Conversations in Compassion

A Shared Passion for Smo-briety

A shared passion to be together mindfully, just feeling vulnerable in a world with others, all while the other part of us that wants to isolate and is vulnerable to any kind of substance use, nicotine, tobacco, and the way in which companies feed off of that vulnerability.

Just Like Me

An exploration of heart-centered therapy and how to hold people with great integrity while also caring for yourself.

The Revolution of Compassion

Exploring the duality of when you see the pain and suffering of another, you will either lean towards love, compassion, and understanding or you will lean towards fear and you will not want to see it anymore. We are in a community at a time when we are right in the middle of that question. I hope we resolve it towards love.

Service With a Heart

There are times I am touched by the power of love, the power of connectedness, of seeing underneath. I invite you to listen to Dani, as she has gone through the experience of loving so deeply and so well that she lost herself and is now recalibrating how to be present and still hold onto her own heart, her own self.

Finding Our North Star: The Path of Love

Start by taking 15 minutes a day and just listen deeply to another human being.

Learning the Craft

Am I being helpful? Am I helping the people I serve to move forward in their lives in a way which is meaningful to them?

There is Always Tomorrow

Following the Path

From condo to camper to backpack; one woman’s path.

Seeing Beyond

If we don’t invest in communities, especially in impoverished areas, to help people thrive, and not just survive, we won’t see much change.

Building Communities

Building places where women can take the next right step and walk a path in community with others.

Leaning Into Faith

In the face of tragedy, letting go of the need to control and surrendering to faith, to the courage to trust yourself and your community.

Wanting to Forgive, A Recovery Ally

Giving a voice to the people who are also in recovery alongside their family members and the people they love.

Abortion as a Mother's Love

A woman and mother sits with the issue of women’s reproductive health care in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

As We Are, and Reaching for the Core

Stephen checks in with his goddaughter, a now 32-year-old woman, on her journey.

Talking to Change

A change of pace for this one. Stephen is a guest of Glenn Hinds & Sebastian Kaplan on their podcast "Talking to Change". You can hear more from them here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-to-change-a-motivational-interviewing-podcast/id1395518686.

Say Goodbye and Thank You Kari

A tribute to Kari Morissette, and the path forward.

The Violence of Betrayal

A break in or even an absence of empathy and how much work it takes to recover.

Walking the Line

When grief internalizes all of the rage and anger that you grew up with and you find your own way to Spring, to quieting those personal demons and becoming who you were meant to be.

The Courage to See Me

Don't see me as a victim in this life. See me as a human, who needs love.

Finding Safety

Please Listen for the Whisper

When the cost of maintaining the facade finally becomes too overwhelming and it all comes crashing down, the whisper of our true inner self can guide us back to our authentic self.

Stitching Things Together

Substance misuse being seen and treated as a health care and mental health issue, not a criminal justice issue. More treatment centers and less incarceration.

A Time of Reflection on Men and Fathers

A Fathers’ Day conversation between two fathers who have invested much of their lives into shifting attitudes and actions to end male violence against self and others.

I See You

To catch a glimpse of someone in that moment when the real person shows through. The noise, their story fades away and the real, full human being is revealed.

Listening from the Heart

Being listened to by another sincerely and compassionately can help us believe in ourselves, and in our better nature.

Loving Well

“If you have the chance to be compassionate with somebody or to do nothing at all, I hope that you choose compassion.”

What If the Focus was on Love?

And not on the righteousness of telling them what “they” should be doing, or not doing. "They" probably don't have all of the right answers, but then neither do we, or anyone. Affording everyone the dignity of having agency over their own lives.

Never Ever Give Up

Rehabilitation and rejuvenation thanks to the grace of those who remained supportive even when it felt undeserved. Holding onto the light of compassion through years of disappointment.

Radical Self-Love, Radical Forgiveness

What if even in your worst moments, you could still love yourself and look upon your past behaviors not through the lens of shame, but accept that you were taking care of yourself in the best way that you could at the time? Could you expand and strengthen this practice by relating with others in your community not with judgment and shame but with compassion?

Finding Your Focus

In a very personal conversation, Stephen talks to his son about the challenges facing the generation coming of age today. The ability to focus on their own passions and creativity has been so exhausted by ceaseless stimulation and endless anonymous streams of ambiguous uncertainty that they often “fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way”.

They Believed In Me

Early trauma can cause fear to become our first thought because we are afraid of getting hurt again and may feel that we don’t matter. Can we find the compassion and courage to focus on the memories and voices of those who believed in us more than on our fear, and anger, and negative self-talk?

Yearning for a Voice and Empathy

A world-class athlete is struck down by injury due to an unknown genetic condition triggered early by the effects of childhood trauma. After a decade of missed diagnoses, abusive treatment, judgment, and self-doubt, she learns to harness her own tenacious determination to accept and have empathy for her body, herself, and others with struggles of their own.

Turning Shame Into Gratitude

How do we handle the shame that seems to keep derailing our own personal journey toward wellness? Every time we take a positive step forward, or sometimes even when we just contemplate taking that step, shame arises and we often retreat into our learned avoidance behavior: isolation, overeating, substance misuse, distracting ourselves with work, shopping, or other activity. Can we learn to sit with that sense of shame, share it with others, listen as they share their own? In that sha...

Please Unmute Yourself, We Want to Hear Your Voice

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the inequities experienced by many in our community. Access to the great equalizer that is public education is no longer a matter of heading down to the local school in the morning, but of technology and resources that are not always readily available to all. Even when access can be arranged, the lack of relationships fostered in the local school community can lead vulnerable students to remain silent and invisible.

Connection is the Antidote

The stories in our own head around shame can become so unbearable that it leads to avoidance; of family, of friends, of our own better self through addiction. Someone who can quietly listen to that story with empathy can allow us a path back. Exposing our vulnerable self to others and letting them do the same with us can be the hardest, but most valuable service we can perform.

Seeing Through the Cracks

Trauma, anxiety, shame. Sitting with ourselves when we couldn't imagine anyone wanting to. Sitting with someone who is in the midst of that struggle.

Broken Open

A brilliant young woman talks about the process of opening up to her own emotion life. Coming to terms with her childhood traumas, issues with alcohol, and motherhood lead her to examine her way of living and to consider breaking open to her long buried emotions.

Re-Awakening

Stephen talks with an old friend, Rodney Mashia. A Black man who grew up in the rural South in the fifties and sixties, Rodney reflects on his journey and his renewed desire to share his voice and his story.