Attaching to God: Neuroscience-informed Spiritual Formation

This episode is cross-posted from Here, Not There, by Colleen Ramser, where she turns the tables and interviews me about the work we do and the upcoming Attaching to God Summit, focused on Deepening Relationships. Below are Colleen's show notes. What if the gap between what you believe about God (head) and what you feel (heart) has something to do with the way your brain learned to protect you? Geoff Holsclaw explores how attachment theory, relational neuroscience, and theology can dee...

Does security come from the outside? Or is security something we can cultivate from within as we become more and more anchored in God’s unshakable love? Geoff Holsclaw talks with therapist and psychologist of religion Dr. Allison Cook about her new book, The Secure Soul: Finding Inner Strength and Connection When Trust Doesn’t Come Easily. They talk about internal family systems (parts work), and how the soul adapts to disconnection by creating "shadows". Drawing on her own story of bel...

Mental health resources increasingly focus on the self as the antidote to psychological suffering, offering strategies for prioritizing self-care and self-esteem. Yet as people focus more on the self, their suffering may actually worsen. Clinical psychologist Joshua Knabb argues that when people focus less on the self and more on God, their mental and spiritual health may improve. Clinical psychologist and California Baptist University professor Dr. Joshua Knabb joins the Attaching to God pod...

Geoff Holsclaw welcomes Rusty McKie—spiritual director, somatic coach, pastor, author of The Art of Stability, and founder of Steadfast Ministry. In this special Father’s Day episode, Geoff and Rusty talk about how seasons of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation shape both midlife discernment and a boy’s transition into manhood. Rusty explains his burden to help fathers and sons navigate adolescence through Man School, a discipleship framework designed to form Jesus-loving men...

Geoff continues talking with regular guest David Clayton about how the Desert Fathers and Mothers understood sin as discorder (of all kinds) and how asceticism was a path toward freedom to love God and others. They discuss sin not merely as rule-breaking but as patterns that impair clear seeing, free choosing, and loving well. Asceticism is presented as training that frees the heart by reshaping habits, while emphasizing grace, mercy, and the hope to “begin again” each day. They particu...