Renewing Our Minds in Love: Neuroscience, Scripture & Inner Healing — with Tina Smith | EP 164

What if understanding how your brain works could help you partner with God for deep emotional and spiritual healing? In this episode, licensed therapist and author Tina Smith unpacks her book Renewing Our Minds in Love and shows how neuroscience, attachment, and Scripture all fit together in God’s design for wholeness. Tina and John talk about what trauma actually is (and isn’t), why attachment and early relationships matter so much, how triggers work in the brain and nervous system, and why many believers feel condemned or “stuck” even while trying to renew their minds. She also explains the “hand model” of the brain, how love literally rewires neural pathways, and why over-spiritualizing mental illness has quietly hurt people in the church. They dive into practical tools for:

• Navigating family dynamics and toxic environments (especially around the holidays)
• Setting boundaries without burning bridges
• Having hard conversations without labels, name-calling, or shutdown
• Leading in church and ministry with curiosity instead of quick fixes
• Integrating therapy, inner healing, and deliverance in healthy, balanced ways

If you’ve ever wondered why you react the way you do—or why change feels so slow despite prayer and Scripture—this conversation will help you see your story, your brain, and your healing through a much kinder, more hopeful lens. Guest: Tina Smith — licensed therapist; founder of SELA Counselling & SELA Treatment Center; creator of Sword & Grace Coaching; author of Renewing Our Minds in Love

Host: John Gallagher — Talks with Gallagher Timestamps (chapters — adjust to your final edit) 00:00 Welcome, intro & Tina’s story and background
04:10 Why Tina wrote Renewing Our Minds in Love and what she was seeing in clients
09:20 Where the church often unintentionally keeps people stuck in their mental health
14:05 Trauma, attachment & early relationships — why they shape how we see God and others
18:40 What is trauma really? Tina’s working definition beyond the buzzword
23:15 How unhealed childhood experiences show up later in work, marriage & leadership
27:40 The “hand model” of the brain — fight, flight, freeze, fawn and how God wired us
32:30 Triggers, smells, songs & body sensations: when your nervous system remembers
37:55 Glasses of trauma: how we filter the world, intimacy, and even church through past pain
42:20 Holidays, toxic spaces & boundaries: staying loving without staying unsafe
47:00 Fruits of the Spirit as a practical mental health framework (not just a Bible list)
51:25 Love vs. fear in the brain: how love literally rewires neural pathways
55:40 The power of words: shaping identity, safety & neural pathways in others
1:00:05 How to have hard conversations without labels, blame, or “you always…”
1:04:10 Anger as the tip of the iceberg: what’s really underneath (rejection & abandonment)
1:08:00 How leaders can walk with people wisely: curiosity, listening & collaboration with therapists
1:12:35 Over-spiritualizing mental illness vs. honoring both neuroscience and the spiritual realm
1:17:10 PTSD, first responders & why feeling safe is the first step of healing
1:21:00 Tina’s work as a TheraCoach & how people can connect with her
1:24:30 Final encouragement: no shame, no striving—Jesus sits with you as you heal If this helped you, follow, rate, and share the show.

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