Melissa C. Clark

Your confidence coach and mental health expert.

Podcast

Godly Dating 101 with Tovares Grey :: [Episode 113]

Hey Friends,

We continue this week with our year-long series to live healthily and thrive in your life. Today, we are talking all about your relational health. 

If you are dating – are you not attracting the right people? Are you wondering about pursuing dating in a godly way? Then, friends, this episode is for you. Also, if you are married, there are some great nuggets of wisdom. 

Today, on the show, Melissa is talking with Tovares Grey about how to date in a Godly way and his new book, Godly Dating 101. I love this episode as we get real, honest, and practical. We talk about godly dating, what to look for in a partner, things to look for in toxic relationships, and much more! 

Tovares and Safa Grey are believers, husband and wife, and parents to two. Tovares launched the Godly Dating 101 ministry in 2012 as a single individual trying to learn how and help others to date God’s way. Tovares and his wife Safa have grown the ministry to include a top-rated podcast with more than 3.5 million downloads and a new book, Godly Dating 101. They have connected millions of individuals who desire to honor Jesus in their relationships. They currently reside in Tampa, Florida.

Listen in to learn more: 

  • How Tovares started talking about Godly dating and creating an online space for it.
  • The heart behind his book is to get us to reframe what we’ve been chasing after and to re-focus on God, not our relationship. 
  • Our relationships fail because we look to other broken people as our guides. 
  • If you know who you are called to be, then you know who you won’t settle for. 
  • Why should we continue to date our spouse after marriage, and what does that look like?
  • How do we know when it is time to leave that toxic relationship and the red flags to look for. 

RESOURCES:

Connect with Tovares and Safa Grey

Connect with Melissa

Instagram: @MelissaClarkCounseling

Website – www.melisaaclarkcounseling.com

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Together Is a Beautiful Place with Bailey T. Hurley :: [Episode 112]

Hey Friends,

As you know, we are in the middle of a year-long series helping you regain and remember healthy living patterns to help you thrive in your life. We are focusing on small, manageable steps that you can easily take to increase happiness, build better relationships, and feel stronger.

Are you lonely? Do you struggle to find the real friends you long for? No worries, friend, this episode is for you!

Today’s episode is all about building better relationships. Today, on the show, Melissa sits down with Bailey T. Hurley, everyone’s favorite community cheerleading and friendship coach. She is also the author of the new book, Together Is a Beautiful Place: Finding, Keeping, and Loving Our Friends

Bailey T. Hurley encourages women to pursue a faithful relationship with God to build fruitful friendships in their corner of the world. She has written on friendship and faith for publications like She Reads Truth, Salvation Army’s Peer Magazine, and Grit and Virtue. She also loves podcasts! You can find her chatting about friendship on Sally Clarkson’s podcast Life with Sally, Kristin Schell’s podcast At the Turquoise Table, and a dozen more.

Listen in to learn more about:

  1. Healthy “friendship rhythms” that women can start practicing now to invite better friendships into their lives.
  2. Practical ways to navigate friendships across different life stages
  3. Bailey shares advice about how to handle friendship breakups, especially with social media.

Resources:

Together is a Beautiful Place by Bailey T. Hurley 

Jon Acuff’s book – Finish 

Connect with Bailey: 

Website: baileythurley.com

Instagram: @bailey.t.hurley

Connect with Melissa

Instagram: @MelissaClarkCounseling 

Website – www.melisaaclarkcounseling.com

Check out this episode!

How to Deal with How You Feel with Dr. James Merritt :: [Episode 111]

If you’ve ever wondered why you have emotions and how to process emotions in a healthy way, this episode is for you!

In today’s episode, I sit down with Dr. James Merritt to talk about how to deal with how you feel. This episode is for you if you are struggling with identifying your emotions. We talk about identifying our emotions, biblical wisdom, and everyday reality. We also discuss how so much emotion exists in our society with road rage, political division, culture, or morality and how his book, How to Deal with How You Feel, is so relevant today.

James Merritt, Ph.D., is a bestselling author, Bible teacher, and host of the Touching Lives television program that broadcasts hope and encouragement nationwide and in 122 countries. He is the senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in the north metro Atlanta has been married to his wife, Teresa, for nearly 40 years.

Listen in to learn more about:

  • Dr. Merritt shares about his own mental health journey
  • Emotions are a part of our being, and emotions are good things.
  • Jesus battled his own emotions, including depression and discouragement.
  • Questions to ask yourself when you are going through different emotions
  • Dr. Merritt shares his thoughts on why mental health is still a taboo topic in the Church

Resources:

Pete Scazzero – Emotionally Healthy Discipleship 

Connect with Dr. James Merritt

How to Deal with How You Feel: Managing the Emotions That Make Life Unmanageable,

Website: https://www.touchinglives.org/

Connect with Melissa

Instagram: @MelissaClarkCounseling 

Website – www.melisaaclarkcounseling.com

Check out this episode!

The Effects of Shame on Our Brains :: [ Episode 110]

As you know,  all this year, we are exploring how to be healthy in all areas of your life, whether mentally, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, or physically.

Today’s episode is a different type of episode that I’ve never done before in the three years of our journey together. For today’s episodes, I’m going into the podcast arrives and pulling out one of my absolute favorite episodes – my interview with Bob Hamp and the effects of Shame on Your Brain.

Shame is a powerful emotion that has the potential to shape our lives significantly. The dictionary defines shame as “a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute.” People who experience shame tend to feel worthless, embarrassed, humiliated, and unclean. Right now, so many of us are stuck as we come out of this pandemic.

In our chat, today, Bob and I discuss the effects of shame on the brain, how it keeps us “stuck,”  and how shame rewires how our brain functions. So good!

Listen in to learn more:

  • How shame keeps us from freedom
  • How Christians are vulnerable to shame traps
  • The effect of shame on the brain

Favorite quotes:

  1. Freedom is the ability to live life as you were created to be.
  2. . Your capacity to attach to others depends on your ability to attach to yourself.
  3. Shame fears disconnection. This fear results in disconnection.

Resources:

  1. Bob Hamp
  2. TD ACAD
  3. Think Differently, Live Differently 

Connect with Melissa

Check out this episode!

The Connected Leader with Karen Joy Hardwick :: [Episode 109]

Hello Friends!

As we continue our series into being healthy in all the areas of our life, we have many things to be “healthy.” I know it can be overwhelming, but I hope you see how the different areas overlap.

You are worth it. Remember, The more you care for yourself, the more you can care for others.

In today’s episode, I am joined on the show by Karen Joy Hardwick, who is also a fellow counselor where we are talking about connection. Karen helps us to identify practices that foster connection with ourselves and others, how connection can be challenging for ourselves, and how why that connection is so important.

Do you struggle with feeling disconnected or left out? This episode is for YOU!

Karen Hardwick is a clinically and spiritually trained psychotherapist-turned-leadership coach, podcast host, and speaker. She helps others awaken, courageously lead, and unlock the power of connection in their lives and at work. As a globally recognized leadership consultant, clinically and spiritually trained psychotherapist, and believer in all-things-connection, Karen has witnessed a transformation in the lives and performance of thousands of leaders at companies like ESPN, Turner Broadcasting, UPS, Crawford and Company, KMPG, and Intercontinental Hotels Group. She lives in Montana with her son.

Listen in to learn more about :

  • What does the word, connection really mean?
  • How do we step into our God-given gifts?
  • We have to be willing to suffer for the benefit of connection.
  • Simple practices that we can do to foster connection.
  • How does connection impact our mental health and well-being?

Resources Mentioned

Connect with Karen

Connect with Melissa

Check out this episode!