After more than a year away, The Well Mind Podcast returns for Season 3 with a conversation about endurance, presence, faith, and what difficult experiences can teach us about living well.

In this episode, Dr. Ben welcomes back Emily Kratz, who first appeared on the podcast after winning the Arrowhead 135. This time, Emily returns after completing the SwissPeaks Legend: a roughly 250-mile continuous race through the Valais Alps with nearly 100,000 feet of climbing and descending.

Emily shares what it was like to travel to Switzerland alone, navigate more than five days on the course with almost no sleep, manage the mental demands of an overwhelming challenge, and find unexpected community along the way.

But this conversation goes far beyond ultrarunning.

Together they explore the importance of staying present, breaking impossible goals into manageable next steps, making peace with uncertainty, receiving help from others, finding humor in hardship, and recognizing the role of faith when life is stripped down to its essentials.

The result is a conversation about more than endurance. It is about formation and emergence through challenge, what we learn when we cannot control the outcome, and why sometimes the best way forward is simply to focus on the next aid station.

Welcome back to The Well Mind Podcast.

Episode: The Journey Continues

Guest: Emily Kratz

In this episode of the Well Mind Podcast, Dr. Ben Kohls speaks with Dr. Joshua Mears about his journey in mental health care, focusing on the integration of faith in clinical practice. They discuss the challenges and rewards of working in corrections, the importance of spiritual care in therapy, and the concept of transcendence in mental health. Dr. Mears shares insights from his experiences and emphasizes the need for a grounded approach to mental health care that honors both professional and personal values. The conversation also touches on the establishment of the Soul's Apothecary, a practice dedicated to providing Christ-centered mental health care.

Links:

Episode 5 WMP - Integrating Faith and Counseling with Dr. Mears:

https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/pyZZI3FWmTb

In this episode of The Well Mind podcast, Dr. Ben Kohls speaks with Latrina Radler, a new faculty member in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program. They discuss Latrina's journey into mental health, her formative helping experiences, including community care following Hurricane Katrina. She also shares her insights around the impact of addiction on families. The conversation emphasizes the importance of open communication in recovery and the need to address underlying issues beyond mere abstinence from substances. Latrina also shares her current reading list and plans for a couples retreat focused on communication and attachment.

Resources from Latrina's reading list:

Harlem Rhapsody

Hold Me Tight

All About Love

Surrounded By Idiots