by Joy Steem and Matthew Steem…
Corey Hatfield was born and raised in Colorado. She and her college sweetheart, Arin, have been married for twenty-five years and are the proud parents of five grown children, one of whom is autistic. Through many turbulent, overwhelming years of parenting, Corey encountered beauty to be the great healer of trauma and now feels passionate about sharing her journey with fellow strugglers. Rather than viewing suffering as a curse, she believes it to be a gift, capable of opening humanity to deeper levels of healing and growth. She and her husband now live on eighty peaceful acres in the Wet Mountains of southwestern Colorado. She also has just recently released her book The Light from a Thousand Wounds: A Mother's Memoir of Finding Beauty in Life's Darkest Moments—a read we’d highly recommend! You can learn more about Corey at www.coreyhatfield.com
When Corey Hatfield describes parenting her son Grayson, she jokes that she could use a bumper sticker: “All I really needed to know in life, I learned from autism.” Behind the humor is a story marked by screaming nights, medical misdiagnoses, shattered assumptions—and an unexpected encounter with beauty. In this conversation, Corey, an Orthodox Christian, writer, and mother of five, reflects on raising an autistic son, walking through a traumatic brain injury with another child, and finding a theology of suffering that helped in providing real and lasting healing. Along the way, she invites churches to trade projects for relationships, solutions for presence, and easy answers for genuine compassion. Ultimately, her story offers not a set of tips for “fixing” autism, but a deeper way of seeing God, ourselves, and one another.…
Traci Neal is a neurodivergent poet, spoken word artist, and advocate living in Columbia, South Carolina…
Disability is often discussed in the language of fixing, healing, or accommodation. But what if the deeper Christian calling is not to correct difference, but to receive it?…
What spiritual direction offers a distracted church hungry for depth…
How do humility and empathy shape lasting community in polarized times?…
What might wonder, gratitude, and joy teach us about genuine mental health?…
A Conversation with Psychologist & Best-Selling Author Jeannie E. Celestial
Many from marginalized communities suffer from the mental health impacts of oppression and discrimination. Dr. Jeannie Celestial, co-author of Clinical Interventions for Internalized Oppression, shares her discoveries about possibilities for healing, particularly among women of color, through the lens of mental health practices and Christian faith. In this, Dr. Celestial explores the role of "food as medicine," which richly informs The Filipino Instant Pot Cookbook, her culinary offering that has sold worldwide.
Dr. Celestial is a licensed clinical psychologist, currently serving in the San Francisco Unified School District through RAMS, a large social services agency in the Bay Area. She has over two decades of experience in healing and transformational practices. She employs EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing), Brainspotting, CBT, ACT, and other modalities in her work. Dr. Celestial earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University, with emphases in Clinical Neuropsychology and Meditation and Psychology.…
Karen González is a speaker, writer, storyteller, and immigrant advocate who herself immigrated from Guatemala as a child. Karen is a former public school teacher and attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where she studied theology and missiology. For the last 17 years, she has been a non-profit professional. She wrote a book about her own immigration story and some of the immigrants found in the Bible: The God Who Sees: Immigrants, The Bible, and the Journey to Belong (Herald Press, May 2019). Karen’s second book is Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in our Christian Response to Immigration (Brazos Press, October 2022). She also has bylines in Sojourners, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and others.
In this interview, Karen digs into the concept of hospitality (which can be subversive!), where traditional boundaries are challenged by bringing together people from all walks of life—immigrants, students, the unhoused, and community members—as equals. Through real-life examples, the conversation explores the discomfort and growth that arise when we share space with those we might not otherwise encounter. Karen highlights the power of genuine hospitality to break down social barriers, foster mutual respect, and create inclusive communities where everyone is valued. Ultimately, Karen’s books and this conversation point to the need to reimagine hospitality as a radical, transformative act that centers dignity and equality for all.…
Lacey talks about what it truly means to be hospitable—moving beyond traditional expectations of hosting…