Heart Healing Hour Podcast

In this episode, we had the privilege of talking with Dr. Jim Wilder, a clinical psychologist, theologian, author, and one of the leading voices bringing together neuroscience, attachment, Christian spiritual formation, and relational healing. Jim has more than 30 years of experience training counselors and Christian leaders around the world and is the founder and Chief Neurotheologian of Life Model Works.Jim has authored or coauthored numerous books focused on maturity, relationships, attachment, and spiritual transformation, including Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You and the book we focus on in today's episode "The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation," which he coauthored with Michel Hendricks.Listen in as Dr. Wilder and Steve talk about Heart Healing Prayer, Neurology and practical steps to take in your heart to heal and lead others towards their healing!

What happens when the pain you've been trying to push aside becomes the very place God wants to meet you?In this special guest episode of the Heart Healing Hour, Steve Fair, LMSW, sits down with Bishop Andrew Miller, LCSW—the founder and developer of HeartSync Ministry—to explore the remarkable personal journey that eventually led to the development of HeartSync.Bishop Miller shares candidly about his own brokenheartedness, the emotional pain that began surfacing during worship, and the realization that simply moving forward spiritually was not healing the wounded places of his heart. That personal search for healing eventually led him into Inner Healing Prayer and a growing understanding of the different roles or “parts” of the heart.Steve and Bishop Miller explore how HeartSync developed, why unresolved pain can remain hidden even in mature Christians, and the discovery that Function, Guardian, Emotion, and True Self are not merely features of severe brokenness but roles of the heart that can help us understand our own internal experience.Bishop Miller also shares powerful personal stories of trauma, fear, healing, and encounters with Jesus—including how an anxiety reaction before surgery unexpectedly led him back to an experience from when he was only one year old.Throughout the conversation emerges a message of hope: the painful places we discover within ourselves are not evidence that God has abandoned us. They can become invitations into deeper healing, relationship, and intimacy with Him.What if the pain coming up isn't something to run from—but an invitation from God to bring another part of your heart into His love?

What happens when Christian clinicians stop treating clinical practice and the work of the Holy Spirit as two separate worlds?In this inaugural clinician edition of the Heart Healing Hour, Steve Fair, LMSW, shares his journey from a young Christian counselor frustrated by the limitations of symptom management and coping skills to a clinician pursuing a deeper integration of psychotherapy, Inner Healing Prayer, and the work of the Holy Spirit.Steve challenges Christian counselors to examine why the clinical and spiritual worlds have so often been compartmentalized and begins exploring what it can look like to bring them together ethically, safely, and with informed consent.Through his own story and clinical experiences, Steve discusses clinician burnout, the hunger to see deeper transformation, Inner Healing Prayer, HeartSync, trauma, dissociation, and the need for clinicians to be equipped for complex cases.This episode establishes the mission of the Heart Healing Hour for Clinicians: to raise the bar on Christian mental health care and explore what can happen when trained clinicians learn to become conduits for the work of the Holy Spirit in the counseling office.

What if healing trauma begins not with correction, but with connection?In Part 2 of The Trauma-Informed Church, Steve Fair, LMSW, moves beyond simply talking about trauma and invites listeners to actually experience an Inner Healing Prayer exercise designed to help the heart slow down, connect, and experience the presence of Jesus.Steve introduces the concept of a Divine Encounter and leads listeners through an Emmanuel Prayer experience, inviting them to remember a time of gratitude, peace, joy, or closeness with God while becoming aware of what they are seeing, hearing, sensing, and experiencing.Steve then returns to the neuroscience and spiritual principles behind becoming a trauma-informed Church. Trauma can leave the nervous system feeling unsafe, making it difficult to simply reason, correct, or disciple someone out of their reactions. Jesus demonstrates another way: relationship, attunement, compassion, safety, and connection.Through examples from Scripture, Steve shows how Jesus connected before He corrected. He wept with grieving people. He called the suffering woman “daughter.” He shared breakfast with Peter after Peter denied Him.What if our churches, ministries, families, and relationships learned to do the same?Before correction—connection. Before trying to change behavior—attunement. And before telling someone what Jesus wants them to know—what if we helped them encounter Him for themselves?

What if some of the behaviors Christians are trying to correct are actually pointing us toward places of unresolved trauma and pain?In this episode of the Heart Healing Hour, Steve Fair, LMSW, explores what it could mean for the Church to become truly trauma-informed—not simply by adopting clinical language, but by learning to recognize pain, understand the nervous system, respond with compassion, and invite Jesus into the wounded places of the heart.Using the memorable illustration of hitting an injured thumb with a hammer, Steve explains why trauma can leave us reactive long after the original experience is over. He explores how trauma affects the brain and nervous system, why people can become triggered by seemingly small events, and why reasoning, correction, or behavior modification alone may not reach a heart that is still in an activated state.Steve also challenges familiar Christian responses such as “just give it to God,” “everything happens for a reason,” “don't be so sensitive,” and “God won't give you more than you can handle.” While often well-intended, these responses can inadvertently minimize pain rather than helping someone encounter Jesus within it.What if the Church learned to look beneath the behavior, attune to the pain, and become a place where wounded hearts experience compassion, connection, and genuine heart healing?It's time to become a trauma-informed Church.

What if there is more available to us than simply learning to cope with depression, anxiety, trauma, relational pain, and the wounds of our past?In this inaugural episode of the Heart Healing Hour, Steve Fair, LMSW—Christian counselor, ordained minister, author, and Assistant Director of HeartSync Ministries—shares his personal journey from traditional Christian counseling into the world of Inner Healing Prayer.Steve explores what it means to move beyond heart coping toward genuine heart healing by inviting Jesus into the roots and origins of our pain. Through his own powerful childhood healing encounter and the story of a transformational moment in his clinical office, Steve illustrates what can happen when we stop simply managing symptoms and begin opening the wounded places of our hearts to the presence of Jesus.You'll discover why there may be places in your heart that still lack peace, how unresolved experiences can continue to affect present relationships and emotions, and how learning to recognize and encounter Jesus can become part of a daily walk of healing, connection, and transformation.There’s got to be more than coping. Welcome to the Heart Healing Hour.