Chris met Josie at an Iona Community gathering, where she was presenting some research, and immediately thought she would be a brilliant guest for this podcast because of her unique perspectives, informed by both her background and her acedemic research. In many ways, this wonderful conversations feels like a follow on from our discussions with Katie Cross on this podcast - helping us understand how communities both make and sometimes break us as we make our faith journeys. In particular, Josie's work concerns itself with the way that generative, healthy faith communities contrbute to our human resilience and flourishing. Here is a bit of an introduction to Josie.. Josie Gwin, co-founder of The Resilience Resource, is a Mental Health Coach, a Spiritual and Psychological First Aid Instructor, certified Chaplain through the International Conference of Police Chaplains, and caries various credentials in Trauma-informed crisis care. She has a masters degree from Bethel University, and is a PhD researcher investigating the intersection of faith and resilience at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Prior to co-founding The Resilience Resource, Josie Gwin served as a firefighter for 6 years, spent 18 years in the equine therapeutic industry, and has served as a crisis chaplain. She has been involved in cross-cultural and international contexts for over 35 years. She has lived and served in multiple countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Josie, along with her husband, Scott, has trained, resourced, and provided care for personnel, leaders, and teams from a variety of faith based and secular organizations, as well as firefighters and law enforcement, first responder chaplains, medical personnel and hospital chaplains, and military and special forces personnel.
