The Allender Center

09/03/2025

“Every time we discover something more about the intricacies of the world, it is meant to disrupt and reform our grasp of reality and expand our understanding of the heart of our Creator God. It is an invitation from him to ask, seek, and knock. In other words, an invitation to explore.”
-Becky Allender, MA

08/29/2025

What does it take to thrive in our relationships—not just survive—and how can the Enneagram help us along the way?

In today's episode of The Allender Center Podcast, Rachael Clinton Chen sits down with Christa Hardin, founder of Enneagram + Marriage and author of “The Enneagram in Marriage: Your Guide to Thriving Together in Your Unique Pairing.”

Christa brings years of wisdom from her own relationship, plus her expertise as a marriage coach and therapist, to offer a hopeful, honest perspective on why personality awareness matters—but why it’s never the whole story.

🎧Listen to "Enneagram and Marriage" with Christa Hardin, out today on the Allender Center Podcast. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts, or stream each episode and get show notes at:

What does it take to thrive in our relationships—not just survive—and how can the Enneagram help us along the way? In this episode of The...

08/26/2025

“Working with my shame has been allowing myself to feel well with being vulnerable, to own that, oh, this hurts, and that I’m not superwoman, I’m actually human, and it is profoundly holy to be human.”
-Linda Royster, LCMHC

08/22/2025

Spiritual abuse can shatter trust—not only in people and institutions, but sometimes even in God. It can leave survivors wondering if healing or belonging is possible on the other side of betrayal.
In this conversation, Rachael Clinton Chen is joined by Brian Lee, founder of Broken to Beloved. Brian shares his story of growing up as a pastor’s kid, becoming a pastor himself, and eventually facing the reality of spiritual abuse in his own life. Out of that painful journey, he has learned the daily work of reminding himself—and others—that no matter what has been taken, we are still beloved.

This fall, we hope you’ll join Brian, Rachael, and a host of other speakers at the Broken to Beloved Gathering in Richmond, VA, this October 10-11, 2025. Tickets are available at: www.brokentobeloved.org/gatheringinterest

🎧Tune in to "Moving From Broken to Beloved" with Brian Lee today on the Allender Center Podcast. You can find us anywhere you listen to podcasts, or stream each episode, get transcripts, and full show notes at: https://theallendercenter.org/2025/08/moving-from-broken-to-beloved-with-brian-lee/

Spiritual abuse can shatter trust—not only in people and institutions, but sometimes even in God. It can leave survivors wondering if healing or belonging is...

08/20/2025

Happiest of birthdays to our very own Dan Allender! 🥳

From teaching and storytelling to his love of laughter and play, Dan has brought so much life to our community.

Drop a 🎉 in the comments to help us celebrate him today!

08/20/2025

Join us Nov. 7–9, 2025, for the Story Workshop for Racial Trauma & Healing—an immersive, online experience for Black, Indigenous, Latino/a, and Asian/Pacific Islander participants seeking a sacred space to engage stories of identity, harm, and resilience through the lens of racial trauma.

The wounds of racism are real—woven into our bodies, our families, and our stories. Healing begins when we tell the truth. When we name our experiences. When we share our stories in community.

Over three days, you’ll experience:
✨ Live teaching from Linda Royster, Wendell Moss, and the Allender Center team
✨ Small story groups led by facilitators trained in Narrative Focused Trauma Care®
✨ Guided reflection to help you connect, grieve, and move toward healing

We want this workshop to be accessible to all who’d like to participate. Need-based scholarships are available to self-select at registration, payment plans are available, and early bird pricing saves you $100 when you register by Friday, Sept. 5.

🔗 To register, visit: https://theallendercenter.org/offerings/workshops/story-workshop-racial-trauma-healing/

If this workshop isn’t for you, we’d be grateful if you shared this with communities who may be interested.

08/18/2025

To honor who you were is not to excuse harm, but to hold both grief and kindness for the story that shaped you... That’s where redemption begins.

08/15/2025

What does it look like to stand with a community through fire—both literal and systemic?

In this week's conversation on the Allender Center Podcast, Rev. Dr. Marcos Canales and Rev. Dr. Robert Chao Romero join Rachael Clinton Chen to share their experiences leading and loving the Latino community in the Los Angeles area, especially during recent times of crisis.

From homes lost and families displaced by devastating wildfires this year to the crushing weight of recent unjust immigration policies that threaten daily survival, these realities are urgent and relentless.

Amid these challenges, they share how they create space for lament, fierce hope, and necessary rest in their lives as leaders. They show what it means to bear witness with empathy, stand in true solidarity, and nurture resilience when the world feels like it’s falling apart. Beyond politics, agendas, and policies, their witness points to a deeper hope in Jesus—one that sustains, heals, and empowers communities to keep moving forward.

We invite you to listen, learn, and be moved by their wisdom—shaped by personal and communal healing.

🎧 You can hear "Being a Faithful Witness in Harrowing Times" with Rev. Dr. Marcos Canales & Rev. Dr. Robert Chao Romero this week on the Allender Center Podcast. Find us wherever you listen to your podcasts, or stream each episode and get transcripts and complete show notes at:

What does it look like to stand with a community through fire—both literal and systemic? In this conversation, Rev. Marcos Canales and Dr. Robert Chao...

08/13/2025

“Just as telling our individual stories is crucial for growth and healing, telling our collective, cultural stories is the only way we can move forward honestly.”
- Wendell Moss, LMHC

08/08/2025

What if the secret to more connected parenting isn’t about getting everything right — but about showing up enough to make things right when you don’t?

In this week’s episode of the Allender Center Podcast, Rachael Clinton Chen talks with Eli Harwood, aka Attachment Nerd — licensed therapist, award-winning author, and one of Instagram’s most trusted voices on attachment and parenting.

They dive into how our own attachment stories shape the way we relate to our kids, why being “good enough” really is enough, and how creating space for repair and consistency beats striving for perfection every time.

Whether you’re navigating the younger years, parenting teens, or unpacking your own childhood experiences, this conversation offers hope, grounding, and a fresh perspective.

🎧 Check out "Raising Securely Attached Kids" with Eli Harwood this week on the Allender Center Podcast. You can find us anywhere you listen to podcasts, or stream each episode and find the transcript at:

What if the secret to more connected parenting isn’t about getting everything right — but about showing up enough to make things right when you...

08/01/2025

This week, Rachael Clinton Chen and guest co-host Wendell Moss sit down with Dr. Jamie Eaddy. Dr. Jamie is a thanatologist, which is a professional who studies and provides support related to death, dying, bereavement, and grief. She is also a grief and death doula, a healer, and the founder of The Ratchet Grief Project®. Jamie’s work centers especially on the Black community and other marginalized groups whose grief is often overlooked or dismissed. She invites us to see grief not as a private burden or spiritual failing, but as a sacred, communal, and even political process.

Together, they name the systems that make it hard for us to grieve—particularly in communities shaped by Christian triumphalism, generational survival strategies, systemic racism, and the pressure to “keep going” at all costs.

Dr. Jamie challenges death-dealing theologies that shame us for being human and normalize suffering as something deserved or redemptive. Instead, she offers a vision of a God who grows with us, who is expansive, and who longs for us to be fully alive.

This episode is a call to reclaim grief as part of what it means to be human—and to reimagine our faith, our communities, and our systems to reflect that truth. If you’re longing for permission to pause, to feel, and to be held in the midst of loss, we hope this conversation will meet you right where you are.

🎧 We invite you to listen to "Trauma, Grief, and Disrupting Death-Dealing Systems with Dr. Jamie Eaddy" on the Allender Center Podcast. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts, or stream each episode on our website.

Dr. Jamie Eaddy challenges death-dealing theologies that shame us for being human and normalize suffering as something deserved or redemptive. Instead, she offers a vision of a God who grows with us, who is expansive, and who longs for us to be fully alive.

07/21/2025

Rather than longing to restart or try again on moments of struggle, it’s important to understand the lessons we take from those moments instead. We can thank those moments for teaching us new things about ourselves and the world, and use them to create a better self moving forward.

Regret has a way of turning inward—scraping at our wounds, replaying our mistakes, trying to punish ourselves into wholeness. But no amount of self-inflicted suffering can undo what’s been done.

The invitation is not to go back for a do-over—but to be remade.