[E249] Showing Up Whole to Persevere In Hard Work With Amanda Purvis

After two decades in child welfare and trauma work, Amanda Purvis has a hard-won answer to how people stay in this work: put down the role of the healer and show up whole. She and Jesse talk about the weight of translating brain science into a formula, why systems change when people show up as whole people, and how modeling messing up and keeping boundaries sustains us. Amanda closes with the caregiver resiliency framework her team uses at All God's Children International.

Key Takeaways

• Believing we're the healer puts weight on us that isn't ours to carry. Being attuned to someone's journey differs from being responsible for it.

• Systems are made up of people. Showing up whole, and seeing the people in front of us as whole, is one of the most revolutionary ways to change a system.

• Lasting in hard work takes safe people, room to feel the anger and unfairness, boundaries, and the freedom to mess up and keep going.

Guest Bio & LinksAmanda Purvis leads the global impact team at All God's Children International, an organization that restores children who are alone to their families. Before that, she spent about eight years on the outreach team at the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development and helped bring TBRI to Colorado, and she's a foster and adoptive mom.Website: All God's Children InternationalSocial: Amanda on Instagram

• AGCI on Instagram

• AGCI on Facebook

• AGCI on TikTok

Resources Mentioned

• All God's Children International

• Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development

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Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Introduction and Welcome
• (00:01:00) - Meet Amanda Purvis and Her Journey into Child Welfare
• (00:02:26) - AGCI's Shift to Family Preservation
• (00:03:47) - Discovering TBRI and Early Integration
• (00:07:15) - Redefining Success as a Parent
• (00:15:36) - What Keeps Amanda in This Work
• (00:20:30) - The Weight of Being a Translator of TBRI
• (00:25:33) - The Danger of Caregivers as Healers
• (00:28:35) - Children's Agency and Generational Shifts
• (00:34:40) - The Chick-fil-A Story and Family Dynamics
• (00:38:40) - Applying Principles at AGCI: Systems and Reunification
• (00:43:33) - Practicing Values at Home vs. Work
• (00:48:42) - Being Steeped in What Matters to Your Kids
• (00:51:58) - Modeling Resiliency and Self-Grace
• (00:56:27) - Advice for Sustaining This Work Long-Term
• (00:59:34) - Caregiver Resiliency Framework and Closing Thoughts