How to Bring Story Work to Your Faith Community with Petra Malekzadeh

The Allender Center Podcast

The Allender Center

Psychology, Religion & Spirituality, Mental Health, Christianity, Trauma, Health & Fitness, Theology

4.6 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does it take to cultivate real transformation in a faith community? Not just busier programs or better Bible studies, but real change – mind, body, and soul?

In this episode, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen talk with Petra Malekzadeh, Facilitation Development Manager at the Allender Center, about what it looks like to bring story work into the life of a local church.

Drawing on her years of ministry leadership and her training in Narrative Focused Trauma Care®, Petra shares both the challenges and beauty of inviting people to engage their stories as part of discipleship. Listen in to explore:

Why story work belongs at the heart of spiritual formation
The importance of leadership buy-in and shared language
How to navigate resistance and build trust
What becomes possible when vulnerability is honored

This conversation invites you to imagine a church where story work isn’t a side ministry—it’s how we grow into the people God is calling us to be.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You don't have to look far to see it.
0:07.6	Heartache is everywhere.
0:09.9	In your workplace, in your community, and with the people you love.
0:14.7	There's a quiet but steady weight of trauma, grief, and untold stories.
0:20.7	And if you're someone others turn to, someone who listens, holds space, and shows up,
0:27.1	then you've probably felt the limits of what you can carry on your own.
0:31.5	That's where narrative-focused trauma care comes in.
0:34.7	This training from the Allender Center is designed to equip you to engage the
0:39.1	effects of trauma with wisdom and compassion. Starting with narrative-focused trauma level one,
0:45.6	you'll receive rich teaching that explores trauma, identity, shame, attachment, and family of origin,
0:53.6	integrating psychological insight with a theological
0:56.6	understanding of God's redeeming work in our lives. But what makes this training truly transformative
1:03.6	is your small facilitator-led story group. These groups are where concepts become personal.
1:10.4	It's where you begin to see how your own
1:12.6	story connects to the kind of healing and care you want to offer others. Because at the Allender Center,
1:19.2	we believe you can't guide others where you haven't gone yourself. Narrative-focused trauma
1:24.8	care level one training is for anyone ready to grow in clarity, capacity, and care, for your own story, and for the stories entrusted to you.
1:34.5	Applications for our next training cohort are now open.
1:38.5	To find out more about narrative-focused trauma care training with the Allender Center. Visit the Allender Center.org
1:45.4	slash trainings. Thank you for listening to the Allender Center podcast. I'm Dr. Dan Allender.
1:54.7	And I'm Rachel Clinton-Centen. We're fiercely committed to providing hope and healing to a fragmented
2:00.2	world. And restoration for the heart.
	...

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