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Practicing Connection Podcast

Improve your resilience and readiness in a rapidly changing world.

Jessica Beckendorf and Bob Bertsch host this exploration of personal and collective practices that empower us to work together to help each other, our families, and our communities improve our resilience and readiness.

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Finding Your Strengths

Jessica Beckendorf tells us more about Character Strengths and guides us through a practice to help ...

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Networks for Military Family Support with Amy Rodick

Amy Rodick, Director of the DoD Office of Military Family Readiness and Policy, talks about the info...

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Holding Space for New Possibilities

In this episode, Bob Bertsch shares a practice for letting go of something in order to let something...

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Holding Space for Grief

In this episode, Kristen Jowers shares two practices to help us prepare to hold space for someone ex...

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Holding Space for Difference

In this episode, Jessica Beckendorf shares two practices for building curiosity, which is necessary ...

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Watch for Opportunities to Think Big

Jessica and Bob talk about watching for opportunities to think big - one of the eight ways of cultiv...

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Notice Offers & See Them as Gifts

Practitioner Shannon Hughes of Enlivened Studios shares "Notice Offers and See Them as Gifts" a prac...

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Make Your Partner Look Good

Practitioner Shannon Hughes of Enlivened Studios shares "Make Your Partner Look Good" a practice fro...

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Yes, And vs. Yeah, But

Practitioner Shannon Hughes of Enlivened Studios shares "Yes,and," a practice from applied improvisa...

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Share the Work (and Love)

Jessica and Bob talk about sharing the work and love - one of the eight ways of cultivating communit...

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Giving and Receiving Feedback

Discover the transformative power of feedback, the nuances of giving and receiving it, and gain insi...

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Regulating Your Emotions

An exploration of the profound impact of emotion regulation on health, well-being, and relationships...

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Determining Your Values

Learn how values shape emotions, decisions, and relationships, providing a roadmap for reduced stres...

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Empathetic Listening

Discover why empathetic listening goes beyond the basics of active listening and how it can transfor...

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An Ecosystem of Military Family Support with Nicola Winkel

A conversation about building an ecosystem of support and addressing issues upstream with Nicola Win...

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Learning From Each Other

Bob shares a practice to help us take control of our learning and begin to build a knowledge network...

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Asking Powerful Questions

Jessica shares a practice to help us engage people in the meaningful conversations we need to have i...

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Listening for Strengths and Values

Jessica talks about the listening practice, Strength Spotting, and guides us through how to do it.

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Invest Time in Leisure, Learning and Yourself

Jessica and Bob talk about investing time in leisure, in learning, and in yourself - one of the eigh...

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Share Your Work

Jessica and Bob talk about the benefits of sharing your work with others and share a practice for ge...

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Fostering Connection in Meetings

Jessica and Bob talk about why generosity is important in collaboration and share a practice for ref...

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Practicing Generosity

Jessica and Bob talk about why generosity is important in collaboration and share a practice for ref...

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Reflections on Seeking Balance

Four of our guests from this year return to share their year-end reflections on seeking balance.

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Energy & Engagement Tracking

Learn more about energy and engagement tracking, a practice to help align your life with the things ...

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Grounding Chair Meditation

Join us in a grounding chair meditation, a practice that can help reduce stress levels in the moment...

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What Lights You Up?

Learn how to use the question, "What Lights You Up?" to begin to find a sense of purpose. Research s...

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Using the Feeling Wheel to Know Your Emotions

In this practicast, Practicing Connection co-host, Jessica Beckendorf, guides us through how to use ...

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Burnout and Resilience in Service Providers

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 10) co-hosts Jessica Beckendorf and Bob Bertsch talk about burnou...

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Applying Technology to Community and Community to Technology

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 9), co-hosts Jessica Beckendorf and Bob Bertsch talk about how to...

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Starting a Food Pantry for Military Families with Monica Bassett

A conversation with Monica Bassett, founder and CEO of Stronghold Food Pantry, a resource for milita...

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Adapt, Flex and Be Resilient

Tips on about how to adapt, flex and be resilient - one of the eight ways of cultivating community r...

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Hawaii’s Food Security Collaboration for Military Families

The Food Security Hawaii Working Group is an amazing cross-sector collaboration to address food secu...

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Making Intentional and Deeper Connections

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 5), co-hosts Jessica Beckendorf and Bob Bertsch talk about making...

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Practicing Depolarization with Randy Lioz

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 4), we welcome guest Randy Lioz to talk about the challenges pola...

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Grounding Yourself in Your Strengths and Values

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 3), co-hosts Jessica Beckendorf and Bob Bertsch talk grounding yo...

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Supporting Military Families with LGBTQ+ Youth with Cathy Marcello

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 2), co-hosts Jessica Beckendorf and Bob Bertsch talk with Cathy M...

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Building Capacity in Military-connected Schools with Dr. Ron Avi Astor

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 1), Jessica Beckendorf shares highlights from her conversation wi...

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Replay of Working Out Loud

In this episode, hosts Jessica Beckendorf and Bob Bertsch explore john Stepper's Working Out Loud fr...

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Coming to Reflection “On Slant”

In this episode, we share the year-end reflections of some of our past collaborators. Inspired by ou...

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Replay of Social Justice and Family Well-being

For this episode, we talked to Shawn Trenell O'Neal, author of the upcoming MFRA course, "Introducti...

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Bjørn Peterson – Clarity, Courage and Creativity, Part 2

In this episode, we talked to Bjørn Peterson about bringing clarity, courage and creativity to our ...

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Bjørn Peterson – Clarity, Courage and Creativity, Part 1

In this episode, we talked to Bjørn Peterson about bringing clarity, courage and creativity to our ...

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What is Practicing Connection?

In this episode, Jessica and Bob discuss the concept of "practicing connection" and the podcast and ...

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Heather Plett: On Holding Space and Mutual Liberation

In this episode, we talked to Heather Plett  about what it means to practice "holding space" for ou...

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Replay of Collaboration

In this episode, we explore different perspectives on collaboration. Is there a mindset that leads t...

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Practicing Informal Leadership with Lauren O’Donnell

Our guest for this episode is Lauren O'Donnell (LinkedIn),  a consultant with extensive experience ...

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Social Justice and Military Families

For this episode, we talked to the authors of the upcoming MFRA course, "Social Justice and Military...

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Recognizing and Responding to Inequity with Allison DeMarco

For this episode, we talked to Allison DeMarco, author of the upcoming MFRA course, "What Can Family...

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Social Justice and Family Well-being with Shawn Trenell O’Neal

For this episode, we talked to Shawn Trenell O'Neal, author of the upcoming MFRA course, "Introducti...

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Questions for Reflection

For our final episode of Season 2, we asked two of our guests from the past year to share one of the...

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Why Knowing Yourself Matters, Pt. 2

In this episode, we continue our discussion self-knowledge with Teresa Curtis and Jessica Jane Spayd...

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Why Knowing Yourself Matters

In this episode (Season 4, Episode 1), Jessica Beckendorf shares highlights from her conversation wi...

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Replay of Practicing Reflection

In this episode, we share some of the questions we find most helpful for reflection and our answers ...

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Warm Collaboration

In this episode, we explore the concept of warm collaboration. In Nora Bateson and Mamphela Ramphele...

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How Networks Can Help Reduce Stress

In this episode, Naava Frank and Ziva Mann, authors of the article "How to Reduce Stress and Increas...

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Celebrating (or at least dealing with) Failure

In this episode, Jessica and Bob discuss the idea of "celebrating failure." While we know a healthy ...

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Practicing Reflection

SUBSCRIBE NOW About this episode (Season 1, Episode 6) In this episode, Jessica and Bob take some ti...

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VUCA and VUCA Prime

SUBSCRIBE NOW About this episode (Season 1, Episode 5) In this episode, Karen Pedersen, Dean for Glo...

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Working Out Loud

SUBSCRIBE NOW Listen now: About this episode (Season 1, Episode 4) In this episode, hosts Jessica Be...

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Community Resilience

SUBSCRIBE NOW Listen now: About this episode: (Season 1, Episode 3) In this episode, hosts Jessica B...

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Collaboration

SUBSCRIBE NOW Listen now: About this episode: (Season 1, Episode 2) In this episode, hosts Jessica B...

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Transformational Relationships

SUBSCRIBE NOW Listen now: About this episode: (Season 1, Episode 1) In this episode, hosts Jessica B...

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