I hope you enjoy this rich conversation with my dear friend, Laura Deal. Laura and I talk about how listening to stories can positively impact your emotional health. We also dive into the importance of metaphor in traditional tales and what that means for healing and wholeness. And Laura shares with you ways that personal storytelling can be used to improve emotional health.

Laura is a storyteller, poet, dream reader, and laughter yoga leader. She tells traditional, personal, historical, and original stories to children and adults. She is the 2024 recipient of the J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Award. You can hear her stories on Story Story Podcast and the Apple Seed on BYU Radio, as well as her CDs, The Diffendaffer Taffy Cafe and Other Stories and Simple, Clever, and Wise. She's the author of The Newcomer's Guide to the Invisible Realm: A Journey through Dreams, Metaphor, and Imagination, andMarbles: New and Collected Poems.

Dr. Patti talks to Zeynep Biringen about the world-wide used emotional availability scale that she created. Biringen has identified four qualities of parents and two qualities of children related to emotional availability. For parents she looks for sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, and non-hostility. The two qualities in children that she looks for is child responsiveness and child involvement with parents. These six qualities make up what she describes as emotional availability (EA.)

Zeynep Biringen, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist in Colorado and Professor Emerita at Colorado State University (CSU). She conducted research on adult-child relationships at CSU for over 25 years and has trained literally thousands of professionals (researchers, mental health clinicians, and other practitioners) in the evidence-based EA System.

Inspired by her mentor Robert N. Emde’s conceptualizations of emotional availability and emotions as well as Bowlby/Ainsworth attachment theory, Biringen has spearheaded the understanding of emotional availability (EA) as a rigorous scientific assessment of adult-child relationships, developing and refining the Emotional Availability (EA) System. Encouraged by Robert N. Emde, Biringen began to train professionals in the system well over 30 years ago.

In this episode of The Inner Space Project Podcast, Dr. Patti Ashley introduces a new installment of the show focused on 'Liminal Space'. Being the state of uncertain transition, between the 'where we were' and 'where we're going,' and in the midst of everyones Beginnings, Middles, and Endings, Liminal Space is the perfect addition to Dr. Ashleys podcast structure and discussion of Inner Space.

In this first rendition, Dr. Ashley brings on her Social Media and Podcast Intern, Isabella, who is currently in a state of Liminal Space. A soon-to-be college graduate, Isabella is entering a chapter of intense change and transformation. While oftentimes a scary and stressful phase, Isabella explains her hopeful mindset and attempt to view this particular time in Liminal Space as an exciting one rather than daunting and debilitating. Dr. Ashley touches on her own, recent experience in Liminal Space moving back to Colorado, living in a rental home, and getting her new office (Niwot Therapy Collective) up and running.

The two also reflect on the first four episodes of The Inner Space Project Podcast, and share some of their favorite moments and highlights of Dr. Ashleys first few guests.