The Corie Weathers Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Listen in for an honest update on my counseling practice, a shift in how I'm showing up for clients, and a powerful message about the stories we tell ourselves.

We will explore how internal narratives—those we silently repeat—can either dig graves in our lives or cultivate gardens. Drawing from real-life examples and relationship dynamics, we will discuss how to recognize when assumptions and inner dialogues shape mental health, marriage, and parenting, for better or worse.

You'll hear:

• How negative self-talk and assumptions sabotage relationships

• The metaphor of “stories as shovels” and how to choose narratives that bring life

• How to spot when you’re guarding your heart versus leaning into truth and connection

• How faith and radical acceptance offer a grounded path forward in hard seasons

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or just stuck in old thought patterns—this episode will meet you where you are and invite you to plant something new.

🌱 This week’s challenge: Notice the stories you're telling yourself—are you digging a garden or a grave?

Read Why I am Closing my Counseling Practice

All links: https://linktr.ee/corieweathers Work with Corie: www.corieweathers.com 1-on-1 Coaching: https://lifegiver.as.me/CorieWeathers Join me on Substack: http://SUBSTACK.COM/@CORIELPC Record Your Question/Message! https://www.speakpipe.com/CorieWeathers Music: nature / nurture by Kaitlyn Raitz

This episode explores the balance between communicating too much or too little in relationships. Learn how conflict, over-communication, and silence all play a role in marriage and leadership. Plus, Corie answers a listener’s question about how to recognize when you’re on the wrong path—whether in leadership, personal growth, or relationships—and how to pivot back toward wisdom.

Topics Covered: ✔️ Why this season has been inconsistent—and why that’s okay ✔️ The power of pausing before speaking in a noisy world ✔️ DBT’s “wise mind” approach to decision-making ✔️ How over-communication can be destructive in relationships ✔️ A listener’s question: What if I realize I’m on the wrong path? ✔️ Practical strategies for balancing communication in marriage

All links: https://linktr.ee/corieweathers Work with Corie: www.corieweathers.com 1-on-1 Coaching/Counseling: https://lifegiver.as.me/CorieWeathers Join me on Substack: http://SUBSTACK.COM/@CORIELPC Record Your Question/Message! https://www.speakpipe.com/CorieWeathers Music: nature / nurture by Kaitlyn Raitz

After hearing concerns on social media of Matt and I practicing yoga and prayerful meditation, I knew it was time to invite my dear friend Amber Mattingly, DMin to the podcast to share her story. This is a faith-based episode that addresses the biggest fears and questions around these practices.

Amber began yoga when her son was newly diagnosed with autism. She was overwhelmed, frightened for his future, worried about her marriage, and frustrated at life. At the height of this experience, she stopped sleeping for a whole year. She was not the youthful mom coming to yoga to learn handstands and complicated poses. Instead, she was the young mom barely able to make it through the day who ended up spending most of the time crying on her mat.

For her, yoga is a tool that reconnected her with her true self, strengthened connection with something greater than myself, and built relationships based on humility, compassion & radical amazement!

Amber met Pema while pursuing her Doctor of Ministry degree in Compassion based Leadership and they wondered what might happen if people from different faith traditions shared a prayer/meditation practice. Would they grow spiritually together while deepening their connection to their own faith tradition? This curiosity lead them to develop a study that included Buddhist and Christian practitioners. What we found were some hidden treasures!

Find out more about Amber: https://ambermattinglylivefree.com/

Read Amber and Pema's book: A Leap of (inter)Faith

Dr. Kendra Lowe knows the challenges service members face as she is a Veteran herself. When she switched to the civilian life Dr. Kendra was surprised to note that she experienced just as much stress as a spouse as she experienced while in the service. 

"The concepts and perspectives derived from Dr. Lowe’s decade-long research, aims to provide command teams with an operational approach to combat the mission degrading effects of military spouse stress." 

There is stress for spouse and it's significant. We know that. But what now?

Her book answers that question. 

Dr. Kendra has created a resource that walks the reader through 8 weeks of changing their thought processes. Her website states: This comprehensive and invaluable tool will help you accept the unique nature of military life, anticipate and persevere in the face of social-emotional setbacks, practice effective coping strategies, and learn to thrive on to new possibilities. Read more:

Resources:

Dr. Kendra's website

Her book titled Wake Up, Kick Ass, Repeat: A Guide to Self Perseverance Within the Military Spouse Life Cycle 

Interested in subscribing to the Lifegiver Newsletter? Subscribers get discounts on their first session with Corie and find more information on building a community of Lifegivers. Click here to subscribe. 

Want to give back?  Send a monthly cup of coffee to keep us going by being a supporter on our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/lifegiver

To the surprise of, well, everyone... kids who were in public schools are now at home facing a homeschool-like situation.  Parents are now scrambling trying to balance remote work, parenting, quarantines, and now overseeing their child's education.  If you are feeling overwhelmed, Jennifer Hamrick has words of encouragement for you. You can love your child and be a fantastic parent and still be very unhappy with this new situation.  Listen in as Jennifer shares great tips for how to manage a house full of kids and still have time for you.

Matt interviews two US Army Chaplains about how they are creatively sustaining community and care using social media and other platforms.  With the introduction of the Coronavirus, ministry teams and churches are looking to find new ways to care for each other, embrace the newest generations, and connect online rather than face to face.

Matt and I do our first live streaming episode where we talk about the impact of the virus on our community.  We specifically talk about how to handle the tension of being quarantined in your home 24/7 with your spouse and children. For our community, couples are often not used to being around each other all the time or as FR families are now facing long hours with an invisible enemy. Listen in for tips to navigate your conversations.  Here are a couple of resources we mention:

Interested in subscribing to the Lifegiver Newsletter? Subscribers get discounts on their first session with Corie and find more information on building a community of Lifegivers. Click here to subscribe. 

Want to give back?  Send a monthly cup of coffee to keep us going by being a supporter on our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/lifegiver

Join us as we take a moment to assess how we as service families are doing and what we can do to influence the change we need in our own lives.

The Blue Star Families survey results were recently released and, not surprisingly, it was noted that we are struggling in several key areas. Listen in as Corie unpacks these and provides tips on how to ask for what you need.

If you are a spouse and feel relegated to the back burner, we understand. We know that it's often where we have to go... mission first. However, you can't stay there indefinitely. Your marriage can't stay on the back burner indefinitely. In this episode Corie talks about what to do if you are struggling with the way things are.

As always, we at Lifegiver strive to encourage you give your spouse the benefit of the doubt (regardless of whether he or she is the serving or supporting spouse). Assume your spouse is trying their best, and in light of that, assume that they want what's best for you. Being assertive and asking for what you need is absolutely okay and your spouse will probably be glad not to have to read your mind.

Interested in subscribing to the Lifegiver Newsletter? Subscribers get discounts on their first session with Corie and find more information on building a community of Lifegivers. Click here to subscribe. 

Want to give back?  Send a monthly cup of coffee to keep us going by being a supporter on our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/lifegiver

Bree Carroll is an engineer using her skills as an event coordinator and wedding planner.  When Bree saw some marriages around her fail mostly due to a lack of resources to help them get through the challenges they faced.  The resources were too hard to find. Not complied. suicides  As a person of action she made the leap from spectator on the sideline to influencer, making it her mission to connect those hurting to those who have the ability to help. One of Bree's passions is wedding planning so watching marriages fall apart is counter to her very existence. 

Read more... 

Bree Carroll's resources:

Hearts and Stripes Podcast

Meet Bree

Other resources mentioned:

Come Home Project

What we discuss:

In this episode Heather shares her story about being a Registered Nurse and her introduction to the challenges military families face. Because the stress of the lifestyle affects whole family she wanted to find a way to help an organization that was caring for the family unit.

When she didn’t find one that was serving whole families she created one. Project Sanctuary hosts 6-day retreats that focus on overcoming obstacles: financial, communication, family counseling, PTSD, and more. There are ten different locations and in 2020 there are 32 retreats planned.

Two hours a day are spent in therapeutic sessions. There are incredible activities at each location including fishing, white water rafting, horseback riding, ziplining, and snowmobiling. Some of these are once-in-a-lifetime activities while other activities are able to be replicated once the family goes home (hiking or playing board games).

Licensed and trained counselors are on-site all week. Break-throughs on the part of both the veteran and the spouses occur at each retreat!

Once a family has been on the retreat they are welcome to return as volunteers.

Resources and Links: 

About Project Sanctuary

Apply to attend a retreat

PS: Jennifer here... My family was able to attend a Project Sanctuary retreat at Snow Mountain Ranch and I had two personal breakthroughs during the PTSD session. As a Chaplain's wife I figured I'd heard most of the stuff they were going to cover so the fact that I had two major breakthroughs I didn't know I needed was powerful. One is related to a minor change in my husband after deploying twice. After two tours he started bouncing his leg while sitting and it was incredibly annoying. (Still is, to be honest.) In the PTSD session the speaker mentioned that this is a common side effect of combat trauma. I constantly asked him to stop doing this. The PTSD session mentioned this was a natural and healthy way to release tension and that my asking him to stop was basically me asking him to keep that tension bottled up. The leg bouncing is still irritating but after that session I rarely ask him to stop. I see it for what it is now. 

The other breakthrough was having my own deployment-traumas validated. I didn't know that the supporting spouse could have legitimate traumas caused by deployment. I didn't face war. I didn't face danger. I didn't see death. And yet, I was changed and in some ways, the changes were strange to me. I got mad when my husband mowed the grass (it was my pet project during the 15 month deployment and he dared to touch it). I also didn't like for him to drive once he got back. I had spent the entire time taxiing the kids around and once he got back I didn't trust him behind the wheel. I had actual, physical manifestations of fear when he'd drive and he's a really good driver! Looking back I can see so clearly that both of these reactions were trauma-based but had no idea. How much easier reintegration would have been had we both known these things about ourselves and each other. 

These two breakthroughs were worth the time it took for us to drive from Texas to Colorado for our retreat but there were many other benefits and experiences that made it spectacular. It was, in a literal and figurative sense, a mountaintop experience.