The Healer With a Thousand Faces

Conversations with friends & teachers about how our wounds lead us to our wandering, our wondering, our weird, our wisdom, and our work in the world.

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Episodes

Aug 7, 2026

1hr 26 min

We chat with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, about the wisdom that comes from Creativity, Chronic Illness and Contemplation, and all the ways that our artistic expressions, our bodies, and ancient traditions can be our teachers and help us to heal! 
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, is an author,  artists, a Registered Expressive Arts Consultant and Educator (REACE), spiritual director, founder and "Abbess" of Abbey of the Arts, an online global monastic organization and community that integrates contemplative practices with creative expression. She is a Benedictine oblate who writes and teaches extensively on monastic wisdom, Celtic spirituality, and the expressive arts.

Jul 15, 2026

1hr 30 min

Thanatologist Dr Korie Leigh specializes in helping children deal with grief and loss. We explore how her work grieving with children can teach all of us to grieve like children, and how being in touch with death and loss can actually lead us to be more fully alive. 
More info on Dr Korie:http://https://www.korieleighphd.com/

Jun 17, 2026

1hr 36 min

Brian McLaren - Author, activist, artist, agitator, futurist, culture critic, and all around cool guy talks with Mike about the power of good questions and how they can guide the path that our life takes, and about the power of story to evoke empathy and imagination!
More info on Brian:https://brianmclaren.net/
Follow me on substack:https://substack.com/@drmikepetrow 
Follow me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healer_with_a_thousand_faces?igsh=MndrcXk5ODVha2dl&utm_source=qr

May 21, 2026

1hr 32 min

Dr Liza J. Rankow argues these apocalyptic, alchemical times make it all the more essential to find and follow the soul purpose of your path, to find the healing that is yours to live and to give, so that your life becomes Soul Medicine for a Fractured World (the title of her brilliant book that explores Healing, Justice, and the Path of Wholeness). An advocate for sustainable, effective, mystical activism, Dr Liza shares how her wounds have led her to work wisely, and shares wisdom for each of us in connecting our healing with healing the world. This one is good medicine for the moment!
 
Learn more at https://www.lizarankow.org/soulmedicine

Apr 29, 2026

1hr 32 min

Good friend Rev. Dr. Cassidy Hall, author of Queering Contemplation, chats with Mike about finding our authentic healing path and practice, getting out of the boxes that others try to put us in, and how to glean our own wisdom with our teachers even when we disagree with them or they let us down. 

Apr 3, 2026

1hr 12 min

“If we are not protected by a cloak of good stories, we are constantly at the mercy of stories that do not wish us well.” Mike chats with his hero, master story teller, mythologist, and wilderness rites of passage guide, Dr Martin Shaw about how we “get grown” in a culture lacking rituals of initiation, how limit and absence can be our best teachers, why praise making matters, and above all how solid sacred stories and myths make life, meaningful, in a culture over inundated with competing stories.

Mar 12, 2026

1hr 35 min

Mystic, monastic, teacher, and trauma survivor transformed, Tessa Bielecki shares with us insights about the mystical path, and how she survived being let down by a spiritual leader’s sexual scandals. If you’ve been hurt by a pastor, priest, politician, person in power, a parent, or a partner, this episode has some medicine for you.

Feb 24, 2026

1hr 23 min

Scholarly and spiritual sage Andrew Harvey shares what he learned in his own dark night experience, why he thinks we are all in one together right now, and offers wisdom for shining a light in the darkest of times. Founder of The Institute for Sacred Activism, Andrew is an teacher and translator of some of the world’s most sacred texts from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, inspiring us to put our healing in the service of healing the world.

Feb 5, 2026

1hr 35 min

Psychologist, scholar, and old friend Alexander John Shaia chats with Mike about a symbolic road map for healing and growth hidden inside the four gospels of the Christian New Testament, and gives us a completely different way to think about Christian symbols and the seasons of our lives.
 
Learn more at https://www.quadratos.org

Jan 7, 2026

1hr 35 min

Carmen Acevedo Butcher and Mike geek out about words, wizards, how our wounds led to wisdom, and especially why it’s essential to LET OUR WEIRD LEAD THE WAY!! A fellow dyslexic doctor, Carmen is a teacher, a translator of ancient texts, a trauma survivor transformed, and Dean of Faculty at the Center for Action and Contemplation as well as Faculty at UC Berkeley.

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