The For Peyton Podcast

Description: “This is who I’m going to be for the rest of my life.” Have you ever worried that a hard season has permanently changed you?

Following her conversation with Adams State University President David Tandberg, San Luis Valley therapist Tami Valentine explores grief, identity, and why asking for help can feel so difficult. Drawing on narrative therapy and her own experience with loss, she considers how pain...

Sometimes someone else sees our potential before we can see it ourselves.

In this episode of For Peyton, I sit down with Adams State University President David Tandberg to talk about the people who saw potential in him and how that experience shapes the way he leads today. We explore what it means to help students feel like they belong, the difference a university can make in rural communities, and the responsibility—and somet...

In this clinical deep dive, Tami Valentine explores what healthy relationship repair actually looks like when couples face conflict, stress, grief, disconnection, and major life changes. Using real stories from nearly 30 years of marriage alongside evidence-informed couples therapy concepts, she breaks down recurring conflict patterns, emotional responsiveness, shared coping, and the small ways couples find their way back to each o...

What does nearly 30 years of marriage actually look like?

In this episode of The For Peyton Podcast, I sit down with my husband, Aaron, for an honest conversation about growing up together, raising four kids, navigating money and family stress, learning how to communicate, becoming empty nesters, and grieving the loss of our son, Peyton.

We talk about the things we got right—and plenty of things we got wrong. We share stories f...

In this clinical deep dive, Tami follows up on her conversation with Ashley Moran by exploring a question that can be surprisingly hard to answer: Am I depressed, or am I just going through something really difficult?

Grief, burnout, stress, trauma, and depression can overlap in ways that are difficult to sort out from the inside. But you do not have to perfectly name what you are experiencing before you ask for help.

Tami breaks dow...

In this episode of The For Peyton Podcast, Tami sits down with her friend Ashley Moran for a candid conversation about motherhood, grief, faith, family, and learning how to keep living after devastating loss.

Ashley shares what it was like to lose her husband, Donald, while raising six children, how grief affected each member of the family differently, and what it meant to keep parenting when she was barely getting through the day h...

What happens when the danger is over, but your brain and body still act like it isn’t?

In this clinical deep dive, Tamera explores how trauma affects the brain, nervous system, memory, and threat response—and why survival skills that help us in one environment can become exhausting in another. Using insights from her conversation with Sergeant Nicholas Hazelett, she breaks down PTSD, hypervigilance, avoidance, cumulative...

In this episode of The For Peyton Podcast, I sit down with Nich Hazelett, a sergeant with the Colorado State Patrol, 12-year Air Force veteran, husband, father, and longtime first responder.

Nich shares an honest perspective on the human side of law enforcement—what repeated exposure to trauma can do, how his own experience with PTSD changed the way he leads, and why protecting a person’s dignity matters even in their ha...

In this clinical deep dive, Tami builds on her conversation with Luke Riley to explore leadership far beyond the workplace. She looks at how leadership shows up in marriage, parenting, family systems, and within our own internal world.

Drawing from Bowen family systems theory, Gottman relationship research, Internal Family Systems, Carl Jung, and leadership principles from Stephen Covey and John Maxwell, the episode explores differe...

Luke Riley knows both sides of recovery: the struggle itself and the work of helping others find their way through it. Now a leader in addiction treatment and nearly 19 years into his own recovery, Luke joins me for a candid conversation about addiction, bipolar disorder, leadership, identity, and what happens when success becomes a place to hide.

We talk about learning to separate who you are from what you do, asking for help befor...

Tami Valentine follows her conversation with funeral director Stephen Hunzeker with a clinical deep dive into grief. Drawing from research, her work as a therapist, and her personal experiences following the deaths of her son Peyton and her mother, she explores how grief affects the brain, body, relationships, and spirit.

This episode examines grief waves, nervous-system regulation, ritual, continuing bonds, guilt, boundaries, and t...

Stephen Hunzeker shares insights into his role as a funeral director, the changes in the funeral industry, and the importance of creating rituals around death. He discusses the impact of his work on families and the community, highlighting the need for compassion and understanding during difficult times. The conversation delves into the sacred rituals and emotional toll of funeral preparation, the impact of grief on families, and t...

In this follow-up deep dive episode, Tami builds on her conversation with retired educator Brad Huffaker by exploring public education through a trauma-informed leadership lens.

Tami discusses five principles — safety before correction, connection before escalation, structure as support, repair after rupture, and systems not superheroes — and applies them across the home, classroom, school building, district, and communi...

Retired educator Brad Huffaker joins Tami to reflect on 30 years in public education — from classroom teaching and school technology to administration, CTE, transportation, and district leadership.

In this conversation, Brad shares what he has learned about students, teachers, parents, technology, and the importance of helping kids feel seen. Tami and Brad also discuss the pressure educators are carrying, how smartphones have ...

In the first episode of For Peyton, Tami Valentine shares why she’s starting this podcast and the heart behind it. She introduces the vision for the show: honest, grounded conversations about mental health, grief, growth, and the things people carry that often go unspoken.

Tami also shares about her son, Peyton “Pete” Valentine, whose life, creativity, compassion, and memory inspired this podcast. With both profess...