Tethered

James Dickerson, Andy Jenkins

5.0 (1)
Mental Health
Updated Weekly

The things we're tied to really matter. Sometimes "success" and healing is a matter of being lassoed to the right people, the right places... and even the right dog.

4d ago

8 | Wherever You Go, There You Are (The Two Kathies, part 1)

A year-long “rehab tour” provided James with something he didn’t have when he left: An education in drugs, manipulation, and how the wrong crowd operates. And before long, he put some of it to use. In this episode of Tethered, James continues the story of The Two Kathies— his mother, Kathy, and the woman who became an important part of their family. 👇 By high school, James says and a group of friends had built what amounted to a teenage crime syndicate: burglaries, stolen vehicles, guns, a fence to move stolen property, and enough money to make them feel untouchable. The Two Kathies eventually realized something had to change. So they moved him out of San Antonio. But there was one problem: You can change locations without changing what’s happening inside you. ⭐️ Dallas brought a new school, a job in a rough pawn shop, different people… …and eventually the very drug use James had been falsely labeled for years earlier. This episode is about environment, influence, labels, and the things that slowly become “normal.” Because when chaos is the water you’ve always lived in, sometimes you don’t recognize it as chaos at all. And healing begins when you finally see there may be another way. ___________________ 📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 📳 The Adverse Childhood Experiences Assessment = www.GY6.online/ACE 🎙️GY6 live events = www.GY6.online/events
Aug 31

7 | Hell's Angels and Other Kinds of Rescue

As a kid, James gets beaten up by another boy living in an apartment complex filled with Hell’s Angels. His four-foot-something redheaded mother finds out… … marches straight into the middle of the bikers… … pounds on the door… … and confronts the boy’s mother. 🐾 What follows is an unexpected lesson in courage, respect, protection, and the strange ways people can become connected. But that story opens the door to something much deeper. James talks about being placed in a group home, the abuse he experienced there, his mother’s own recovery from alcoholism, and the year of his teenage life spent moving through treatment centers for an addiction he says he never actually had. 👇 The more nobody believed him, the more James learned how to tell them exactly what they expected to hear. And along the way, he received an education he never needed. ⭐️ Sometimes the solution to one problem becomes the beginning of another. This episode explores what happens when we manage symptoms without ever reaching the root—and why real healing requires going deeper… ___________________ 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH
Aug 24

6 | The past explains it (even though it doesn’t excuse it)

The story of trauma and chaos and confusion didn’t begin with the military, service dogs, or the battlefield. It began much earlier. With a teenage mother… A broken marriage… An abusive stepfather… Constant military moves… And a childhood where chaos became normal. In this episode of Tethered, we go back to the beginning and meet Kathy—James’ mother—and Uncle Lloyd, two people carrying enormous amounts of trauma of their own. (Nope, their stories didn’t start with the *first moment of trauma either.) 👇 James recounts the violence inside his home, the years of alcoholism and abuse, and the way those experiences shaped his understanding of anger, survival, trust, and family. Then the story takes an even darker turn. After Kathy suffers a brutal attack, her life begins to unravel. James is temporarily placed outside the home, and Uncle Lloyd— a Coast Guard veteran carrying his own unresolved trauma— steps into the story in a way James would never forget. ⭐️ But this episode isn’t simply about what happened. It’s about why people become who they become. Disorder. Decision. Drive. Trauma. Environment. Responsibility. Survival. Sometimes the better question isn’t, “What’s wrong with you?” Sometimes it’s: “What happened to you… and what are you still carrying?” ❤️‍🩹 Or, to ask it another way… Do we have compounding chaos or do we have compounding order…? ___________________ 📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 📳 The Adverse Childhood Experiences Assessment = www.GY6.online/ACE 🎙️GY6 live events = www.GY6.online/events
Aug 17

5 | Crashing Into Grace (The Wreck)

Things break. Sometimes it’s people, other times it’s place, and in other moments it’s situations. The thing is, well… Restoration doesn’t always look like a “precise return” to what we once had. Many times, grace moves us forward to EVEN BETTER, but (and this is the tension) a move forward doesn’t always erase the pain of the past. 💔 James and Andy talk about the infamous time the mobile home became untethered from the semi that was pulling it AND THEN made it’s way down the interstate towards the Tundra + RV that were parked way off the side of the road… And, they dialogue about the chaos and confusion created in that moment, as well as what occurred afterwards. In fact, in a real sense, they— and YOU— are walking through the aftermath of that moment… 🛻 ___________________ 📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 📳 The Adverse Childhood Experiences Assessment = www.GY6.online/ACE 📺 Watch Michelle Hoffman’s Emmy-award winning video about James = www.GY6.online/blog/james 📺 The short video describing the difference between PTSD and Moral Injury = www.GY6.online/blog/which 📺 The video about “restoration doesn’t always mean return” = www.GY6.online/blog/restoration 🎙️GY6 live events = www.GY6.online/events 💻 Soul Wholeness Video course, on-demand = www.GY6.online/SWV
Aug 10

Bonus | The Waterfall of Grace

We jump all the way ahead in the story and talk about Grace, James’ baby girl. At one point while doing the story capture for the upcoming book, he told me a story about Grace. ‼️ But then I wondered, “Is this REALLY our story to share here, OR is it something that we need to just set aside and let her share later— if she ever wants to…?” Well, providentially, James and Grace were rolling through town again— all the way from San Antonio to Atlanta, which led them straight through Birmingham. “Hey, I think Grace will talk to you on that microphone,” James said… By then, the first episode of the podcast had released. Grace knew there wouldn’t be any shenanigans or sucker-punches… just people telling stories about overcoming, and then making observations along the way to empower others to move forward… ⭐️ Grace not only filled in the gaps on the story James told (and gave us her blessing to share it), she ALSO talked more about family dynamics and what little girls want from their dads— especially military and first-responder type dads. But it probably applies to all of us. ❤️‍🩹 ___________________ 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james ‼️ Learn more about accumulated trauma = short video at https://www.gy6.online/blog/accumulated Video explaining the difference in PTSD and Moral Injury = https://www.gy6.online/blog/which ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH
Aug 3

4 | Accumulated Trauma & Compounding Chaos (Billy Dayoc)

Life sometimes hands us big knockout punches. The big blows that put you on that mat. Sometimes. Yes, a some of the trauma we encounter is like a TKO. It knocks the breathe out of you and places you on the ground, leaving you struggling to get back up… 🥊 But other trauma is the small stuff that accumulates… … if “big T” trauma is the equivalent of a single knockout punch, then this “little t” stuff is the equivalent of, well… stepping in poop as you walk through a Texas cow field on a hot summer day. It sticks to your shoes and you brush it off, until you don’t… … or until you can’t. … and each step in it makes walking forward more difficult… … and makes it MORE likely that you’ll step into even more… … and before long the small stuff accelerates and is so much larger than you imagined. … and, of course, everyone smells every everywhere you go— even LOONGG after you’ve left the field where you acquired the poo. 💩💩💩💩💩 And then there’s the layer of adverse childhood experiences, and all the things that CAN be picked up throughout life, things that just seem “normal” when there is no other grid for normal— expect for the compounding chaos that you just know as “life.” People can only carry so much. We don’t come with an unlimited capacity to carry grief and stress and pain and pressure and the effects of guilt and shame and sin. We weren’t designed for it. We were created for paradise with a perfectly good God. But that’s NOT what we’re experiencing this side of heaven… 💥 And that leads us to the story of Billy Dayoc… .. and the observation that the military CAN BE a massively impactful chapter of someone’s life… … as can the other things experienced while serving / adjacent to serving / before serving / after serving / etc… … but it’s just one chapter. Not to minimize it, but… 🪖🪖🪖🪖🪖 There are so many other factors that happen in life that we need to address… ___________________ 📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 📳 The Adverse Childhood Experiences Assessment = www.GY6.online/ACE 📺 Watch Michelle Hoffman’s Emmy-award winning video about James = www.GY6.online/blog/james 📺 The short video describing the difference between PTSD and Moral Injury = www.GY6.online/blog/which 📺 Video with all of the suicide stats Andy mentions in this episode = https://www.gy6.online/blog/suicide 📺The video on accumulated trauma = https://www.gy6.online/blog/accumulated 🎙️GY6 live events = www.GY6.online/events
Jul 27

3 | Dogs (and People) Don’t Train Alone

Look back at every pivotal moment in your life, and the transition probably has more to do with a relationship than a raw decision. This means that each time you “leveled up” and achieved something, there were probably other people you were connected to… … and each time you, well, took a plunge into a different direction, there were probably others involved there, too. 🔗 For sure, this doesn’t invalidate our victories nor does it diminish our responsibility for bad choices… but, it does highlight something central to the human condition: we are relational. We rarely succeed alone. We rarely “mess up” alone. And when it comes to trauma… well, people rarely heal alone. ❤️‍🩹 Again, most of the data suggests we need RELATIONSHIPS in order to full walk out of the pains of our past and into our truest, highest potential. Sometimes, those relationships begin with dogs… … because neither dogs NOR people reach peak performance on their own. 🐶 https://www.gy6.online/podcasts/tethered/episodes/2149234174 ___________________ 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james 📺 Watch Michelle Hoffman’s Emmy-award winning video about James = www.GY6.online/blog/james ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH
Jul 20

2 | Weak is the new strong (Angel and Alex, part 2)

There’s something powerful about story… … especially stories we encounter in real time with actual people… 💥 … which is what James and Alex encountered along the way to pick pick up Angel… 🐾 Ancient rabbis believed that each time a story of redemption was told, the retelling of the story carried the exact same power and imparted the same possibilities to those who heard it as the person who lived the story actually experienced. In other words, you find yourself wrapped in that same power of the past again in the present. Perhaps you’ve experienced it— — You hear of a miraculous healing and sense faith rising — You hear of a restarted relationship and sense yours can mend — You hear of a financial breakthrough and sense hope for your situation — You hear of another person facing Post Traumatic Stress, Moral Injury, Suicide… and you sense you can push forward too… ⭐️ Again… There’s something STRONG about story. Especially the “overcoming” version that’s transparent about the obstacles and failures encountered along the way. Revelation 12 says that we overcome by two things— the blood of Jesus AND the power of your story (see Revelation 12:11). That is, we overcome by— — That past work that Jesus has already done 2,000 years ago, and — The ongoing work of declaring what He’s doing in our lives right now. When we share the stories— when you share your story of overcoming— peoplein midst of their valley sense there might be a way forward. 🛻 This is one of the reasons we find so many instructions throughout the Bible to talk about the stories of God’s past provision. For instance, — God told the Children of Israel to continually talk about how they were redeemed from slavery and walked through the Red Sea (see Exodus 12). — He reminded each generation to tell the next generation the stories of breakthrough and blessing, including all of those which happened during their lifetime as well as those leading up to it (see Psalm 145:4). — The Children of Israel even created monuments to elicit questions and conversations, so they could retell the stories (i.e., Joshua 4:21-22). Each time a story was told— and retold— of how God interrupted a catastrophe and ignited hope, the same power was unleashed again. 🛻 Our prayer is that this story is one of those moments for you. ___________________ 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james 💥 Learn more about the difference between PTSD and Moral Injury, 12-minute video = https://www.gy6.online/blog/which ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com
Jul 13

1 | I need a favor (Angel and Alex, part 1)

Several years ago, James Dickerson decided to “go public” with all the service dog project he was doing… … and it happened ABOUT the same time that Eno, a combat veteran who had lost just about everything and was rebuilding, inquired about a dog. 🐾 His request wasn’t one James could generally fulfill, yet a twist of Providence entered the picture and the problem was solved. That led to a road trip to go get the dog… Which led to inviting Alex (another veteran who rarely left his house due to PTSD and other issues) to take the road trip with him… Which led to all kinds of interactions along the way. 🛻 En route, James entered a new chapter— something previously “tucked and locked” behind closed doors… … as did Alex… … as did a whole lot of others in the wake of it all. 👇 And that’s the subject of this talk, which all began with “I need a favor” stacked upon “I need a favor” heaped upon “I need a favor” pounced upon “I need a favor,” too. ⭐️ Buckle up, and ride along… ___________________ 📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james 💥 Learn more about the difference between PTSD and Moral Injury, 12-minute video = https://www.gy6.online/blog/which 🐾 Rhea County Animal Shelter, mentioned in this episode = https://www.facebook.com/rheacountyanimalshelter/ ⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com

9 Episodes

The things we're tied to really matter. Sometimes "success" and healing is a matter of being lassoed to the right people, the right places... and even the right dog.

Creator

James Dickerson, Andy Jenkins
Years Active

2026
Episodes

9
Rating

Explicit
Show Website

Tethered