Hi friends,

I hope this finds each of you well! I am popping in after a very long pause on this site, with over 7 months since my last entry. (Goodness gracious…) It has been a full season with new learning curves, new schedule juggles, new adventures, and new opportunities, all while still fully focused on my research, teaching, service, inner work, and sacred time with family.

But I wanted to pop in and say hi, and I am still here… 🙂
…still humbly serving Baylor’s Garland School of Social Work as Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development.
…still gratefully navigating another year on tenure-track before submitting my final materials this summer/fall to go up for tenure & promotion.
…still running with various research projects that are near and dear to my heartbeat of serving those who serve others.
…still serving CXMH each week with my wonderful cohost, Robert Vore.
…still squeezing my two beautiful babies as often as I can and carving out valuable time to tend to my marriage (Cory & I celebrated 8 years of marriage + 14 years of being together last month!)
…still creating space for my own spiritual growth & development via retreats, daily centering prayer, lots of reading + journaling, and leaning into my 2019 word of the year: grounded.

(It’s worth noting that being off social media for Lent has been one of the greatest gifts I could have given to myself, my family, my work, and my faith journey during this season, especially to let my soul catch up in each of these areas.)

I’ve also had lots of exciting opportunities to share my research since last September and hope to offer some updates on them in the coming months, in addition to some current research projects I’m working on. One is a Templeton Foundation-funded project looking at client preferences for integrating their religion/spirituality into mental health treatment(!!) The second is a Spencer Foundation-funded project I’m about to launch regarding social work faculty views/experiences on teaching students to integrate clients’ religion/spirituality into practice. I love what I get to do, the colleagues and research teams I get to work with, and I can’t wait to share this work with you… stay tuned!

Thank you for your patience, friends, especially through this season of a new way of balancing work I love with people I love with a new (to me) take on self-care that involves lots of silence + stillness + solitude. (Each of which absolutely requires practice, as noted in the image above, but are so worth every minute spent practicing them.) I know and trust that we are all truly doing the best we can with what we have. I know I am, and I trust you are, too. 🙂

Kindly,