family systems therapy

CHASEing Love

Today, I welcome back Chase O’Donnell. We will catch up on experiences in the dating scene. She is in her 30s and I who just dipped my toe into the 70s. Chase and I met on a spiritual retreat this summer. When I found out that she earns her living as a stand-up comedienne, I asked her to join me on the show. She eagerly agreed. As we talked about being single and dating, we began to compare the desires and challenges of a woman ready to start a family life with a post-reproductive woman. Naturally we compared the desires and challenges of men in our respective cohorts. Our surprising and mutual conclusions brought us full circle to our original connection as spiritual seekers. You know we will be laughing!

Read More »

Vance Bynum and Princess: Health and Wellness Co-preneurs

Vance and Princess have created a popular motivational health and fitness business in Cary, North Carolina… Sweat Sweet! Today we will talk about their personal journeys toward both fitness and entrepreneurship as a couple. This journey included building on personal strengths, setbacks and resilience through COVID. Their message is simple and powerful. Making change can be tough. It takes a shift in mindset and a support network of accountability. You can do hard things and the benefit will flow over into the rest of your life.

Read More »

Laurie McCants: A Life in the Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble: Be Open to Surprise, Part 2

In the second part of our interview Laurie will tells us how her community theater ensemble in a town of 10,000 expanded around the globe to Sub-Saharan Africa. Last week we opened with the story of the beginning of her lifelong career. She began by following a renowned acting coach, Alvina Krause, to her retirement home in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, with classmates from Northwestern’s MFA in Acting program. They stayed and created an ensemble theater from which Laurie recently retired as an emeritus member. Her story is one of the magical mix of vision and grit shared in the ensemble, local cultural and financial benefactors and fertile soil in a welcoming community. The innate passions and talents of the ensemble opened doors to profound exchanges with international and native cultures.
A link to an article that appeared in AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE about her retirement: https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/02/25/laurie-mccants-the-ensemble-ethic/

Read More »

Laurie McCants: A Life in the Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble: Be Open to Surprise, Part

In our interview Laurie will tell us the story of her lifelong career that began in community theater and has spanned the globe. She began by following a renowned acting coach, Alvina Krause, to her retirement home in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, with classmates from Northwestern’s MFA in Acting program. They stayed and created an ensemble theater from which Laurie recently retired as an emeritus member. Her story is one of the magical mix of vision and grit shared in the ensemble, local cultural and financial benefactors and fertile soil in a welcoming community. The innate passions and talents of the ensemble opened doors that took them to Sub-Saharan Africa and around the globe.

Read More »

Leadership: Ed Reed, NFL Hall of Famer and Bethune-Cookman College with Dr. Daryl Green

Leadership: Ed Reed, NFL Hall of Famer and Bethune-Cookman College with Dr. Daryl Green, Part 2 My guest is Dr. Daryl Green. Dr. Green is the Dickinson Chair of Business professor at Oklahoma Baptist University in Oklahoma City. After a 27 year career as a Mechanical Engineer at the Department of Energy, he pivoted to a leadership role in higher education in business management. This morning we will talk about leadership. Last week we introduced the topic of football legend Ed Reed’s dismissal from Bethune-Cookman, a HBCU Christian college in Daytona Beach, Florida. This controversial decision by this Historically Black College’s Interim President has received nationwide attention. As a Professor of Leadership in a Christian College, Dr. Green brings a unique perspective to the challenges faced by both the institutional leaders and the informal role of leadership of a celebrity athlete with students and fans. I expect a lively discussion with Dr. Green, so let’s get started! Website: https://www.okbu.edu/directory/daryl-green.html

Read More »

Pursuing Purpose in a Second Career: Creative Leadership

Pursuing Purpose in a Second Career: Creative Leadership
In today’s show, my guest is Dr. Daryl Green. Dr. Green is the Dickinson Chair of Business professor at Oklahoma Baptist University in Oklahoma City. After a 27 year career as a Mechanical Engineer at the Department of Energy, he pivoted to a leadership role in higher education in business management. This morning we will talk about his career path, Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and his passion for student learning in higher education. We also introduce a topic for next week’s show on the role of athletics in education highlighted by football legend Ed Reed’s dismissal from Bethune-Cookman, a HBCU college in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Website:
https://www.okbu.edu/directory/daryl-green.html

Read More »

Sustaining Leadership

Today, Mercy has a second conversation with her colleague and friend Leslye Kornegay. In this show we talk about Dr. Kornegay’s leadership principles. We talk about her leadership practices and how they reflect her life values, experiences and aspirations.

Dr. Kornegay is a life long learner; she is a graduate of the College of Education Doctoral program at the University of Vermont. She holds a Masters of Administration from Central Michigan University and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration/minor in Organizational Development from the University of Mount Olive. Dr. Kornegay is an Executive Director with substantial in-house experience leading organizational change. High premium on providing exceptional support services for clientele. Focus on aligning organizational goals with institutional strategic goals, mission and values.

Read More »

Seeking A Different Perspective

Mercy’s guest today is John Miller. John is a documentary photographer based in Irasburg, Vermont. His career has spanned a wide range of projects on life in northeastern Vermont, what we call the Northeast Kingdom, Italy, the West, well…anywhere he travels. Today we will be talking about the evolution of his career as an artist and his deep love for humanity. John Miller first began his photographic career for Shelburne Museum in Vermont and has since been the project photographer for seven major exhibits funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. His photographs have been exhibited nationally and have been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Village Voice Literary Supplement, Publishers Weekly, the Journal of Visual Anthropology, the Vermont History Quarterly, Yankee Magazine, Vermont Public Radio and Vermont Public Television. He has published two books – Deer Camp: Last Light in the Northeast Kingdom and Granite and Cedar. He directed and edited the exhibit and publication Voices and Faces: Portrait of a Community. Miller received his MFA degree from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. He has taught documentary photography seminars at the University of Vermont and is a retired Professor of photography and digital imaging at Northern Vermont University. He has also been a visiting artist in elementary schools in northern Vermont and at the American Academy in Rome. Recent photographic exhibits include Human/Nature (a comparative photo-documentary about humans and land and architecture in both Italy and the United States) and the 2018 traveling exhibit Dialogue with Resonance: Recent Collage – Italy.

Read More »

“Should I Break Up with My Friend?” – A System’s View of Friendship

Today, I answer a listener’s question about a troubling friendship. Friendships are an important part of our social network. They give us space from the close bonds of family. Sometimes they are embedded in our families and help us get along with each other. And for others, friends are their “families of choice”. Along with this, friendships can be as difficult to manage as relationships in the family. Today I talk about how dynamics born out of the family play out in our friendships. When and how to talk about difficult subjects. And how to decide when to let a friendship go.

Read More »