Life doesn't always go according to plan. Relationships struggle. Dreams unravel. We encounter loss, uncertainty, and unexpected challenges. But sometimes our most difficult experiences become the places where we grow the most.
Join Chris "Bucky" Bateman, licensed marriage and family therapist, for thoughtful conversations with fascinating people about the challenges that shape us and the wisdom we discover along the way.
Through candid interviews and personal reflections, we explore relationships, resilience, mental health, purpose, faith, and what it means to live a meaningful life.
Because whatever life brings, there's always the question: Where do we grow from here?
New episodes weekly. Follow the show and join the conversation.
Publisher
Chris "Bucky" Bateman, LMFT
Category
health & fitness · religion & spirituality · society & culture
When Sex Isn't Really About Sex an interview with Jeff Allen on Shame, Attachment & Healing
In this episode of Where Do We Grow From Here?, I sit down with therapist Jeff Allen, LMFT, for a thoughtful conversation about sex, shame, attachment, compulsive sexual behavior, and our deep need for connection. Jeff works with individuals and couples navigating out-of-control sexual behavior, betrayal, and the difficult road toward healing. We talk about why he prefers the language of “out-of-control sexual behavior” to “sex addiction,” what may be happening underneath compulsive behavior,...
20 Sept 2026
What to Say When Someone is Grieving
Send us Fan Mail This episode is the practical guide. Bucky walks through what to actually say (and the well-meaning phrases to drop), why saying the person's name is a gift instead of a wound, what to do with silence, and why "let me know if you need anything" quietly puts the work back on the person least able to carry it. Plus the two ideas that change how you show up: grief doesn't move in a straight line, and the "anniversary reaction", why the calendar in your body remembers what ...
13 Sept 2026
Can I still Count on You?
Send us Fan Mail Trust rarely breaks in one dramatic moment. More often it erodes quietly through missed bids for connection, promises that don't match actions, and emotional absence during the seasons that needed presence most. If you and your partner have drifted into that "thin air" where it's suddenly hard to breathe, this episode is for you. Drawing on years of clinical work with couples, this episode breaks down why trust cracks and offers a practical, five-step path to rebuilding it: n...
20 Mar 2026
Why Couples Stop Talking About Sex (And How to Start Again)
Send us Fan Mail Sex is everywhere in our culture, and almost nowhere in our actual conversations in relationships. In this episode, couples therapist Bucky Bateman explores why so many partners never talk openly about sex, where sexual shame comes from, and what that silence is quietly costing your relationship. If physical intimacy feels easier to avoid than discuss, this episode is for you. Bucky offers honest, practical guidance on how to begin breaking the silence, starting with the stor...
19 Feb 2026
The Small Daily Habits That Hold a Marriage Together
Send us Fan Mail The biggest threat to most marriages isn't a dramatic blow-up or a single betrayal, it's the slow accumulation of small moments that go unnoticed and unappreciated. In this episode, Bucky Bateman explores the invisible work of relationships: the everyday acts of patience, attunement, and emotional regulation that quietly hold love together over time. Drawing on attachment theory and his clinical experience with couples, Bucky makes the case that it's the small things; the tur...
11 Feb 2026
How to Fight Fair in Marriage: Arguing Without Destroying Your Connection
Send us Fan Mail All couples argue. The question isn't whether you'll have conflict it's whether your conflict will bring you closer or drive you further apart. In this episode of the Couples Connection Series, Bucky Bateman unpacks why conflict is not only inevitable in close relationships but necessary for growth and exactly what separates couples who fight well from those who don't. Bucky covers the most damaging patterns couples fall into during arguments (many of them familiar from Gottm...
28 Jan 2026
Why Waiting to Feel "Emotionally Safe" Is Keeping Your Relationship Stuck
Send us Fan Mail Emotional safety has become one of the most talked-about concepts in modern relationships but what if the way we're using it is actually making things worse? In this episode of the Couples Connection Series, Bucky Bateman challenges the popular idea that you need to feel completely safe before you can be vulnerable, honest, or connected. Drawing on his clinical experience as a couples therapist, Bucky explores where this idea came from, why no relationship is ever completely ...
20 Jan 2026
Why Couples Feel Emotionally Distant (Even When They Love Each Other)
Send us Fan Mail You can love someone deeply and still feel like strangers. Emotional distance in marriage is one of the most common and most misunderstood relationship problems couples face. In this first episode of the Couples Connection Series, Bucky Bateman breaks down the invisible drift that slowly disconnects even the most committed couples over time. Bucky explains the three biggest drivers of emotional distance, why they're so easy to miss until the gap feels unbridgeable, and three ...
26 Apr 2024
Surviving Divorce You Didn't Choose: Recovery, Faith & Starting Over
Send us Fan Mail Divorce is hard for everyone, but there's a particular kind of pain that comes when you didn't want it and couldn't stop it. In this episode, Bucky sits down with India Kern, a divorce recovery coach and author who knows that pain firsthand and has built a life's work around helping others walk through it. India shares her personal story of navigating an unwanted divorce, the role faith played in her healing, and the practical wisdom she's gathered from years of walking along...
27 Sept 2020
Faith, Resilience & Rebuilding: One Man's Journey Through Hardship
Send us Fan Mail What does it look like for a man to face serious hardship and come out the other side with his faith and identity intact, maybe even stronger? In this episode, Bucky sits down with Boogie Rose for a wide-ranging conversation about resilience, faith, and what it actually takes to rebuild when life knocks you down. Boogie's story is the kind that reminds you that where you end up doesn't have to be determined by what you've been through. This conversation covers the mindset shi...
9 Sept 2020
5 Signs It's Time to Go to Couples Therapy (From a Marriage Therapist)
Send us Fan Mail Most couples wait too long before seeking help an average of six years after problems begin, according to research. In this episode, Bucky Bateman draws on his clinical experience as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist to break down the key signs that it's time to stop waiting and start getting support. This isn't about pathologizing normal relationship struggles. It's about recognizing the patterns that don't resolve on their own, and understanding why getting help soon...
22 Jul 2020
Living with Adult ADHD: Relationships, Motherhood & Managing the Chaos
Send us Fan Mail Adult ADHD is one of the most underdiagnosed and misunderstood conditions in women and it affects far more than just focus. In this episode, Bucky sits down with Renee Herman, who shares what it's been like to navigate life as a mother, student, and professional while managing adult ADD. Renee talks candidly about the challenges ADHD creates in relationships, the frustration of feeling like you're always playing catch-up, and the strategies that have actually helped her find ...
14 Jul 2020
Widowed Young with Three Kids: Grief, Faith & Learning to Start Over
Send us Fan Mail Few experiences reshape a life the way sudden loss does, especially when you're left to raise children alone. In this deeply moving episode, Bucky talks with his wife Keri, who was widowed young with three small children and had to find a way to keep going when everything had fallen apart. Keri shares the raw reality of grief, the unexpected moments of grace, the hard work of rebuilding, and how faith played a complicated but ultimately sustaining role in her journey. This is...
3 Jun 2020
From Chef to Church Planter: Faith, Calling & Reinventing Your Life
Send us Fan Mail What does it look like to completely reinvent your life in pursuit of something you believe you were made for? Gordon Wong has done it more than once moving from Oahu to the mainland, building a career as a chef, planting a church, and now serving as Graduate Chaplain at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. In this conversation, Gordon and Bucky explore what it means to follow a calling that doesn't follow a straight line the faith it requires, the doubt that shows up...
18 May 2020
Understanding Anxiety: One Woman's Journey and What She Learned
Send us Fan Mail Anxiety can feel isolating, like something is wrong with you that isn't wrong with everyone else. In this episode, Bucky sits down with mcKensey McGill, who shares her honest, unfiltered journey with anxiety: what it felt like, what made it worse, and what she finally learned about herself along the way. This conversation is for anyone who has felt hijacked by worry, fear, or that constant low-grade sense that something bad is coming. mcKensey's story is relatable, grounding,...
12 May 2020
Mental Health Tools That Actually Work: A Therapist's Personal Story
Send us Fan Mail It's one thing to recommend mental health tools to clients. It's another to have used them yourself in the middle of a genuinely hard season. In this episode, Bucky Bateman gets personal sharing the specific coping strategies, mindset shifts, and practices that helped him navigate his own difficult chapter. This isn't a clinical lecture. It's a therapist being honest about what actually worked when life got hard and what he still uses today. From emotional regulation techniqu...
28 Apr 2020
Why a Marriage Therapist Started a Podcast About Resilience & Growth
Send us Fan Mail What does it take to move through life's hardest seasons and come out stronger? In this first episode, Bucky Bateman; Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and founder of Renewal Counseling Centers in San Diego shares the personal story behind Where Do We Grow from Here? and why he felt compelled to start this conversation. Bucky opens up about his own journey through challenge and change, the moments that shaped him as a therapist and a man, and what he hopes this podcast w...
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