Living The Third Way
Living The Third Way
Shaelyn and Adrian Misiak
Family is complicated. Even the people we love most can hurt us... and we can hurt them. Sometimes it feels like the only way to protect yourself is to either run away from it all — or stuff everything down and pretend you’re fine.We get it. Because we’ve lived it.We’re Shae and Adrian Misiak — Catholic mentors and mental health professionals — doing the hard and beautiful work of healing family wounds while raising a family of our own.If you’ve ever felt stuck between cutting off a parent to survive,or staying quiet to keep the peace… we’re here to tell you: there’s another way.And this podcast explores what that actually looks like.Here are some of the themes you’ll hear us talk about:the messy reality of family lifenavigating difficult relationships with integrityforgiveness that doesn’t ask you to forget the pastgrief that doesn’t require you to shut down lovewhere and how God is working in the places that feel most brokenThese episodes will meet you where you are and walk with you toward where God is inviting you to go.You'll find honest conversations about becoming whole in real time, as we learn to love with both courage and compassion.If you’re trying to build a healthier family than the one you came from,or if you simply want to stop carrying all of this alone…put us in your earbuds and listen along.Walk with us as we explore what it takes to live the Third Way —where joy is found, right alongside the hard and holy work of healing.
Is Tending to Yourself Sinful? Self-Love, Family Wounds, and the Catholic Case for Interior Attentiveness
Something one participant said near the end of their first group cohort stopped Shae and Adrian in their tracks: tending to the self doesn't just feel selfish — it feels sinful. In this episode, they unpack why that belief is so common, where it comes from, and why they believe the opposite is true: that interior attentiveness is not a detour from holiness but the very ground it grows from. In this episode: Why the fear that self-focus is sinful is so deeply formed — and why it masquerades as...
Apr 10
1 hr 11 min
Embracing Conflict in Marriage: The Power of Self-Gift and Vulnerability
Discover how fighting can be a gateway to deeper intimacy and growth in marriage. Shae and Adrian share raw stories, frameworks, and spiritual insights on how conflict, when approached with tenderness and self-awareness, transforms into a gift that reveals the true depth of love. In this episode: Why conflict is a normal and essential part of marriage, not the enemyHow childhood wounds and past experiences shape our reactions in disagreementsThe importance of vulnerability and raw honesty in ...
Mar 9
1 hr 9 min
Self-Reliance Is a House of Cards: Why “manifesting” can’t save you and what actually can
Self-reliance often begins as survival and slowly becomes a prison. In this episode of Living the Third Way, Shae and Adrian explore how self-reliance forms in families where it wasn’t safe to struggle, need help, or fail. What begins as a protective adaptation can quietly turn into a belief that you must carry life alone and that suffering means you’re doing something wrong. They examine how modern manifestation culture and New Thought spirituality reinforce this pattern by promising control...
Feb 2
1 hr 8 min
Self-Stewardship, Not Self-Improvement: What If This Year Is an Experiment?
The start of a new year often brings resolutions, pressure, and quiet disappointment when we don’t live up to our plans. But what if there’s a different way to begin? In this episode, we propose an alternative to self-improvement: self-stewardship. Rather than fixing or optimizing yourself, what if this year became an experiment — a chance to see whether caring for the self you’ve been given actually leads to more freedom, presence, and life? We explore what it looks like to tend to your inte...
Jan 7
55 min
Healing From Within: What the Incarnation Teaches Us About Being Human
At Christmas, we celebrate a God who does not heal from a distance, but enters fully into our humanity. In this episode, we explore what the Incarnation reveals about the way real healing unfolds — not through bypassing emotion, body, or relationship, but through inhabiting them with truth and love. Drawing from Catholic anthropology and the Third Way framework, we reflect on why God chose flesh and blood, what that means for our nervous systems, our family relationships, and our longing for ...
Dec 22, 2025
41 min
Advent, Waiting, and the Slow Work of Becoming Whole
Advent draws us into a kind of waiting that’s active, hopeful, and deeply human. In this episode, we explore how holy waiting mirrors the slow, interior work of healing — in ourselves, in our relationships, and within our families. We share how waiting became a core part of our own story: navigating old patterns, living in the tension of the “not yet,” and learning to trust that God works in hidden places long before change becomes visible. In this episode, we discuss: What Advent teaches us ...
Dec 12, 2025
1 hr 12 min
Inside the Story That Started Third Way Mentorship (plus some holiday survival tips!)
In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the real beginning of Third Way Mentorship — long before we ever had a name for it. We start with a simple question we get all the time: What is mentorship, and how did we end up doing this work? We share how daily accompaniment became not just a professional calling, but the very thing that transformed our lives, our marriage, and the way we relate to the people we love most. Inside this episode, we explore: • What mentorship actually is • H...
Nov 19, 2025
1 hr 17 min
Why We're Launching on All Saints Day: Communion, Community, and the Work of Healing
We launched on All Saints Day because we want the saints’ intercession over this work—and because their lives show us what integrated, grace-filled healing looks like. In this first conversation, we unpack the Communion of Saints, what healthy community is meant to give us (love, belonging, formation), and why so many of us feel isolated in a culture of dis-integration—often beginning in the family, the “cell of society.” We name the pain without getting stuck in blame. Adrian shares a person...
Nov 1, 2025
36 min
Welcome to The Third Way
Torn between protecting your heart and staying close to the people you love? There’s another way — and it starts here. Join us to start healing family dysfunction by restoring order, finding freedom, and living in joy. This trailer introduces the Third Way — a path to wholeness right in the middle of the messy, beautiful work of family life. Connect with Shae and Adrian: Website: adrianandshae.com Email: [email protected] Instagram: @adrianandshae
Oct 26, 2025
3 min