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For people interested in digging deeply into their stories and better understanding themselves and the unwanted behaviors that plague them, few people have been as helpful as Jay Stringer.

In 2018, Jay's book Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing invited readers to a new approach to unwanted sexual behaviors: one that begins by "listening to our lust." Jay encouraged readers to see their struggles as a roadmap to past harms and current hinderances to freedom.

Now he's released his second book, Desire: The Longings Inside Us and the New Science of How We Love, Heal, and Grow. Moving beyond the singular experience of sexual struggles, Desire offers a critically important opportunity to better understand the core longings created in every person. To see desire as good, part of how we reflect the image of God. To be curious about our experiences with desire - how it's been encouraged, discouraged, or even prohibited. Through better understanding our relationship to desire, we can live more fully the lives we were created to live.

This conversation was too good to abbreviate, so we split it into two parts... the second half will be available Tuesday, March 10.

Jay lives in New York City with his wife Heather and their children.

#jaystringer #unwanted #desire #storywork #sexuality #masculinity #counseling #coaching #gospel #sexualaddiction #sexaddiction #awaken #awakenrecovery #awakenpodcast #whatwereallywant #wwrw #grace #connection #conversation

Jay's website

Jay's books (Amazon)

Holistic Desire website

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"Send us a message! (questions, feedback, etc.)"

Virtually any person of faith who has done work to understand their sexual story over the past several years has heard of JAY STRINGER. Jay is the author of the best-selling book Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing. With over 100,000 copies sold, many people have come to better understand how their stories impact their current struggles.

Jay has a new book, Desire: The Longings Inside Us and the New Science of How We Love, Heal, and Grow, available Tuesday, March 3rd. We're celebrating launch day with Part 1 of our conversation about the new book, and the much broader conversation of how we understand and bless our God-given desires.

Episode 60 | Jay Stringer: Listen to the Voice of Desire, part 1 will be available Tuesday, March 3rd, with part 2 available one week later!

#jaystringer #unwanted #desire #storywork #therapy #healing #addiction #trauma #vulnerability #recovery #grace #gospel #transformation

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"Send us a message! (questions, feedback, etc.)"

Does a focus on acknowledging trauma and providing safety create more resilient or fragile people? That question is at the heart of many charged discussions about therapy and trauma work. Virtually every contemporary therapeutic modality recognizes the impact trauma has on our current struggles. But many people feel it's too much focus, and that the result is people who can't handle anything difficult and who call "trauma" on everything that's hard in life.

Chuck DeGroat has a lot to say about this. He has been a pastor, and is currently a therapist, author, and seminary professor (Western Theological Seminary) who specializes in pastoral & leadership health, abuse & trauma, and navigating spiritual & emotional obstacles on the faith journey.

Chuck is the author of multiple books, including When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse and
Healing What’s Within: Coming Home to Yourself and to God When You’re Weary, Wounded, and Wandering. He also authors a Substack page (Sit With Chuck), and a recent post is the subject of most of our conversation.

Chuck lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife. They have two grown daughters.

#chuckdegroat #sitwithchuck #connection #counseling #spirituality #growth #change #therapy #healing #trauma #narcissism #sexuality #addiction #betrayaltrauma #recovery #grace #gospel #transformation

Chuck's personal page

Sit With Chuck (Substack page, see "Safety and Suffering" posted 1/22/26)

Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Western Seminary

Support the show

Awaken website
Roots Retreat Men's Intensive
Roots Retreat Women's Workshop
Awaken Men & Women's support meeting info (including virtual)