The Luella Jonk Show

Dr. Luella Jonk, PhD
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Relationships
  • Updated Weekly

From the therapy room of a registered psychotherapist, dating coach and solopreneur who has tirelessly attempted a 'healthy' work-life balance for 25 years, it rarely existed for me and likely does not for most business owners, entrepreneurs and executives. The truth is relationships can really suffer. I will be interviewing expert guests who are doing things right so we can all learn to mix business with pleasure. Topics will range from building better relationships, connection, dating, and how to spread more kindness and compassion towards others while doing so. Listeners, you have the right to have passion surrounding your work while maintaining passionate relationships. You can have your cake and eat it too. New episodes premiere every Tuesday.

  1. Sep 22

    Episode #110: I’m Back, And I Have Some Things to Say About Truth, Suffering, and Real Life

    I'm back. It's the third week of September and honestly, it took a little longer than I planned to get here—but I'm glad I waited until I had something worth saying. This episode is a bit of a ramble, a bit of a manifesto, and a lot of honesty. I spent the summer at the cabin, watched my brother get married for the first time in his 60s, took on some unexpected contract work, and quietly wrestled with whether I even wanted to come back to this podcast at all. What brought me back? The truth. And the growing sense that not enough people are telling it. I'll walk you through: ✅ Why I almost didn't come back—and what changed my mind✅ Why "my truth" and "your truth" isn't a thing—and why one objective truth matters more than ever ✅ What's been deeply disturbing me about how younger couples are approaching children, family, and suffering ✅ Why suffering isn't something to be avoided, medicated away, or ended—and what it actually produces in us ✅ The MAID situation that genuinely shook me (a 17-year-old ski accident victim, offered assisted suicide without her parents knowing) ✅ Why children cancelling their parents is becoming a pattern I'm seeing more and more in my therapy room ✅ What I realized about productivity, purpose, and what it means to finally get paid by the hour ✅ What you can expect from the podcast this fall—more guests, more real conversations, more truth This isn't a polished episode. There's no structure, no guest, and no water on the desk again. It's just me, getting back on here because some things need to be said out loud—and because Alison and Nancy told me they missed me. 🔔 Remember: We don't get to choose life or death—that's not in our job description as human beings. But we do get to choose how we move through suffering. And that choice changes everything. #TheLuellaJonkShow #ImBack #FallSeason #TruthMatters #ObjectiveTruth #SufferingAndLove #CatholicFaith #MAIDControversy #RealConversations #MarriageAndTruth #FaithAndSuffering #WomensWellness #RelationshipTherapy #ParentingTruth #ProductivityAndPurpose

    Episode #110: I’m Back, And I Have Some Things to Say About Truth, Suffering, and Real Life

  2. Jul 7

    Episode #109: See You in the Fall - A Honest Note Before the Summer Pause

    In this solo episode, I'm doing something a little different—and a little vulnerable. I'm pausing the podcast for the summer. And I wanted to come on here, just the two of us, and tell you why. It wasn't an easy decision. Since 2021, I've shown up weekly without fail—guests, solo episodes, newsletters, content. And I don't regret a single one. But summer in Manitoba is short, sacred, and relentless in the best possible way. The cabin, the lake, the loons, the kayak, the long days—and suddenly a six-day work week becomes four. Something had to give. I'll walk you through: ✅ Why I'm pausing—and why I think rest is part of the work ✅ What I'm doing this summer instead (including some unexpected AI writing work I'm genuinely loving) ✅ Why I'd rather show up occasionally with something worth opening than weekly with something you skip ✅ The reminder I keep coming back to: we make plans, and God laughs ✅ Why change—in seasons, in routines, in how we show up—is often exactly what we need This one is short, honest, and from the heart. No framework, no guest, no structure. Just me, a tickle in my throat, no water on the desk, and a few things I wanted to say before I go quiet for a while. 🔔 I'll be back in the fall. And if you miss me before then—my website, Instagram, and Substack are always there. Reach out. I love hearing from you.

    Episode #109: See You in the Fall - A Honest Note Before the Summer Pause

  3. Jun 30

    Episode #108: Stephanie Moore on Fuel vs. Nourishment - What Women Are Getting Wrong About Health

    In this conversation with Stephanie Moore—clinical nutritionist, health coach, and author with over 35 years of integrative practice—we're going deep into the gut microbiome, and why what's happening in your digestive system is quietly running the show in your brain, your mood, your resilience, and your ability to handle stress. Stephanie doesn't do simple. After careers in performing arts, remedial massage therapy, psychotherapy, and nutritional medicine, she's spent decades watching the dots connect—and the gut microbiome is where they all meet. I'll walk you through: ✅ What postbiotics are and why butyric acid may be one of the most important compounds you've never heard of ✅ How your gut microbes are literally producing the substances that keep your brain plastic, protected, and able to learn ✅ Why BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) matters more than most people realize—and how to increase it with food ✅ The three Fs of gut health: Fiber, Ferments, and Fasting—and why all three matter ✅ Why heating your kefir isn't a total loss (zombie microbes are real) ✅ The truth about protein for postmenopausal women—and why 25-30 grams at breakfast changes everything for the rest of your day ✅ Why over-exercising drives cortisol, carb cravings, and the donut you feel you deserve ✅ The difference between fueling your body and nourishing it—and why that distinction changes everything ✅ How fasting restores your body's natural hunger signals and why that's more powerful than any diet Whether you're navigating perimenopause, struggling with brain fog, confused by conflicting nutrition advice, or just tired of treating your body like a chemistry experiment—Stephanie offers 35 years of integrative wisdom distilled into something genuinely practical and deeply refreshing. 🔔 Remember: Your gut microbiome is not just about digestion. It's influencing how you experience the world, how resilient you are, and how your brain repairs itself. And you have the power to change it, meal by meal. Connect with Stephanie Moore: 🌐 https://health-in-hand.co.uk 📱 Instagram: @healthinhanduk 👔 LinkedIn: stephaniejmooreuk 📘 Facebook: Health-in-Hand

    Episode #108: Stephanie Moore on Fuel vs. Nourishment - What Women Are Getting Wrong About Health

  4. Jun 23

    Episode #107: Jillian Mariani on "The Most Important Thing About Your Supplements? What's Not in Them"

    In this conversation with Jillian Mariani—founder of Niyama Wellness and 20+ year veteran of Canada's vitamin and supplement industry—we're talking about something most women don't connect until it's already cost them: the relationship between burnout, perimenopause, and the supplements we actually need versus the chemistry experiment most of us are doing in our kitchens every morning. Jillian didn't set out to start a business. She set out to survive a season of life that nearly broke her—working 65-hour weeks, not sleeping, drowning in anxiety she didn't yet recognize as perimenopause, and swallowing handfuls of pills she believed in but couldn't sustain. What came out of that season was Niyama: clean, Canadian-made, Health Canada-approved supplements designed for busy women who actually want to feel the difference. I'll walk you through: ✅ Why what's NOT in a supplement matters just as much as what is ✅ The difference between stevia, monk fruit, and why super tasters taste everything differently ✅ How perimenopause quietly looks like anxiety, insomnia, and burnout—before you even know what's happening ✅ Why Jillian left a 23-year corporate career and what it took to start over in her late 40s ✅ The four supplements she won't travel without (and why) ✅ The real conversation about creatine for women—cognition, mood, muscle preservation, and sleep deprivation ✅ Why hitting 100 grams of protein daily matters—and how to actually do it without losing your mind ✅ How to simplify your supplement routine so you actually stick to it 🎁 Special Offer for The Luella Jonk Show listeners: Use code LUELLA15 for 15% off your first order. (Does not apply to bundles or subscriptions, which are already discounted.) Whether you're drowning in supplement guilt, navigating perimenopause without a roadmap, or quietly wondering if your exhaustion is more than just a busy life—this conversation is for you. Sometimes the most important thing you can do for your health is simplify, not add more. 🔔 Remember: You cannot out-supplement a bad diet or a bad lifestyle. But the right foundational habits—done consistently and enjoyably—can genuinely change how you feel every single day. Connect with Jillian Mariani & Niyama Wellness: 🌐 https://niyama-wellness.ca 📱 Instagram: @niyamawellnesscanada

    Episode #107: Jillian Mariani on "The Most Important Thing About Your Supplements? What's Not in Them"

  5. Jun 16

    Episode #106: Ester Munt-Brooks on The Empty Nest, Aging Parents, and Falling in Love Again

    In this conversation with Esther Munt-Brooks—Catholic speaker, sacred scripture scholar, and wife of happiness researcher Arthur Brooks—we're doing something a little different. No formal topic, no structured agenda. Just two women catching up on life, faith, marriage, and what it actually looks like to love well in the later seasons of life. And somehow, in that relaxed space, we covered everything that matters. Esther shares what it was like to care for her mother in her final years in Barcelona—and why those weeks of service became some of the most joyful of her life. She talks about finally studying for her master's degree after her children left home, the moment she stopped trying to change her husband and started getting curious about him instead, and why she believes the most dangerous thing we can do is wait too long to think seriously about love, marriage, and family. I'll walk you through: ✅ Why caring for an aging parent can be one of the greatest gifts—for both of you ✅ The moment Esther stopped trying to change Arthur and started studying him instead ✅ Why you cannot love what you don't know—and what happens when curiosity replaces control ✅ How wounded warriors at Walter Reed brought Esther back to her faith ✅ What she told a school of young women about love, career, and the danger of waiting too long ✅ Why doing something hard together—not traveling or retiring—is what actually unites a couple after the kids leave ✅ The difference between mothering and smothering (and why fathers need space to parent differently) ✅ Why marrying younger makes purification easier—and what that says about growth in marriage Whether you're in the thick of raising children, navigating the empty nest, caring for aging parents, or wondering what the next season of your marriage is supposed to look like—this conversation will feel like coffee with a wise friend who's already been there. 🔔 Remember: You cannot love what you don't know. And when we stop being curious about our spouse, we stop falling in love. Curiosity is not just a virtue—it's the engine of a lasting marriage. Connect with Esther Munt-Brooks: 🌐 https://fevaloryalegria.org 📱 Instagram: @faithwithjoytalks Previous episodes with Esther: 🎙️ Episode #93: Ester Munt-Brooks on Why Loving Well Is the Hardest — and Only — Thing That Brings You Peace 🎙️ Episode #70: Katy Faust, Carrie Gress & Ester Munt-Brooks on Reclaiming Masculine and Feminine Design 🎙️ Episode #49: Ester Munt-Brooks on Finding Truth Through Faith in Everyday Life

    Episode #106: Ester Munt-Brooks on The Empty Nest, Aging Parents, and Falling in Love Again

  6. Jun 9

    Episode #105: Dr. Richard Dixey on Pre-Conscious Awareness: The Science Behind Every Marital Conflict

    In this conversation with Dr. Richard Dixey—Oxford-educated scientist, Buddhist scholar, and founder of a London Stock Exchange-listed biotechnology company—we're diving into something that quietly underlies every conflict, every resentment, and every misunderstanding in marriage: the fact that we are never actually experiencing reality. We're experiencing a map of it. And that map is coloured entirely by us. Dr. Dixey doesn't just theorize about this. He's spent decades studying the science of pre-conscious awareness—the 400 milliseconds between what happens and what we think happened—and what it means for how we relate to ourselves, our spouses, and the world around us. I'll walk you through: ✅ Why you and your spouse are literally living in different worlds—and why that's not a communication problem, it's a mapmaking problem ✅ The 400-millisecond gap where all your judgments, resentments, and predictions are born—before you even know it ✅ Why controlling your emotions is already too late (emotionality is third in the sequence, not first) ✅ How pre-conscious processing shapes what we see before we're even aware we're seeing it ✅ Why mindfulness is a fruit of something deeper—and what that something is ✅ The candle technique: the simplest first step to reclaiming your attention ✅ Why stress is not a requirement of being human—it's a consequence of unconscious mapmaking ✅ How technology is exploiting our most fundamental vulnerability as a species ✅ Why the nuclear family is psychologically demanding in ways previous generations never experienced Whether you're a couple caught in the same argument on repeat, someone who can't stop predicting the worst from their spouse, or simply a person who feels chronically stressed and doesn't know why—this conversation offers something rare: a scientific explanation for why we suffer, and a practical path out of it. 🔔 Remember: You are not your narrative. Your narrative is a selection from a totality of events. And when you mistake it for reality, you react to a story instead of a person. Three minutes a day can begin to change that. Connect with Dr. Richard Dixey: 📧 richard.dixey@gmail.com 📖 Book: Three Minutes a Day: A Fourteen-Week Course to Learn Meditation and Transform Your Life Get it on Amazon 📱 App: Three Minutes Download on Google Play Download on the App Store

    Episode #105: Dr. Richard Dixey on Pre-Conscious Awareness: The Science Behind Every Marital Conflict

  7. Jun 2

    Episode #104: Purification or Incompatibility - What Is Your Marriage Really Asking of You?

    In this solo episode, I'm tackling one of the most quietly asked questions I hear in my therapy room—one that couples rarely say out loud, but almost always think: Is this marriage asking me to grow, or are we genuinely incompatible? It's a question that deserves far more honesty and far less rushing than our culture allows. And before you jump to conclusions about your marriage, I want to slow you down. I'll walk you through: ✅ Why difficulty in marriage alone doesn't tell you whether to stay or go ✅ The difference between two clashing coping mechanisms and true incompatibility ✅ How identity—the role of "the one who holds everything together"—quietly becomes the real problem ✅ Why disappointment in marriage isn't always a sign something is broken ✅ The grief nobody talks about: mourning the marriage you imagined versus the one you're actually living ✅ How men and women experience overwhelm very differently—and why both matter ✅ What purification in marriage actually looks like (and what it absolutely does not mean) ✅ The questions worth asking before making any major decision about your relationship Whether you're exhausted and wondering if you married the wrong person, silently keeping score, or just feeling like marriage turned out to be a lot harder than anyone warned you—this episode is for you. Sometimes the marriage isn't broken. Sometimes it's just revealing what was always there. 🔔 Remember: True discernment isn't born from panic or the need for quick answers. It's a process. Slow down, get honest, get curious—and ask what this season of life is actually requiring of you. Want the visual framework PDF mentioned in this episode? Navigate to the YouTube video link of this episode and leave a comment, or DM me on Instagram and I'll send it your way. Interested in the Conjugal Love Course? Find it on my website at luellajonk.com #TheLuellaJonkShow #MarriageAndPurification #IsMyMarriageOver #StayOrGo #MarriageDiscernment #ConjugalLove #MarriageTherapy #RelationshipPatterns #MarriageAndIdentity #DisappointmentInMarriage #MarriageGrief #CompatibilityVsPurification #RelationshipTruth #MarriageCounseling #WomenInMarriage

    Episode #104: Purification or Incompatibility - What Is Your Marriage Really Asking of You?

  8. May 26

    Episode #103: Fr. Branden Gordon on Mercy, Masculinity, and What Surprised Him Most About Priesthood

    In this conversation with Fr. Branden Gordon—a newly ordained Salesian priest serving at Saint Benedict Parish in Toronto—we're exploring something I rarely discuss on this show: what daily life looks like for a young priest navigating youth ministry, personal holiness, and the weight of representing Christ to everyone who walks through his door. Fr. Branden doesn't romanticize the priesthood. After ten years of formation, he's clear-eyed about the struggles—the loneliness, the humility of asking for spending money, the challenge of living charity when it's the virtue he struggles with most. But he's also honest about the gifts: the trust people place in him simply because he wears the collar, the unreal experience of consecrating his first host, and the grace God gives to live out demands he never thought he could meet. What struck me most about our conversation wasn't just his love for fitness or his ability to write a homily in three hours. It was his deep awareness of God's mercy—and his conviction that this is the message every struggling person needs to hear. I'll walk you through: ✅ How Fr. Branden went from substitute teacher to ten years of formation for the priesthood ✅ What it's like to grow up culturally Catholic but not practicing—and how grade 8 confirmation planted a seed ✅ The false versions of masculinity young men are being sold online—and what Jesus offers instead ✅ Why he struggles most with charity (the most important virtue) and how the Holy Spirit helps ✅ The image of the Sacred Heart that changed everything: our sins are droplets of water thrown into a burning furnace of God's love ✅ What surprised him most about priesthood: the level of trust people place in him before they even know him well ✅ How he uses AI as a research assistant but never a ghostwriter for homilies ✅ Why he makes physical fitness non-negotiable—and how running up hills grounds him in reality Whether you're a young person wondering what a priest's life actually looks like, a parent hoping your child stays connected to the faith, or someone wrestling with guilt and wondering if God's mercy is really big enough for you—Fr. Branden offers the kind of honest, human, hope-filled perspective that's rare to hear today. 🔔 Remember: God's mercy is greater than your sins. When we confess with repentance, it's like throwing tiny drops of water into a burning furnace of charity—they're completely evaporated and annihilated from existence. That's what God's mercy is like. Connect with Fr. Branden Gordon: 🌐 Salesians of Don Bosco: https://salesians.org 📷 Instagram: @brandengordonsdb

    Episode #103: Fr. Branden Gordon on Mercy, Masculinity, and What Surprised Him Most About Priesthood
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About

From the therapy room of a registered psychotherapist, dating coach and solopreneur who has tirelessly attempted a 'healthy' work-life balance for 25 years, it rarely existed for me and likely does not for most business owners, entrepreneurs and executives. The truth is relationships can really suffer. I will be interviewing expert guests who are doing things right so we can all learn to mix business with pleasure. Topics will range from building better relationships, connection, dating, and how to spread more kindness and compassion towards others while doing so. Listeners, you have the right to have passion surrounding your work while maintaining passionate relationships. You can have your cake and eat it too. New episodes premiere every Tuesday.

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Luella Jonk, PhD
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    241
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    The Luella Jonk Show

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