Join us as we learn how to answer this question, “I want to be a person who…”

Is hope something we either have or we don’t or is it possible to actually BUILD our hope?
Hope is directly related to our sense of possibility. The greater our perception of possibilities, the greater our hope. The most constricted view of possibility, of course, is hopelessness or despair.

Hope is not the same as happiness or blind optimism. It is what we feel when we think that life is worth living, that our work is worth doing. Hope is what we have when we have a positive relationship with our existence. It is the deepest of the three emotions. Happiness and optimism cannot exist without hope, but hope can exist without happiness or optimism.

Hope answers the question, “Why should I bother?”

Join Julie and Chuck as they discuss this fascinating topic of HOPE. As they do, every week, this psych-therapist and pastor faith and psychology - All for positive change. 

Unless we have a bit of HOPE that things actually can change, we may as well be constantly walking into a brick wall. Hope is what moves theory into action, hope allows us to move from “Well, maybe that worked for THEM” to “I believe this could work for ME.” 

This week is part four of a topic we all have to deal with - stress in our marriage and relationships and how to handle the resulting conflict that comes from stress. We’ve discussed many different positive approaches to conflict in relationships thus far and today, we are wrapping up our series with the topic of accepting influence. That sounds a bit daunting, but when we talk about accepting influence, we are talking about this truth from Dr.John  Gottman - "To experience a healthy, powerful relationship, you must be able to be open to influence.” What is influence? It’s the ability to receive feedback from someone. It’s learning how to be flexible as opposed to rigid in your relationships.

This week is part three of a topic we all have to deal with - stress in our relationships and how to handle the resulting conflict that comes from stress. Last week, we talked about solvable and perpetual problems and how to move past that feeling of getting “stuck” in a conflict (a term we referenced as “gridlock”). 

We also discussed how 4 things: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling are what Gottman marriage researchers say can be disastrous in a conflict. Julie, you also mentioned that some people have tried conflict resolution skills repeatedly and it seems like they just can’t seem to stay calm in conflict. In the effort to focus on moving toward a positive outcome, today let’s help our listeners understand more about those big emotions that can arise during conflict and what to do when they arise.

From emotions as messengers to rethinking how we engage in conflict, this week's episode is a real winner. Thanks for joining in the conversation!~

This week is part two of a topic we all have to deal with - stress in our marriage and relationships and how to handle the resulting conflict that comes from stress. Listening, connecting, honesty, empathy, and vulnerability are all interconnected. A key element for all relationships is trust, and trust is built through connection, listening, honesty, empathy, and vulnerability.

People don’t have strong reactions to things for no reason. There’s always something underneath the surface— it could be protective measures from past experiences, neurological wiring, or spiritual disconnection. One main way to get past gridlock is to start becoming curious rather than judgmental about our partner’s reasoning behind their strong reaction. 

Join Julie and Chuck for this encouraging discussion!

This week, Julie and Chuck tackle a topic we all have to deal with - stress in our marriage and relationships and how to handle the resulting conflict that follows. As a clinical therapist, Julie offers some practical and encouraging thoughts about the triggers that can lead to greater stress and unresolved conflict. Not only is it impossible to live a completely stress-free life, but research shows us that stress is actually a precursor to meaning.  Think about the last time you encountered something meaningful in your life…chances are, there was some kind of stressful moment or season that preceded it. What we know about stress is that our internal and external stressors feed off each other to create conflict in our relationships. Our internal stressors (or, our “triggers”) often lead to behaviors that cause external stress because of how we’ve reacted to those triggers. Likewise, our external environment and how we process it can contribute to internal stressors. A place, a subject, a word, or even a look can trigger someone to respond in a way that leads to excessive stress.

Join Chuck and Julie for this valuable discussion.

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 all want it, it’s attainable, and yet so many of us can’t seem to grab hold of true peace.

Have you ever stopped to think about the actual process of gaining peace in our hearts and minds? What does it entail? How do we do it? Let’s break down what it is and how we can actually attain it, even when there is chaos around us. What’s going on in the brain and body when we are seeking peace? As usual, Julie and Chuck will take the spiritual and the psychological truths and integrate them into a positive and encouraging word for you.

This is a simple three-point grasp on peace…regardless of your present circumstances.
1) You can discover and remain in peace.
2) Peace Is the Offspring of Trust.
3) Perfect Peace Takes Place in Spite of External Conflicts.

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 loose and turn into external expressions of rage.

Anger can shatter communication and tear apart relationships, and it ruins both the joy and health of many. Sadly, folks tend to justify their anger instead of accepting responsibility for it.

When we distance ourselves from our anger, we end up blaming others for the hurtful things we say and do out of anger, justifying it as a response to someone else’s action or inaction versus owning it as OUR chosen response. When we do this, we de-personalize our hurtful angry responses and it leads to more division and pain in the relationships around us. 

The truth is that Everyone struggles, to varying degrees, with anger.

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 discuss three ways we can begin to understand the importance of boundaries in our lives. With the holidays on the horizon, this is the perfect time to create and honor boundaries. Enjoy!

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 JULIE FOR THIS POSITIVE AND HEALTHY DISCUSSION ABOUT BUILDING HEALTHY FRIENDSHIPS.

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 Trauma? How do we create organizations and families that create loving, supportive, safe, and connected fellowships and families? The answer once again is GRACE. Join Pastor Chuck Allen for this 12-minute podcast on grace-based living.

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 faith and psychology.

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.

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 this 12-minute discussion that just might change your way of thinking!

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 doesn’t mean they disappear. In fact, in our personal lives, the more we avoid reality, the more difficult our lives become, which leads us to want to avoid reality more.

There’s a phrase for this and Carl Jung, a famous psychologist coined it. He says, “What you resist, persists.” Because we, as humans, have a deep need for control, we believe that just by resisting something we can magically make it go away. But, in reality, it’s FACING our reality that helps us take the right next step to actually make it go away (not just store it up somewhere for it to, later, come out sideways in anger or addiction or co-dependence).

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, but you are also created with the ability to overcome, to build resiliency into your life. In this week's episode, we want to share a few tried and true methods that we can all do to start combatting the negativity bias.

In a world full of anger, angst, and negativity, we all could use a healthy dose of positive talk. Join Julie Homrich, LPC and Chuck Allen for an encouraging and positive conversation about beating the negativity bias.