Good people of privilege are increasingly aware of racial injustice but are often unsure how to venture into challenging dialogues and spaces, and even afraid to ‘go there’. In this episode of Soul Portals, we explore how to value risk-taking in this domain as the path toward a more equitable and just world. The experiences of our guest Rev. Teri McDowell Ott – including learning, teaching, leading, following, going, and staying – have informed her work with diverse populations as the chaplain of a liberal arts college and as a volunteer in a men’s state prison. The vocational challenge, including mistakes in often tense settings, has forced her to confront and wrestle with the systems and structures that have privileged her as a white Christian woman. With humility, she relates how her risk-taking has led to profound changes in herself and her community.
Book | Books – Teri McDowell Ott | Necessary Risks: Challenges Privileged People Need to Face by Teri McDowell Ott | Goodreads
Review | Necessary Risks: Challenges Privileged People Need to Face – The Presbyterian Outlook
Newsletter | Encouraging Courage | Teri Ott | Substack
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Cedric M. Speyer, M.A., M.Ed., RP, is an author, Registered Psychotherapist, and presently a mentor to coaches, counsellors, and therapists. He pioneered E-counselling in Canada, overseeing 100K online cases before establishing InnerView Guidance International (IGI). The vision of IGI brings together the historically separate domains of mental health and spiritual awareness in a new synthesis for the helping professions.
Dr. DeeAnna Merz Nagel has co-created Essential Soul Care®, a psychospiritual model that includes a book, an Oracle deck and a certified practitioner course. She is a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and coach and integrates the healing arts into her teachings. Her doctoral studies focused on multi-faith spiritual direction.
In this podcast series, Cedric Speyer and DeeAnna Nagel engage in conversations with psychospiritual trailblazers, amplifying their voices of wisdom and exploring their unique perspectives on human wholeness. Through their sacred journeys and professional endeavors, these individuals are ‘portals’ through which we see wider vistas of the soul journey. While their names might not grace network news or mainstream podcasts, their insights introduce invaluable aspects of ‘soul work’.
The Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott is an ordained Presbyterian minister who has served the church in a variety of pastoral roles and as chaplain of Monmouth College in Illinois. Teri currently serves as the Editor/Publisher of The Presbyterian Outlook, the only independent news resource of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Her first book, Necessary Risks: Challenges Privileged People Need to Face, was inspired by her work with college students and her experience volunteer teaching in a men’s prison. In her life and calling, Teri has come to recognize that if she’s scared to do something, it’s usually worth doing — that there’s something meaningful, something good, on the other side of that fear.
