Send us a Positive Review! In this episode, Valerie shares an inspiring journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth with The Wholeness Network. The theme was Brene Brown's exploration of the concept of "Braving the Wilderness" and on the heels of three years of learning to live & love one's truth at a potentially high social cost, Val felt that she had a couple of things to say about this. This episode is a sharing of history, emotion on both ends of the spectrum and ultimately, a tale of...
Aug 11, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 349
Send us a Positive Review! In this exciting solo episode, Valerie reflects on the profound personal growth she has experienced over the past few months and shares her plans for what she is informally dubbing the "Latter Day Struggles 2.0" era. In some ways, you will continue to get what you have come to expect--a respectful & honest conversation about all things Mormon through the lens of healthy psychology. Where 2.0 is going to shine is in several upcoming "Transcending & Including Mor...
Aug 04, 2025•59 min•Ep. 353
Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Val is a guest on the Join Latter Day Digest podcast & what unfolds is the very unlikely story that led to Val's and Nathan's eventual 'outlaw' status within the LDS church. Why is this so odd? Because this couple could not have been more traditionally believing for the majority of their lives--including spending most of their marriage following all of the traditional scripts of Mormonism...which in some ways worked and in other ways didn't work tha...
Jul 28, 2025•59 min•Ep. 351
Send us a Positive Review! Missed the LIVE Q&A where Val recently answered the flood of questions that have come in on the heels of her & Nathan's brave series venturing into the realm of politics, polarization & human/cultural evolution of consciousness? In this Q&A Val takes some very challenging questions and walks you through ways in which politics & religion are reflections how people make sense of some of their ultimate concerns about themselves & others. Don't miss...
Jul 21, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 349
Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Valerie is the guest on the thought-provoking Inside Out Podcast , one of the first podcasts to interview her following the dramatic events that led up to the Hamakers' decision to resign from the LDS church rather than collude in an excommunication process that they did not endorse as ethical, legitimate, or appropriate. This episode takes you through Val's early life and path leading to her current work and delves into the challenges she faced with ch...
Jul 14, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 347
Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Val is a guest on the wonderful In Her Image Podcast to discuss the complex emotional journey of awakening to the divine feminine. They explore common emotional responses to one's realization that s/he has been estranged from half of deity for one's whole life, awakening to the power that many of us give away in allowing others to define who the Divine is, and how this journey almost always leads to the need to redefine one's relationship with the LDS c...
Jul 07, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 345
Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Valerie is interviewed by her good friends and fellow podcasters Susan Hinckley and Cynthia Wynward and the three talk about what it is like to be outspoken women in a 21st Century church that is not so sure what to do with this kind of woman. They are candid in their experiences, struggles, and insecurities as they figure out their own faith journeys somewhat in the public eye while walking with thousands of others through their own complex experiences...
Jun 30, 2025•53 min•Ep. 343
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part VIII of X] Join Val & Nathan as they respectfully lean into specific risk factors associated with formalized patriarchal religious institutions (including the LDS church) & how these vulnerabilities play out in very real ways. They also explore how our children can eventually become safer as their caregivers become educated & reach a critical mass of light &...
Jun 23, 2025•45 min•Ep. 341
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part VIIof X] In today's episode, Val & Nathan walk through the layered risk factors around spousal violence/abuse that married couples are exposed to when belonging to a formalized institutional patriarchal church. Reinforcement of male authority, inadequately trained clergy offering counseling services, isolation from external oversight/support, and tendencies to prote...
Jun 16, 2025•52 min•Ep. 339
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part V of X] In this episode Val & Nathan walk through a series of other very common communities where men-on-men violence is normalized--culminating in a discussion that shows clearly that it is not a coincidence that patriarchal structures enforce strict rules on both women & LGBTQ+ people for the same underlying reason. They will walk you through the "rules" and c...
Jun 09, 2025•48 min•Ep. 337
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part III of X] In this jaw-dropping episode (at least it was jaw-dropping for Val & Nath to prepare and produce) Val & Nathan talk about the "Female Fear Factory" which is a phrase intended to communicate the implicit rules that girls and women worldwide are taught to follow in order to be safe in this world where patriarchy is treated as a "given" that must be manag...
Jun 02, 2025•45 min•Ep. 335
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy and its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part I of X] In this opening episode of this incredibly important series, Val & Nathan offer an overview of what is to come in the episodes that follow. This series has been a labor of love for this couple who care deeply about their Latter-day Saint and surrounding loved ones and want to spread the word far and wide that all patriarchy is harmful but we live in day and ag...
May 26, 2025•30 min
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Living in a World of Hypernormalization [Part I of II] In this episode Val shares an update about how she is processing the recent events of her and Nathan's forced resignation in the face of excommunication by looking at this both as a personal issue for them but also plays with the idea that they are playing a symbolic role in a much larger narrative that is unfolding and colliding in both conservative Christian AND conservative political spaces and is ...
May 19, 2025•41 min•Ep. 331
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: The 21st Century LDS Church's Ongoing Struggle to Respond to the Realities of Faith & Trust Crisis [Part I of II] Join Val and friend, colleague and returned guest, Dr. Greg Prince as they talk about Greg's involvement in the profoundly important document "The Official Faith Crisis Report". A document that was the first of its kind, it compiled data about struggles in faith and trust that was sweeping the LDS church just after the turn of the century....
May 12, 2025•57 min•Ep. 329
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Transcending Church Rules on the PathTowards Genuine Christlike Discipleship w/Russ Hinckley Part III of IV What do you think Jesus would desire that we focus on in our worship services and within our larger lives? In these last two episodes of this series Val invites Russ to share his thoughts on his "Christ Creed", or his "rewrite" of what he thinks Jesus would want his followers to focus on. In this episode they focus their conversation on Jesus using ...
May 05, 2025•40 min•Ep. 327
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Transcending Church Rules on the Path Towards Genuine Christlike Discipleship w/Russ Hinckley Part I of IV Welcome to a beautiful series featuring guest author Russ Hinckley (who doesn't mind being referred to as Mr. Susan Hinckley of the "At Last She Said It" podcast) where Val and Russ explore his book "Beyond Belief" a radical reinterpretation of what Jesus likely would have those who gathered in his name focus on. In this episode Russ and Val riff a b...
Apr 28, 2025•38 min•Ep. 325
Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Valerie is invited to be a guest on "Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt," a podcast where she shares many experiences leading to her choice to commit her career to the psychological and spiritual healing of those connected to her own Latter-day Saint faith tradition. Val shares some personal experiences, some of her reasons for beginning and staying in this nerve wracking space, about the ups and downs of the work she does. Mostly she shares her conviction that...
Apr 21, 2025•58 min•Ep. 323
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: A Look into the Minds of Creators of The Mother Tree & Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos [Part I of II] Why is my job the very best? Because I get to sit down with two of the kindest, more brilliant and beautiful souls out there--Kathryn Sonntag and Taylor Petrey-- to facilitate a conversation about all things modern Mormon feminism, scripture, symbology, and the feminine divine. The Mother Tree: Discovering the Love and Wisdom of Our Divine Mothe...
Apr 14, 2025•57 min•Ep. 321
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: A Deep Dive into the Fascinating Cosmos Found in Taylor Petrey's Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos [Part III of IV] One definition of "queering" that Taylor uses in his book is to complicate or expand --and this episode does just that in the realm of the feminine divine. Buckle up as Taylor and Val walk through his fascinating ideas regarding what Latter Day Saints call Heavenly Mother. This episode addresses historical and current scholarship around ...
Apr 07, 2025•44 min•Ep. 319
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: A Deep Dive into the Fascinating Cosmos Found in Taylor Petrey's Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos [Part I of IV] In this episode Val and guest scholar and author Taylor Petrey set this series up by walking through the focus of Taylor's phenomenal new book, Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos. They set the stage to blow your mind in the many ways that an open-minded and close reading of scripture makes all kinds of space for a heaven packed with not...
Mar 31, 2025•35 min•Ep. 316
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Valerie & Nathan Hamaker Forced Resignation from the LDS Church [Part III of III] In this final episode detailing the tough events of Val and Nathan's last year trying to collaborate with their local priesthood leaders, they share why they chose to resign their membership instead of experiencing a disciplinary counsel. They also explore the fear that some LDS leadership experiences with mental health workers and conclude with their process of letting ...
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 315
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Valerie & Nathan Hamaker Forced Resignation from the LDS Church [Part I of III] Please join Valerie & Nathan in this tough 3-part conversation sharing the events that led to what felt to them like their forced resignation from LDS Church this past week. In today’s episode Val and Nathan walk through a timeline of a lot of painful experiences in the past eighteen months with multiple well-meaning local priesthood leaders who ultimately could not ov...
Mar 17, 2025•2 hr 10 min
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part VIII of VIII] Join Valerie in the final episode of a series exploring the beauty of community healing in the context of an LDS faith crisis. In this episode you will meet two current members of Valerie's brand new advanced content group, processing the impact of growing up in a patriarchal world and church. This group dives deeply into how each a...
Mar 14, 2025•58 min•Ep. 312
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part VII of VIII] Join Valerie and four amazing guests who get really brave speaking about their LDS faith journey as they become acquainted with the concept of true community. In this episode Val invites two women and two men to talk about the fear of joining a healing group, especially in light of negative experiences, too common in their lives, whe...
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 311
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part VI of VIII] In this Friday episode you will meet Leo, another fellow listener to the Latter Day Struggles podcast and an ongoing participant in Valerie's healing communities. Leo and Val talk about Leo's true self journey and how he has realized his estrangement from his true self and how that was closely connected to burying multiple aspects of ...
Mar 07, 2025•46 min•Ep. 310
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part IV of VIII] Join Val in this beautiful episode with guest Joy, who shares some tender elements of her faith journey which began long before joining one of the growth & processing communities. Val and Joy talk about Joy's journey finding her "true self" after realizing that the core of her selfhood could *not* be her ability to have the large ...
Feb 28, 2025•40 min•Ep. 307
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part III of VIII] In this episode, Valerie and Nathan set the stage for why those who commit themselves to Val's healing groups say that what they learn about the concept of the "true self" can be life changing. Val and Nathan talk about why this idea not only gives us access to full healing from LDS faith and trust crisis, it also offers a path to a ...
Feb 24, 2025•55 min•Ep. 307
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part II of VIII] In today's episode Val and Nathan go deeper into what they have learned about the unique healing process of faith and trust crisis connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You'll learn how our faith crisis journey might be a bit different from other religion's faith journeys and why being in a non-judgmental group...
Feb 21, 2025•54 min•Ep. 306
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Community Healing: How our Greatest Wounds & our Greatest Healing Happens through Human Relationship [Part I of VIII] The LDS faith journey is not an 'individual sport' and although some of us try, we realize that it can't really be done alone. In this episode Val and Nathan walk you through why so many of us try to walk through this "valley of the shadow" alone. We try to hide what’s happening to us due to what we've been taught about those who doubt...
Feb 17, 2025•47 min•Ep. 305
Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: The Profound Impact of Feminine Suppression on Men & their Churches [Part VII of VIII] In this episode Valerie and Nathan get personal as they share their marriage journey awakening to the impact that patriarchal influences had on their ability to connect and really grow closer as a couple and family. They candidly share VERY REAL moments of early distress and disconnection, especially the struggles that occurred before they realized the core of their...
Feb 10, 2025•44 min•Ep. 303
