Top Moments of 2025: Love, Sex, Intimacy, and Following Jesus
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
Release Date: 12/30/2025
What We’ve Forgotten About Following Jesus: Lessons in discipleship from the early church to today
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
What does it actually mean to follow Jesus—and what can Christians today learn from those who followed Him centuries before us? In this conversation, Dr. Gerald Sittser, professor emeritus at Whitworth University and author of Water from a Deep Well, takes us on a journey through Christian history, from the early martyrs and desert fathers to monasteries, mystics, and missionaries. We explore why early Christians developed rigorous processes for discipleship, what a Rule of Life can teach us today, and how learning to “inhabit time” through rhythms of prayer, work, silence, and stillness...
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When God Feels Far Away: Finding Hope in the Difficult Seasons
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
Have you ever experienced a season where God felt distant, your prayers felt unanswered, or your faith seemed harder than it used to be? What if those moments are not signs that something is wrong, but invitations into a deeper kind of transformation? In this episode, Dr. Carol talks with author Tish Harrison Warren about the unexpected spiritual growth that can happen in seasons of uncertainty, weariness, and longing. Tish shares from her own journey of feeling distant from God and discovering that the way God meets us often changes as we mature. She reflects on how these seasons revealed her...
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Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You Something
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
What do you do when a wave of anger, sadness, or anxiety hits? Do you shove it down and push through, or do you let it take the wheel completely? In this episode, Dr. Carol sits down with Zion and Avery Montgomery to explore the "ditch" most of us fall into when it comes to processing emotions, and why neither extreme actually serves us well. They dig into how our emotional habits are often formed in childhood; Avery shares how he learned to suppress tears and "man up," while Zion describes becoming her mother's emotional caretaker and convincing herself she didn't have needs of her own....
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From Reactive to Regulated: Rewiring the Brain for Healing
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
Do your feelings ever hijack your thoughts and behavior? In today’s episode, Dr. Carol sits down with experienced therapist Dr. Eddie Capparucci to explore one of the most overlooked skills in the healing journey: emotional self-regulation. They unpack what it really means to stay regulated as Dr. Capparucci explains how staying within the internal bandwidth of one's "window of tolerance" allows people to respond to stress and triggers without swinging into hyper-reactivity or shutting down entirely. He makes the case that regulation isn't something you simply will yourself into during a...
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Healing from Spiritual Trauma: When Church Hurt Makes Faith Feel Unsafe
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
What happens when the very things that are meant to draw you closer to God become sources of fear, anxiety, or pain? Spiritual trauma is more than disappointment with church or difficult experiences with Christians. It happens when faith becomes intertwined with trauma, leaving your nervous system physically reacting to prayer, Scripture, worship, or church as though they are unsafe. In this compassionate conversation, Dr. Carol welcomes trauma therapist Colleen Ramser to unpack what spiritual trauma really is, why it affects both body and soul, and why simplistic advice like "just pray more"...
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Belonging Without Compromise: A Journey of Faith and Same-Sex Attraction
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
In this episode, Dr. Carol sits down with Tony Scarcello to explore his deeply personal journey involving faith, sexuality, loss, and redemptions. Tony shares about growing up in conservative Pentecostalism, discovering his same-sex attraction at age 12, and the depression and substance abuse that followed. He talks candidly about his first sense of redemption at age 16, being fired from his position as a youth pastor, the complications same-sex attraction brought to his marriage, and the journey of rebuiding his life and ministry calling. This conversation looks at the biblical passages often...
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Training vs. Trying: Why Willpower Isn't Enough
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
Why do so many of us walk away from a great sermon or podcast fired up to change... only to fall back into old patterns a week later? In this episode, we explore the critical difference between trying and training—and why most spiritual growth advice sets people up to fail. This conversation continues our monthly conversation between Dr. Carol, Avery Montgomery, and Zion Montgomery as we draw on insights from the ancient practice of a "Rule of Life," and unpack what it actually looks like to build sustainable, daily habits that reshape what we love, not just what we know. What...
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The Rise of Artificial "Intimacy": Why Human Connection Still Matters
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
Artificial intelligence is changing nearly every aspect of modern life. But what happens when it begins reshaping intimacy, relationships, and human connection itself? In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Carol sits down with Michael Leahy, founder of , to discuss the rapidly growing intersection of AI, pornography, addiction, and relational health. Michael explains how AI systems are becoming more personalized, emotionally responsive, and potentially addictive—especially for young users seeking connection, comfort, or escape. The conversation also explores the alarming increase in...
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From Brokeness to Healing: Restoring Your Marriage After Betrayal
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
In this third installment of the special marriage challenges miniseries, the conversation turns to one of the most painful and complex struggles couples can face: sexual addiction, betrayal trauma, and the long road toward rebuilding intimacy. In this deeply honest conversation, Dr. Carol's guests Clinton and Charity Munoz pull back the curtain on their journey through pornography addiction and betrayal trauma and discuss what it actually took to come out the other side together. Together, they explain how healing and recovery isn't about managing behavior on the surface it's about the...
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How to Build a Blended Family That Works
Relationship Prescriptions with Dr. Carol
In this heartfelt and honest conversation, Dr. Scott and Deana Thayer share the journey that brought them together from painful divorces and personal rebuilding to creating a thriving, blended family rooted in faith, grace, and intentionality. They open up about how difficult seasons unexpectedly became part of God’s plan for their lives and how blending two families came with both beautiful moments and significant challenges. The conversation dives deep into the emotional realities of blended families, including the unexpected aspect of grief blending a family includes. Scott and...
info_outlineWhether you’re new to the podcast or want a fresh dose of encouragement, this highlight reel brings together the insights that helped people grow in intimacy with God and with each other.
And here are links to the full conversations from which the excerpts were taken for this episode:
- Overcoming Contradictions Between What You "Know" and What You Feel About Love, God, Intimacy, and Sex with Michael J. Cusick
- Knowing and Being Known: Fulfilling Your Need for Intimacy with Erin F. Moniz
- How to Find True Connection Through Courageous Authenticity with Tom Bennardo
- From Criticism to Blessing: Transforming How You Speak to Your Spouse with Ann Wilson
- More Than Behavior: What Surrendering Your Sexuality to Jesus Means with Dr. Juli Slattery
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