462 - Developing Empathy For My Spouse w/ Carol Jurgensen Sheets

Pure Desire Podcast

Pure Desire Ministries

Healing, Aa, Christian Recovery, Sa, Self-improvement, Christianity, Sexuality, Celebrate Recovery, Sexual Addiction Recovery, Recovery, Porn Recovery, Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality, Betrayal Trauma, Porn Addiction Recovery, Biblical Recovery, Education

4.8 • 750 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Carol Jurgensen Sheets joins us again to explore the vital role of empathy in healing relationships affected by addiction or compulsive sexual behavior. She begins by defining empathy and explaining why it’s essential for rebuilding trust and connection after discovery. Carol also discusses why many addicts struggle with empathy, often due to past modeling or coping patterns, and offers practical guidance for learning this skill even when it feels unfamiliar. We cover strategies for communicating needs as a spouse or family member, navigating situations where the recovering partner may struggle to respond empathetically, and maintaining empathy beyond recovery to enrich all relationships. Carol shares concrete steps listeners can take this week or month to practice and strengthen empathy, emphasizing that it’s a skill that can grow with intention, reflection, and accountability. The episode closes with encouragement for making empathy a consistent, transformative part of life and recovery.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello there, good listener. I am your host, Nick Stumbo, and you are listening to The Pure Desire
0:10.4	podcast, your biblically based and clinically informed approach to healing from betrayal and breaking
0:16.2	free from compulsive sexual behaviors. And whether today is your first day in recovery or your 10,000, we hope that you get to
0:23.3	listen into conversations that will make a meaningful difference in your recovery journey today.
0:28.6	Today is episode 462 and here joining me as my host for this series is Rebecca Vandermere.
0:35.4	Rebecca, good to see you again.
0:36.4	Hey, thank you.
0:37.3	Good to see you. Thanks for having me.
0:38.8	It's such an honor. Well, it's always fun to have a new co-host and to bring your perspective in.
0:43.4	And I think we're having a lot of fun as we kind of unpack some of the nuances, the challenges of couples recovery, you know, because we do a lot in pure desire groups with the individual work, the
0:54.9	struggler or addict and then the betrayed.
0:57.6	But coming back together can be a real challenge.
0:59.9	And one of those challenging areas is learning to have empathy for our spouse.
1:04.7	Yeah.
1:05.2	What are your thoughts about empathy and what we heard today?
1:08.1	My goodness.
1:08.7	I love one of the biggest takeaways, and I hope
1:12.7	most of you audience can relate to after listening to this, is the reality of empathy being,
1:22.8	it's a continual learning process. It's a skill that maybe you don't know that you have it or your spouse doesn't have it or
1:32.6	it's not showing it because of the addiction or compulsive behavior.
1:36.9	But to hear just such a good sense of hope in terms of this is something that we can learn
1:43.8	and incorporate, be intentional about
	...

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