Send us Fan Mail

Parenting is one of the most meaningful — and challenging — responsibilities we will ever have. In this episode, Alexa Riemenschneider joins us for an honest and practical conversation from a therapist’s perspective on raising healthy, connected kids in today’s world.

Together, we explore how parents can improve communication, strengthen emotional connection, and approach discipline in a way that guides rather than controls. Alexa shares insight into balancing emotional and logical parenting, helping children develop responsibility and resilience while maintaining trust and safety within the relationship.

This episode also tackles the difficult reality that parents cannot control every outcome in their child’s life — but they can create an environment that fosters wisdom, security, and growth.

Whether you are parenting young children, teenagers, or navigating difficult family dynamics, this conversation offers practical tools, encouragement, and a healthier framework for leading your family with intentionality and grace.

Topics include:
• Emotional vs. logical parenting
• Healthy communication with kids
• Discipline that builds connection
• Emotional regulation for parents
• Guiding children without controlling outcomes
• Building trust and resilience in the family

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, reactive, or unsure how to parent through difficult moments, this episode will encourage and equip you.

A 4-day, in-person program designed for ministry leaders, individuals, and couples seeking a more specialized and focused experience.

The assessment and therapy process utilizes robust psychological testing and intensive outpatient counseling to provide mental health support for challenges, including burnout, grief, moral failure, relationship conflict, anxiety, depression, and trauma.

https://emerge.org/intensives/

Mental Health Therapists... Apply today at emerge.org/careers and join us in the battle to help people find freedom and rest...

Emerge.org - "You Don't Have to Walk Alone"

Support the show

Contact Us:

• Email the show: experience@emerge.org
• Emerge.org
• facebook.com/EmergeCounselingMinistries

Thank you for listening, sharing, and praying for our podcast!

Support the ExEm podcast by clicking here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/882700/support

Send us Fan Mail

Samantha Vitarella joins the podcast to share a deeply personal story of loss, redemption, grief, faith, and the sustaining grace of God through unimaginable hardship. From growing up in a broken home marked by abuse and alcoholism, to becoming a teenage mother, Samantha opens up about the moments that shaped her life and ultimately drew her back to Christ.

In this powerful conversation, Samantha reflects on losing her father at a young age, navigating years away from God, the heartbreak of miscarriage and medical trauma with her children, the devastating loss of her mother and brother, and the painful season that nearly destroyed her marriage. She also vulnerably shares about the sudden death of her husband from a heart attack at just 42 years old and what it has looked like to walk through grief while helping her children process their own loss.

Yet through every chapter, Samantha points back to the unwavering faithfulness of God. This episode is not simply a story about suffering — it is a testimony of redemption, endurance, healing, and hope in Christ through life’s darkest valleys.

This conversation will encourage anyone walking through grief, betrayal, loss, unanswered questions, or difficult seasons to remember that God is still present, still good, and still writing the story.

A 4-day, in-person program designed for ministry leaders, individuals, and couples seeking a more specialized and focused experience.

The assessment and therapy process utilizes robust psychological testing and intensive outpatient counseling to provide mental health support for challenges, including burnout, grief, moral failure, relationship conflict, anxiety, depression, and trauma.

https://emerge.org/intensives/

Mental Health Therapists... Apply today at emerge.org/careers and join us in the battle to help people find freedom and rest...

Emerge.org - "You Don't Have to Walk Alone"

Support the show

Contact Us:

• Email the show: experience@emerge.org
• Emerge.org
• facebook.com/EmergeCounselingMinistries

Thank you for listening, sharing, and praying for our podcast!

Support the ExEm podcast by clicking here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/882700/support

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when your child grows up and begins to walk a different path than the one you hoped for?

In this deeply honest and needed conversation, we sit down with Lori Ross to talk about the reality of parenting prodigals—especially adult children. It’s a journey marked by love, grief, questions, and often… silence. Because the truth is, there aren’t many spaces where parents can openly talk about this season without shame or fear of being misunderstood.

Together, we explore the weight parents carry:
– The fear of “what if I got it wrong?”
– The tension between setting boundaries and staying connected
– The challenge of trusting God when the story feels unfinished
– And the deep longing to see their child return

Lori brings both compassion and clarity as we unpack what it looks like to stay grounded in faith, love well without enabling, and hold onto hope—even when things feel uncertain.

If you’re walking this road, or love someone who is, this episode offers encouragement, perspective, and a reminder that you are not alone.

A 4-day, in-person program designed for ministry leaders, individuals, and couples seeking a more specialized and focused experience.

The assessment and therapy process utilizes robust psychological testing and intensive outpatient counseling to provide mental health support for challenges, including burnout, grief, moral failure, relationship conflict, anxiety, depression, and trauma.

https://emerge.org/intensives/

Mental Health Therapists... Apply today at emerge.org/careers and join us in the battle to help people find freedom and rest...

Emerge.org - "You Don't Have to Walk Alone"

Support the show

Contact Us:

• Email the show: experience@emerge.org
• Emerge.org
• facebook.com/EmergeCounselingMinistries

Thank you for listening, sharing, and praying for our podcast!

Support the ExEm podcast by clicking here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/882700/support