Thursday • March 28
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Heaven Sent and Bent

Select an episode link below to view the on-demand archive.
 

The Case Against Mothers Day
Mother's Day is this weekend, but is it a reason to celebrate or more trouble than it's worth? As a mother and a grandmother, Rene explains everything that is wrong with this Hallmark holiday, what the holiday actually means, and how women feel about it.
 

Becky Brunning, Cancer Survivor
On this episode, Rene will introduce you to her friend Becky Bruning. She has not only battled Crohn's Disease, but she is a cancer survivor as well. She has a remarkable story to share.
 

Life Coach & Do-Over Expert Vanessa Truett
This week, Rene will introduce us to Life Coach Vanessa Truett MPA CNPM. Vanessa is a woman who will go that extra mile in supporting you to achieving any goals you might set for yourself. She will inspire you to look beyond your circumstances and see your possibilities. Vanessa will work with you to make it happen. Genuine, warm, welcoming, open, caring, empowering, encouraging; these are a few of the words some have used to describe Vanessa Truett.
 

SMA & The Magic Wheelchair
Our guest this week is Lana Weimer. She and her husband Ryan are the parents of five children, two of whom have SMA- Spinal muscular atrophy or SMA. It is a disease that robs people of physical strength by affecting the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, taking away the ability to walk, eat, or breathe. It is the number one genetic cause of death for infants.

Their oldest son Keaton is 10 years old, a few years ago he and his dad decided to make an amazing wheelchair costume for halloween. This led to the formation of their foundation Magic Wheelchair
 

Marion's Story
You never know who you are going to meet when you fly. For Rene, a cross-country flight became a life-changing experience when she met a young woman by the name of Marion Jones. She shares her remarkable story on out program this week.
 

Advocacy Heals U
Joni Adrich and Chris Jerry both lost loved ones due to medical errors. They used their own personal tragedies as a calling to help other and to make sure no one else has to go through the pain that they both personally suffered. In their Pulitzer Prize nominated book Advocacy Heals U, the authors discuss causes that lead to a deep desire for becoming advocates and strategies that they have personally applied to heal and give back. Their book offers a blueprint for how to make a commitment and have ongoing dedication to serve in an advocacy role in communities.
 

The Gift of Patience
This week, we will meet Megan McKee. Megan's a young mom of four but she volunteers every week to teach and mentor young women, ages twelve to eighteen. As the summer came to an end, the group decided to have one last activity that would send summer off with a bang. The explosion Megan anticipated was the fun and excitement that Mt. Hood Adventure Park offered. What she ended up experiencing was a an explosion all right, a devastating fall. Her safety harness failed, she fell 25 feet. She broke her back, her sternum, both ankles, both feet and cracked her teeth. Her life was changed forever in a minute.
 

Pam Simon- Fidgets 2 Widgets
Parenting high energy kids in a high tech world is this generations greatest challenge. children are already changing the world as we know it. But, they can't do it alone. They need our guidance. Our guest Pam Simon has co-written some books to help address this topic. It's called Parenting High Energy Kids: Holistic, High Energy, High Tech and Mind Your Minecraft, Eat Your Vegetables!: Moms who Get It . She's also the creator of a fantastic after school enrichment program called Fidgets 2 Widgets, which we will talk about today.

 

The Heartful Mom
This week, we will meet Lori Burke. Two of her four children have warburg Micro Syndrome, a very rare disease that affects less than 200 people worldwide. they are the oldest known patients in the world. She writes about them and her experiences on her blog, The Heartful Mom.
 

Making Your Relationship Rock Solid
This week, Rene speaks with Norene Gonsiewski, MSC, LCSW, Certified Imago Therapist from the Portland Relationship Center. She has been helping couples create healthier relationships for over 35 years. She will discuss some of the traps and patterns couples get in to that can cause relationships to strain, and things you can do to get back to the courtship stage.
 

Drums and Disabilities
Celebrated drum virtuoso Pat Gesualdo pioneered the legendary holistic Healing Art of Drum Therapy program, which is used by Psychologists, Neuroscientists, Behavioral Therapists, and Special Education Teachers in over 15 countries to help children with special needs develop physical and cognitive functioning.

Autism continues to haunt American children, and it has shockingly increased 172% over the past ten years. It now affects 1 out of 90 children, and this alarming statistic continues to grow. Pat helps parents to understand Autism, and the best ways to deal with it.
 

Specialized Teaching for Learning Differences
Our special guest this week is Beven Byrnes. Ms. Byrnes is Principal and Executive Director for Bridges Middle School, an independent nonprofit school in Portland Oregon. The school provides creative and focused school setting for 5-8th grade students with learning differences. At Bridges, students ascend to new levels of confidence and competence in an environment of caring, trust, respect and excellent teaching.
 

CARD: Successfully Treating Autism
The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) is one of the world's largest organizations using applied behavior analysis (ABA) in the treatment of autism spectrum disorder. Today, we welcome Candice Pogge MA, BCBA who is a Case Supervisor for CARD. She will talk about the use of applied behavior analysis in the treatment of Autism spectrum disorders.
 

Child Neuropsychology PC
On this episode, Rene will introduce to you Dr. Nancy Loss and Dr. Corey Anderson of Child Neuropsychology PC, a pediatric neuropsychology practice located in Portland, Oregon. They provide comprehensive evaluations that can help you unravel the mystery of how your child thinks and learns.
 

The Conversation Game- The Struggle to Fit In
Dr. Michael Brooke, PSYD specializes in helping socially awkward adolescents and adults fit in and make friends. He invented a product called Chime In, the Conversation Game to teach these vital skills. Players learn how to follow the give-and-take of social conversation and have fun in the process. He'll talk about how he developed the game, and whom he hopes to help with it.
 

Raisng a Son on the Spectrum
Derek Volk is a Maine businessman, supporter of Autism awareness, volunteer, philanthropist, softball coach, and author. He is also the father of a son who is on the spectrum. At eight years old, his only son Dylan was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and the Volk family was able to start making sense of Dylan's differences.In his book Chasing the Rabbit, Derek shares his experiences raising a son on the Autism spectrum. He will share some of those experiences with us as well on this program.
 

Autism Safety for First Responders

Matt Brown has over 20 years experience in the federal law enforcement field. He is also the father of a child on the autism spectrum. He travels the state of Maine to provide education and training about Autism Spectrum Disorders to first responders- police, fire/rescue/EMS, dispatchers, corrections and the Courts, as well as schools and other community partners. His organization is called ASET - Autism Safety Education & Training
 

Amy Roloff is Living Life in a Big Way
Amy Roloff-Reality TV Star, Philanthropist, Mom, Wife, Business Woman, Inspirational Speaker, Author and Farm Owner are just a few ways to characterize this one of a kind woman. Amy has not let the challenges and obstacles of a childhood illness and living with dwarfism stop her from knowing life matters, has purpose, and value. She shares her story of inspiration and motivation in over coming challenges and obstacles, adversity, giving back, parenting and faith to others in the many speaking engagements she does all over the country for the past seven years. Matter, Value, and Purpose that leads to You believing in YOU, your success, and impacting others around you.

You can read more about Amy on her website.
 

The Heart of Michelle
Our guest this week is Michelle Cannon. She's a blogger, author, parenting consulting, public speaker, and Facebook Manager. She blogs about whatever comes to mind. But one of her most common topics is bipolar depression, because her children suffer from it. She will talk about the condition, the challenges of raising children who suffer from it, and some of the natural measures (diet and such) she uses to help her kids.
 

Diane Dennis and the The Empowerment Dynamic
This week's guest Diane Dennis is president and founder of Inspired Media Communications, a multi-media PR firm. She is also a Certified T.E.D. trainer (The Empowerment Dynamic—the antidote to the drama triangle). She will join us to talk about the different Orientations that exist when we look at something in our life that we need or want to fix.
 

Laura Young's Dose of Sanity
Laura Young is a blogger and the mother of seven- yes seven- wonderful kids. Raising seven kids is challenging enough, but when the oldest and the second youngest has autism, it's hard to keep your sanity. But that's why she turned to blogging. You can read her blog HERE, and listen to this great interview to here how she copes.
 

Nancy Byrne's Choices
Answers you have been seeking are contained within the pages of a new book by author Nancy Byrne called “Choices” (published by Balboa Press). The book itself is a catalyst for personal growth and change. It is written in a refreshingly simplistic and direct manner while utilizing humor and personal anecdotes to deliver a message of encouragement, empowerment, and self-renewal, not only for yourself but for the world you live in.
 

Free Range Kids
After she let her 9-year-old take the subway by himself and wrote about it in her op-ed column back in 2008, Lenore Skenazy found herself on "The Today Show," "Dr. Phil," and even the BBC, defending herself against charges she was "America's Worst Mom." (Go ahead - Google it.) She launched the blog, Free Range Kids to explain her parenting philosophy and this proved so popular, she went on to write the book, Free Range Kids. She joins Rene to discuss her parenting philosophy and why kids need their freedom.
 

MJ's Mom NickyB
This week's guest is blogger NickyB. She has a wonderful 11 year old son with autism named MJ and a beautiful 8 year old girl named Morgan. She has been a middle school educator for sixteen years. She is on what she describes as an “autism journey”! Some days are great, some ok, and some downright horrible, but she has a hope inside of her to keep going and not give up no matter what!
 

Brian Copeland and The Waiting Period
San Francisco-based stand-up comic Brian Copeland created a one man show called THE WAITING PERIOD, which was an unrelenting look at a ten-day period in Copeland’s life—the mandatory ten-day waiting period before he could lay his hands on the newly purchased gun with which he planned to take his own life. After Robin Williams took his own life, he revived the show. Now he has a Go Fund Me set up in hopes of raising $150,000 so that they can present Brian's show "The Waiting Period" weekly for one year free of charge to the public in order to help those with depression and suicidal thoughts.
 

Traveling the World with Francis Tapon
Francis Tapon is a Harvard MBA who left the tech world in 2006 to pursue a more fulfilling mission: visit every country in the world and share their unique lessons with the world. He's walked across America four times and visited over 80 countries. Currently, Currently, he is traveling to all 54 African countries. This journey began in 2013 and will continue till 2017.
 

Dead Rita's Wisdom
Victoria Trabosh is an Executive Coach, International Speaker and Author. She founded a non-profit to help the citizens of Rwanda. She is also a cancer survivor, a heart attack survivor, and the most positive person you will ever meet. Victoria is passionate about changing the world in everything she does, and uses the sage wisdom of Dead Rita, her late mother, to guide her.
 

The Flawless Foundation
Our guest today is Janine Francolini. She is the founder of THE FLAWLESS FOUNDATION. Her organization concentrates on mental health, and their vision is to revolutionize the way the world perceives, prevents, and treats brain based behavioral challenges.
 

Conjoined Twins
Taluai Bryce gave birth to conjoined twins in October of 2000. The two girls were connected at the abdomen and weighed a combined 12 pounds. They were separated on Oct. 31, and had a slim chance of surviving a year. The girls are now teenagers. Taluai talks about her experience.
 

Adoption Story
Leiane Nelson is the mother of six children, all of whom are adopted. She shares the story of the adoption process, and how her family grew.
 

Maryann's Story
Maryann Barrus and her husband Dean are the parents of Jesse. Jesse was diagnosed with angelman syndrome. Named for the English pediatrician who identified it, Angelman syndrome (AS) is a rare neuro-genetic disorder that occurs in one in 15,000 live births. Characteristics include developmental delay, lack of speech, seizures, and walking and balance disorders. It is often misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy or autism, due to lack of awareness. Despite these constant challenges, individuals with Angelman syndrome have a happy demeanor, laugh frequently and are often smiling.
 

An Autism Mom with a Mission
Josalyn Sewell is an autism mom with a mission. Her mission is to bring awareness to the raw, everyday life of raising a child with moderate-severe autism. She writes daily about Ethan on her blog, and the adventures they experience in trying to raise an extraordinary child in an ordinary world.
 

Brenda Holmes: A Survivors Story
Our guest this week is Brenda Holmes. Brenda will share her positive energy in spite of breast cancer, divorce, and many other trials. Brenda has an infectious sense of humor and will inspire all of us to laugh in spite of hardship.
 

Jennie's Story
Our special guest this week is Jennie Cole. Jennie and her husband were devastated when their baby passed away in utero about 36 weeks into her pregnancy. Through faith and determination, they were able to adopt a little girl. But that was not without its share of challenges, either.
 

Raising a Child with Autism
Our guest this week is Katherine Sealy, who is a professional make up artist and Salon owner from Portland. Katherine has a daughter with autism. Boys are 5 times more likely to have autism so having a daughter with the diagnosis was doubly surprising. The rate now for an autism diagnosis is 1 in 68 children.
 

Parenting a Child with Down's Syndrome.
This week's guest is Teri Johnson. Teri is the mother of five, and her youngest, Katie, was born with Down's Syndrome. Teri is here to tell her story and to talk about the challenges and the joy of raising a special needs child.
 

Becky's Story
At sixteen, Becky was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and was not expected to survive. But she did survive and now leads a full life as a wife and a mother. Her cancer returned six years ago, but she is still fighting.