Really important work. Embarrassed that the church leaders you had treated you so poorly.

I have only listened to one episode, #313 Not Willing to be Burned at the Stake Center, and have never been involved in any of their programs. So I write as a member of the LDS church, but as a fairly objective outsider. 1. I have no doubt they have helped people. 2. There were major red flags that came up for me concerning the Hamakers and their motivations as they spoke of their membership council. It is my opinion that church leaders don’t hold membership councils for silly reasons. We will never have the other side of the story, because it is confidential, so tread lightly with who you trust without having the other account. 3. Hyrum Page thought he was receiving revelation from God as well. But God Himself corrected that assumption in D&C 28. The Hamakers may very well believe they are on the Lord’s errand, but it doesn’t necessarily make it so. And it doesn’t mean they aren’t doing good. 4. It feels to me that the Hamakers are putting their trust in the teachings of their profession over the Church. That is absolutely their prerogative, but I don’t believe it’s the only option the way they make it out to be. And I don’t think it is a breech of integrity if you play different roles in different situations. We all do that every day. 5. It feels to me that the Hamakers are on the defensive. It doesn’t FEEL that they are coming entirely from pure love. I’m sure many of their fans will flood the reviews with 5 star opinions, I just wanted to offer another viewpoint, for anyone who is feeling that something is off.

This podcast has helped my mixed faith marriage and my own faith journey as a member.

Such an incredible podcast for anyone on a faith journey. Will forever be endlessly grateful for Valerie and her husband for their vulnerability, expertise, bravery, and love.💞 THANK YOU BOTH for your work!!!!

I was going through a lot of cognitive dissonance and you helped me begin to resolve it. Thank you :)

I have been through a long faith crisis/transition and this podcast has helped me more than anything else to process the religious trauma I’ve been through. I went from feeling depressed and sometimes suicidal to feeling like I can move forward with hope for the future with a strong community and lots of love in my life. Thank you so much for your work and sacrifice, Valerie and Nathan.

I am so sorry for what you have had to endure lately. You have my support. Because of your podcast I went from feeling like I was almost loosing it and alone, to feeling validated and “seen”. Keep up this important work…

We have enjoyed listening to Latter Day Struggles over the past year and a half and it has been a source of comfort and strength as we’ve navigated a nuanced journey in the church. The Hamakers are offering a huge service to the community, and we need more safe spaces like this that are full of honesty, inclusion and hope. 🙏🏼

Honestly I have been on a theological sea saw for the last two years. I have ripped up my temple recommend, I have returned with humility and hope, and I find myself on a lonely journey of going back and forth between two extremes. I sit through Sunday school and wring my hands when I hear things that are so hard to grapple with, and my marriage has been the rockiest it has ever been because of this experience. The true damage of silencing voices like this podcast is that it leaves faithful people nowhere to go when they find themselves in this crisis of faith, except for dark corners of the internet that lead slowly to lack of belief in God altogether. I know this because I’ve lived it. Please don’t let the decisions of a few imperfect men deter you from doing this important work. I honestly pray for a day when there is a class or curriculum offered in ever stake and area of the church to help people navigate their difficult questions that come up, because they do come up and the answer cannot be just shove it down till it goes away, or you do.

A space for those on the outside to feel loved and heard!

This is helped me realize the nature of God more than anything that he loves us unconditionally. There is no transaction between an unconditionally, loving God thank you to Valerie and Nathan for all the work that you do . You helped me realize God‘s love . Sending positive energy your way at this time.

This is a tragic situation and I am so sorry!! I admire the integrity that you both have shown! I am so so sorry to see the church continue to follow far right causes: It seems leadership agrees with the current “sin of empathy” narrative that is being promoted, especially against WOMEN! It seems everything is against women right now, and it makes me glad to be in my 70s. Love and respect to you both!

Val and her work including her podcast and small groups saved my life. I found her at a time when life seemed to be crumbling around me. However her critical thinking and words of advice and counseling gave me hope to keep going. Her small group work connected me to people that are lifelong friends. I highly recommend listening to her. I will always be grateful for her hard work that she puts I to every show. More importantly I will always be grateful for her friendship and advice when I need it the most!

Conversations with my active parents can be hard. But I send them some of the episodes that resonate with me and they listen and can gain more understanding from my point of view that often mirrors Valerie’s. So grateful for the garment episode 222. It set me free.

I am so grateful for Valerie! I am learning so much in such a healthy way. Before finding this podcast, I was angry and ready to leave the church. Now, I feel validated, more at peace with my Heavenly Parents and educated enough to be able to participate in church without so many strong negative emotions overwhelming me. She is teaching me how to discern between healthy and harmful practices and mindset while staying true to myself. I have shared this podcast with family and friends. Valerie, Thank you for being honest, true and brave!

I love how you are a husband and wife team so you are coming at this podcast from two different perspectives. Listening to you both I always come away with something new to “chew” on. Thank you so much!

This is such a validating, beautiful and raw podcast. I’m so grateful to have found this show. If you’re in the painful depths of a faith expansion/transition start from the beginning! I am trying to navigate how to stay in the traditions but in a way that doesn’t ignore keeping my integrity.

While I truly appreciate what they are trying to do here, and I acknowledge that they often need to walk a fine line, it does seem to me like they claim belief and faith in the church on one hand, but when it comes to the hard issues, they err appear to err on the side of deconstruction. I admit I have only heard a few episodes, one was very helpful. But another, episode 95, left me basically thinking that their solution mixed faith marriage problems when it comes to difficult doctrine is to toss out the doctrine. I would appreciate someone actually providing tools to navigate managing belief and dealing with the challenges it presents Rather than just tossing aside the problem and ignoring it. If this was advice received in a therapy session it would be manipulative because it would drive the person to change their beliefs rather than providing tools to navigate the challenge they are faced with.

Thank you for putting words and validation to my inner workings and struggles. I too am a trauma therapist and also came to it later in life due to the indoctrination of how I should be, who I should be, and what I should do. I am still struggling to know how to have congruence between my behaviors and emotions related to the church and am hoping your support group will eventually fall on a day and time that I can join.

It seems like a cult made up of cultists. I remember Benson, Kimball, etc. what they espoused is not “bad” nor “non biblical”. This podcast seems to be looking for some rationalization to disliking the scriptures. If you like the podcast chances are you are on your way out of the church.

This podcast took me from panicked to patient as I set out on my own faith journey. I couldn’t be more grateful!

This gift this podcast gives is spiritual autonomy. Life changing. Keep it up, Val!!!!

I started listening to Valerie’s podcast a few months ago and I am so very greatful I stumbled across it! Valerie does her research and provides a safe platform for those who are having difficulties reconciling LDS beliefs and culture with their own innate true selves. I grew up very orthodox LDS and struggled with most of the difficult subjects Valerie tackles on this show…and I KNOW I am not alone in this. I have been able to focus on turning from an attitude of self judgement and guilt for my viewpoints, to one of healing and loving others where they are at! I am a RN and I have been able to show a more Christlike love and acceptance of where my largely diverse patient load are at in their lives! But most importantly, I have more peace in my soul. Thank you Valerie for your genuineness and courage to do the great work you are doing….you are truly doing inspired, great work! I am sure Mother Eve is so very proud of you!

This podcast is changing my life! I had struggled in deep confusion and feelings of doubt that my Heavenly Parents loved me, or that They were even there at all. But Valerie’s ability to confront difficult subjects in the church and explain psychological concepts, while at the same time making you feel heard and validated, loved by God, and part of a community is incredible. I’ve never felt closer to God or understood the Atonement of Christ better than I do now. What I've learned here is helping me navigate a complicated relationship with the church and has made me realize that maybe I can be the growing, changing person I am and still be a part of the LDS church. I could go on and on about how amazing this podcast is but I’ll keep it short😊Thank you Valerie for doing what you’re doing!! God bless you🙏

I’ve been listening and growing with this podcast for over a year now. I have relied on the honest, thoughtful, and insightful messages shared with love. I can’t say enough good things about this podcast and the good it has brought me and those in my circles. Valerie’s expertise as a therapist and her life long membership in the Church is amazing! She shares her passion for individual and community development. She is inspiring, hopeful, and comforting to listen and learn from. Thank you for providing so many people with extra support and understanding as we all attempt a positive relationship with self, in or out of the church community.

So grateful for this podcast coming into my life. I’ve gone through a faith stretch this last year and it’s been both incredibly heartbreaking and beautiful. This podcast has helped me dig into the issues I struggle with and give me new ways to view them. I’m thankful to have found community and education through this podcast and realize I’m not alone and it’s ok to have questions. What a relief!

As I’ve started to really take a look at my LDS faith and how I’m personally trying to begin to own my faith journey and start trusting myself, Valerie and this podcast have been immensely helpful. I can’t wait to start attending her weekly support group soon!

I am so grateful to have found the Latter-Day Struggles podcast and community. It has been such a beautiful space full of support, inclusion, and expansion. I had a spiritual awakening a few years ago when I realized that my faith approach was no longer in alignment with my values and life experiences. It was really difficult and terrifying to sit in the discomfort of deconstructing what was no longer helpful to me. I was surprised to find that on the other side of that discomfort came some of the most profound and sacred experiences of my life. I have reconstructed something even more precious and sacred to me- my own spiritual path. I feel secure in my relationship with my Heavenly Parents and Savior as well as the relationship I have with myself and others. Thank you, Valerie, for providing this safe space that supports spiritual stretching and faith expansion. It has helped me and so many others along our personal faith journeys.

Dear Valerie, I am so grateful to have found your podcast. You bring me peace in so many ways, I can’t even begin to tell you. I’ve been a member of the church for 50 years. I’ve always had so many questions about the church but have had no way to find the answers. Your podcast is a gift to me. Not only do you articulate in a way I never could what is going on inside my brain, you then answer all the questions I’ve been storing over a life time. I finally feel seen and heard by you even though you have no idea who I am. I don’t feel crazy anymore. I don’t feel ostracised anymore. I finally feel at peace with who I am and the way I think. There is a place for me, and I am truly grateful to you for making that place here in your podcast. Thank you! And also to your husband who is amazing as well. ☺️❤️

Hello! Listening to your podcast, one thought comes to mind. With love I invite you Valerie to spend time out side of USA church culture and outside of your culture of costum. I believe this will bring much needed insight to your perspective. -Sonia

The episodes about the safest were amazing. Holy smokes. You got the nail on the head when talking about shameful it is to have to have everyone sitting around crane their neck to see you not taking the sacrament. It’s painful every Sunday to have to sit in the congregation and have everyone around me watch me pass the tray on.

It’s so nice to have someone who feels the way I do about issues in our church. She gives me hope for the future.

@latterdaystrugglespodcast you are my favorite!!! The work you are doing is so healing for me! For so long I have struggled with things in the church but haven’t been able to clearly define the why behind my cringy feelings. So many times I listen to your podcasts and I’m just like “YES!!” It feels so good to know I am not alone and that my thoughts and feelings are valid. I am realizing that I carry a lot of trauma from my upbringing in the church and I am trying to deconstruct and reconstruct around it all and I appreciate so much your insight!

This sounds an awful lot like apostasy. Nope no thank you. I’ll stick to truth.

Val eloquently articulates all the soul deep struggles I have been wrestling with for years. I’ve felt incredibly seen and heard, and I’m starting to find my own words and beliefs on my personal faith expansion journey that I never felt like I had permission to do before this podcast. I am incredibly grateful for her and this podcast.

Valery doesn’t shy away from emotion or difficult discussions in the Mormon culture and with in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She brings up many current and past events that many members wrestle with as they are striving to find Christ in the everyday. Many of the people she invites on add more information and insight that can increase one’s understanding of the topic. I have found that the main goal is to help the individual heal. Personally, this podcast helps me to deconstruct negative messages and give articulation to many of the feelings and thoughts that I have been figuring out on my own. By listening, I have felt stronger in staying and making space for myself in a church that often unintentionally pushes me out.

As a current member of the church, I value Valerie’s thoughts, education, and supremely balanced call to love. I subscribe to her podcasts and can say this is the best therapy and thought-provoking content that is the best $10 I spend each month—-a great way to tithe in a thoughtful way.

This podcast is for anyone connected to the LDS church who is realizing that they don’t fit the “mold” and are starting to wonder how to let go of the mold while holding onto the beautiful parts of their faith tradition. Listen here to find connection and courage to continue on your unique faith journey.

I feel like I was guided to this podcast at a time in my life when I needed it most. I have learning, my faith, my heart, my mind have all expanded so much since I started listening. As someone who was born and raised in the LDS faith, you’ve so eloquently put into words thoughts and feelings that have been weighing heavily on my heart and mind for so long. I feel seen. I feel validated. And most of all, I don’t feel alone. Thank you for doing what you do in the beautiful way that you do it. Your podcast is a true gift. I am eternally grateful… 🤍🙏🏽

If Mormon, theology and psychology, had a baby, it would be this podcast. Valerie and her husband take a deep dive into both and help us all understand why we think the way we do and what is a healthier way to think. It is so good. You won’t be disappointed.

I love the topics and insights shared in this podcast. It validates my thinking, inspires me to be more open minded, focuses on Jesus, and recognizes ways that one can find peace being a member of the church even when church doctrine/policy/culture seems paradoxical or contradictory.

I discovered this podcast 1.5 weeks ago and I started at the beginning. I am all the way up to episode number 42. I am so grateful for the ability the hosts have demonstrated to articulate my issues, to help me feel understood, and to get me out of isolation.

This has been a lifeline for me as I’ve worked to make sense of a faith crisis that evolved into a wonderful faith expansion. I love how Valerie brings a therapist’s lens of mental and emotional health into such a vital discussion of the beauty and real problems in the LDS church. This is in my top three podcasts for people going through a faith journey. I think people who are still very mainstream in their thinking (which was me for four decades) would find this podcast very threatening and scary, so it may be too much too soon if you’re in that demographic. I especially loved the episode covering the stages of community. It helped me understand so many dynamics in our church culture and classes. Also the episode about Pres. Benson’s talk “To the Mothers in Zion” hit me deep to the core. I also feel that instead of having to make a quick, emotionally-driven decision to stay in the church or leave, this podcast has given me permission to take my time and just do what feels healthy and safe as I evolve. Thank you Valerie and Nathan for being so open and sharing your incredible insights!

This podcast has helped me develop my own sense of spiritually in so many ways. Valerie and her quest's cover the topics no one wants to acknowledge. They come from a very spiritual sense and bring human psychology into every episode. The best part is they do so in a way that is neutral. They are not persuading anyone to stay or leave the LDS church, but rather encourage individuality and meet you wherever you are with love. Thank you Valerie and all the guests for your time and dedication to this podcast!

Thank you for putting into words what I have felt so deeply. This podcast has been so extremely helpful during my faith expansion. I finally feel seen and heard. Thank you thank you!!!

Words cannot express how seen and heard I feel when I listen to this podcast. (I am a Latter-day Saint convert who participates in church.) This is a thoughtful and safe place to contemplate and confront the difficult questions and topics related to the Latter-day Saint experience. If you come from a more orthodox, dogmatic place, some of this discussion might be new or uncomfortable to you. If you are more nuanced or varied in your worldview, a lot of the topics may sound very familiar. Wherever you fall, this is an incredible place of learning and a wonderful opportunity to understand the lived experiences of church and community members.

I had been having thoughts and feelings for years that I could not put into words or even try to understand or start to attempt explanation. A friend told me about this podcast as I was getting my first tattoo and telling her about how I’d been feeling like God would totally still love me whether or not I had ink. I proceeded to tell her that I’d been feeling some type of way about the church. I started listening to this podcast and am in awe about how so many things discussed are EXACTLY what I couldn’t figure out inside myself!!!

As an adult child of God, it is helpful to have informed thoughtful faith expanding discussions regarding complex nuanced, faith and culture. This podcast gives me insight into ways to deal with difficult existential, faith based questions. I work with the youth as well as as a grandparent so I feel it is my obligation to be informed on how to gently escort loved ones through faith transitions from black-and-white and simplistic to complex and enriching. Listening to this podcast helps give me the language and pass forward in this great work.

I am quite about my faith crisis. But, I love Jesus, the ordinances, and the wild histories present in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. However, the culture we call Mormonism is dangerous. I am SO grateful for a safe place to explore evidence-based insights on topics about which I am struggling.

This podcast does a great job sharing resources for those involved in faith expansion. It also provides good awareness for others on the challenges and opportunities for those who belief in The Church of Jesus Christ on Latter Day Saints and those who struggle with it. While I don’t always agree with everything shared in this podcast, I appreciate the focus on love, compassion, and uplifting all of God’s children.