GoHealth Podcast Guild of Health and St Raphael

What is going on in our brain when we experience pain? Are emotional, mental and physical pain the same? Is it all in our heads after all? In this episode of the GoHealth podcast we take a deep dive into the topic of pain, what it is and how to live with it, with Professor Amy Wachholtz.

Prof Amy Wachholtz is an Associate Professor in psychology at the university of Colorado where she is the director of health psychology. 

She specializes in talking a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach in identifying ways to improve pain management including in palliative care, acute medical care, chronic pain and addiction. 

She is a psychologist who doesn’t just sit in the university but has a license to prescibe, working with patients in care, including those with cancer, chronic pain and at end of life. She is also holds a masters in divinity and has worked as a chaplain.  

Gillian and Amy cover:


How Amy got into the field of pain research.
What is pain?
Why we sometimes don't feel pain even when injured in some way.
The relationship between physical, emotional and mental types of pain.
The need for a holistic and integrated approach to main management.
How faith influences living with pain.
The Ken Pargament Model of the role of religion in pain tolerance.
How church can help people living with pain.
Being empowered to live with pain.

Links:

Find out more about Amy's work a the Wachholtz Lab

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We can't think of a better way to draw our series on burnout to a conclusion by talking to Jonathan Malesic - he literally wrote the book on how to end burnout. 'The End of Burnout' was an Amazon best book in 2022 and is being translated into 9 languages - this is an episode many people need to hear!

Jonathan Malesic is an essayist, journalist, and scholar whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Washington Post, America, Commonweal, Notre Dame Magazine, The Hedgehog Review, The Point, Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere. His work has been recognized as notable in Best American Essays (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) and Best American Food Writing (2020) and has received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology (2019). He has been the recipient of major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Louisville Institute. His first book, Secret Faith in the Public Square, won a ForeWord INDIES gold medal for the religion category (2009). His newest book, The End of Burnout, was named a Best Book of 2022 by Amazon and the Next Big Idea Club. It is being translated into nine languages. He lives in Dallas, Texas. Image credit: Sarah Wall.

In this episode, Gillian Străine, CEO of GoHealth explores the following with Jonathan: 





What drove him to write The End of Burnout'  
The gap between our expectation of work, and the reality – cause it’s in the gap that the trouble happens!
How Christian theology is both a cause and cure of burnout.
How to working well is about remembering what it means to be human.
The spiritual discipline of 'getting over it'.
The importance of challenging the system as a means to end burnout.  
Dwelling in dignity and divinity.
What Advent has to teach us about the end of burnout.

Links:

Jonathan's website: https://jonmalesic.com
The End of Burnout - or available wherever you get your books.
Jonathan also mentioned '4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman' also available wherever you get your books.
Visit our website to get connected with the GoHealth Community.

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What if every day ended with a sense of satisfaction and contentment, whatever our circumstances? Could Day Crafting be a culture changing antidote to burn out? Gillian Straine explores these possibilities and more with our guest, the brilliant Bruce Stanley.  

Bruce Stanley has a long history of creative endeavours. He is currently the Innovation and Product Lead for HeartEdge. In his 20s, he ran away from the circus to get involved in even more creative things – he is a specialist in positive psychology, design and innovation and personal and spiritual development. Ten years ago, he pioneered the Forest Church movement. These days, he is focused on a new methodology called Day Crafting. He's written five workbooks on the topic and is training NHS workers in the UK, circus performers in Sweden and busy leaders in organisations in the US, Canada and Australia. He is usually found with his wife Sara somewhere on a beautiful hill farm in the Cambrian mountains, where they're growing a permaculture forest garden and blending their own wild and herbal teas to sell to locavores. 
  
Gillian explores a number of questions and themes with Bruce including: 


What is Day Crafting? 
What problems does Day Crafting address, and what doesn’t it address?  
The potential and meaning of ‘Crafting’ in the title? 
What is the neuroscience behind it all? 
Does Day Crafting help prevent / recovery from burn out? 
Is Day Crafting only valuable at the individual level or does it influence community life as well? 
Can Day Crafting heal the world? 


Links: 
Day Crafting 
VIA Strengths Model 
Join the GoHealth Community 

Where do you go when you kiss the concrete? As part of our Burn Like Stars series Gillian talks with Sarah Horsman, Warden of the Sheldon Community in Devon. A place of refuge and recuperation for many when life in ministry gets tricky.

Together they explore:


All about Sheldon – What is it, what does it do, where is it and what it was set up. 
How Sarah observes burn out at Sheldon
Sarah describes her own experience of burn out or her face hitting the concrete
They explore the present day factors leading to burn out.
The consider what theologies are at work leading to burn out. 
Sarah shares some great tips for what helps and how we can avoid being singed out right now.

Links:
Sheldon retreat: https://www.sheldonretreat.com
Sheldon Hub for clergy support and wellbeing: https://www.sheldonhub.org
GoHealth Community: https://gohealth.org.uk/gohealth-community/

Gillian talks with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang about his book Rest. He is a Silicon Valley-based consultant and writer. Their conversation explores:


Alex introduces his new book 'Work less, do more.'
He describes his curiosity about creativity that led him to write Rest. 
His research led him to uncover the processes that a number of exceptional creative people used - including the importance of Rest.
How do you make the kind of contribution that you want in the world or without burning yourself out?
They talk about the skill of rest.
What's going on in your brain and the rest of you body, when you rest?
Is burn out just the trade off for doing a good job?
Work as a calling and identity.
Where the word workaholic came from.
Explore causes of clergy burn out.
The most durable solution to burn out.
Anti-burn out practices.
A theology of work and rest.
The one thing Alex recommends you do in order to flourish.



Join the Burn Like Stars series

Alex's books.

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Can faith and science share a healed and healing relationship? Gillian shares a fascinating and insightful conversation with Davinder and Matthew Gardner, directors of The Faith Experiment project. This episode is well worth a listen, whatever your relationship is with science, or faith.

Davinder currently works as a Clinical Scientist, performing tests and planning radiotherapy treatments. Achieving registration as a Clinical Scientist in 2014, Matthew became a phototherapy physics lead. He also specialised in diagnostic radiology, as well as radiation protection applied to radiology and radiotherapy. 

Show notes: 


How the Gardners came to faith. 
Relationship between faith and science. Evidence thresholds. 
Matthew's journey of removing barriers to faith 
Davinder's experience of mental ill health in her coming to faith.  
How intellectual arguments were no longer enough 
Their awareness of how their work in science is healing  
Exciting polystyrene person formulas!
The faith experiment – accessible apologetics 
Two reasons for the workshops - to affirm and educate Christians and show sceptics that you can connect science and faith 
They share stories of encouraging feedback from the workshops. 
The workshops create a safe space for people to ask questions 
Tips to flourish – it's OK to doubt/ faith can deepen/better able to help others/ love God with all our mind. Follow the questions.  

Links:
The Faith Experiment
ECLAS
Join the GoHealth Community

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