Pursuing Uncomfortable with Melissa Ebken
This weekly podcast addresses the issues that keep us awake at night. Am I a good enough mom/dad/spouse? Am I living up to my potential? Am I giving my kids what they need to be successful in life? What will my parents need from me as they age? Am I a good co-parent? How can I handle confrontations better? All of these things make life difficult and uncomfortable! Let’s lean into all the uncomfortable and yucky stuff to find a path forward to a life we really want to live. (Music by Joe Calindrino, “September’s Realm”)
Recent Episodes
Episode 66: Pursuing Community While Parenting Special Needs Children…
Jan Stewart is a highly regarded mental health governance expert and advocate. Her brutally honest memoir Hold on Tight: A Parent’s Journey Raising Children with Mental Illness describes her emotional roller coaster story p...
Episode 65: Pursuing A Healthy Spirit with Melinda Hardin
In this interview, Melinda Hardin discusses overcoming a drinking addiction and how finding a more open and inclusive faith practice and community enabled her to heal her spirit.
Episode 64: Pursuing One's Search For Meaning with Nick McGowan
Nick McGowan discusses how faith and life experience have come together and molded him into the person he is today.
Episode 63: Pursuing a Kick A** Mindset with Donna Franklin
Donna Franklin takes through her true-life rags to riches story that has allowed her to form a kick a** mindset.
Episode 62: Pursuing Gut Health with Geta Barbu
Geta Barbu discusses her traumatic beginning in life and her journey to find answers to her liver and gut disease.
Episode 61: Pursuing Peace with Reiki with Michaela Daystar
Michaela talks to the Pursuing Uncomfortable Podcast audience about the benefits of Reiki, and how it changes her life.
Episode 60: Thank You
Thank you for listening to the show! Support the show More From Melissa and Pursuing Uncomfortable: Resources fiLLLed Life Newsletter YouTube Leave a review Pursuing Uncomfortable Book
Episode 59: Pursuing Healing After Sexual Assault with Robert Uttaro
Robert, or Bobby, as he likes to be called, is a rape crisis counselor for the last 15 years. He joins us today to talk about his experience in that field to encourage us to know about the resources in …
Episode 57: Pursuing Freedom From the Past with Chad Peevy
CHAD PEEVY gave himself permission to break and untangle the mindsets he inherited growing up in an emotionally and physically abusive family in rural Arkansas. Childhood trauma caused depression and anxiety to follow him int...
Bonus Episode 58: The Bible's Blessing Of Same Sex Marriage
Have you ever wondered if you could be Christian and gay? Or if you could be Christian and support and love people who are gay? The answer is YES. This episode digs into the scriptures to reveal God's acceptance and …
Episode 56: Pursuing Light In the Online Darkness with Lisa Thee
Ms. Thee is a Top 50 Global Thought Leader for AI, Privacy, and Safety with demonstrated experience in delivering revenue and solving complex business technology, governance, privacy and risk challenges at scale. Ms. Thee is ...
Episode 55: Pursuing Life After Grief with Lisa Michelle Zega
Lisa Michelle Zega is a Life Coach for spiritual people experiencing loss that mere religion can’t hold. She guides them to process grief through LOVE and move from the emptiness of rigid certainty to the vibrancy of a life f...
About the Host
Melissa Ebken
Podcaster, Pastor, Author, Coach
Melissa was called into ministry, much to her surprise, after becoming a biologist and serving for ten years in the IL Army National Guard as a utility helicopter mechanic, the first woman to do so. She has served in Illiopolis and Niantic since 2001.
Melissa is at home in the difficult spaces of peoples’ lives, willing to listen and to walk with those who struggle and suffer. She is a trained coach and has consulted with churches in conflict. Her current pursuits include founding a Virtual Assistant training academy, forming a ministry co-op to better serve small churches, supporting nurses to thrive in stressful climates through building emotional intelligence, and guiding people who are ready to lean into and overcome difficult challenges and experiences in their lives.
She authored a book Teach Us To Pray: An Ancient Model For a Modern Day, and has a podcast called Pursuing Uncomfortable.