Sunburnt Souls: A Christian Mental Health Podcast
Searching for real conversations about Christian mental health — faith, anxiety, depression, and emotional resilience — shared with raw honesty and biblical hope? You’ve found it. Sunburnt Souls is a Christian mental health podcast where faith and mental health meet real life. Each episode offers faith-based coping strategies, spiritual encouragement, and raw stories of hope. I’m Pastor Dave Quak — an Aussie pastor living with bipolar disorder — and I know what it’s like to follow Jesus through the highs, lows, and everything in between. You’ll hear powerful stories, biblical encouragement, and practical tools for navigating anxiety, depression, burnout, and mental wellness as a follower of Christ. Whether you’re battling darkness, searching for joy, or just trying to make sense of it all, you’re not alone. Sunburnt Souls is a safe, unfiltered space for faith-filled conversations and honest connection. 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 🌐 Learn more at sunburntsouls.com
Episodes
After 89 episodes, Dave and Jess Quak open up about taking a short, intentional break from producing the Sunburnt Souls podcast. This conversation dives deep into the rhythms of rest, spiritual renewal, and what it means to step back without stepping away.
They share honestly about attending to their inner life, protecting their marriage, finding God in the quiet, and letting go of performance and pressure. This is a heartfelt conve...
After a BMX crash left him paralysed, Nathan faced years of depression and doubt. Discover how faith, resilience, and community led to real hope.
What happens when your body breaks, but your spirit refuses to?
This powerful Christian mental health story follows one man’s journey from a life-changing BMX accident and paralysis to discovering faith, purpose, and healing in the middle of depression.
What We Cover
- The Crash and t...
When silence and solitude fail, Scripture still speaks. In this heartfelt conversation, Dave Quak and Jess Quak explore how the Bible connects us to God when our minds and emotions feel heavy. From poetic laments to prophetic promises, discover how every part of God’s Word can bring peace, perspective, and presence.
What We Cover
1. Why Genres Matter When You’re Struggling
Understanding the Bible’s genres helps you read with cla...
Why are some people so blunt—and why does it sting? In this honest and humorous episode of Sunburnt Souls: A Christian Mental Health Podcast, Dave and Jess Quak explore why blunt people speak the way they do and how relationships can thrive when truth meets grace. From prophetic personalities and neurodivergence to marriage, faith, and communication, they unpack how clarity can coexist with kindness.
Using biblical insight—includin...
In this solo episode of Sunburnt Souls, a Christian mental health podcast, host Dave Quak opens up about faith, mental illness, and what it means to live a life that’s “unideal” yet deeply loved by God.
From a story about Tony with Tourette’s in church to reflections on his own bipolar journey, Dave explores how God meets us in our brokenness—not despite it.
This episode tackles the stigma around mental health in the church, the real...
Sunburnt Souls is a Christian Mental Health Podcast. This week we meet 18 year old Indigo Rogers. She has already published her first book The Indigo Psalms: Volume One—a raw and beautiful collection of personal psalms written since she was 14. In this episode, Dave Quak sits down with Indigo to talk about faith, mental health, worship, and what it means to bring your whole self before God.
We explore:
- How writing psalms became I...
This is Sunburnt Souls, the Christian Mental Health Podcast. Host Dave Quak welcomes back Tomas Heligr-Pyke...Tom gets real about navigating hallucinations at work, recognising what’s real, and how prayer and gratitude ground his mental health and faith.
We unpack why films like Shutter Island and A Beautiful Mind resonate, how to handle paranoia and “hypothetical catastrophes,” the rhythm of running a business while carrying a seri...
Sunburnt Souls is a Christian Mental Health Podcast. Today, we find out what’s it really like to navigate Christian singleness in your 20s and 30s—while guarding your mental health and staying true to your faith? In this candid conversation, Dom and Sara join Dave to talk dating with purpose, resisting the pressure to “settle,” building real community, and cultivating what Dom calls “mental stamina” for the waiting seasons.
They unp...
This is Sunburnt Souls, the Christian Mental Health Podcast. In Part 2, Jess and Dave Quak continue their discussion... They explore living out a ministry calling, navigating gender-based expectations, and the joys of pastoral work, emphasising authentic leadership and empowering the next generation.
Key Moments
- Introduction and Recap (00:00:00 - 00:01:47): Dave recaps Part 1, focusing on women’s callings and mental health, and a...
In the first of a two-part series on SUNBURNT SOULS, Jess and Dave Quak are joined by Maddy Mandall to discuss the unique challenges and rewards of women in church leadership. Following last week's episode on women in leadership, Maddy shares her journey as a female pastor, her experiences with burnout, and her role in mentoring emerging leaders. The conversation explores the intersection of faith, mental health, and navigatin...
In this episode of Sunburnt Souls, the Christian mental health podcast founded by pastor Dave Quak (who lives with bipolar disorder), Dave sits down with his wife Pastor Jess Quak, to talk candidly about the realities of being a woman in church leadership — and the unique mental health challenges that come with it.
From their early ministry years juggling Bible college, youth ministry, and financial strain, to navigating decades of ...
In this episode of Sunburnt Souls, the Christian mental health podcast founded by pastor Dave Quak (who lives with bipolar disorder), Dave welcomes Joel A'Bell, former Hillsong Global Director and current Oceania Regional Leader for Convoy of Hope. They dive into the mental and emotional toll of high-capacity Christian leadership and how to maintain integrity and spiritual wellbeing through major life and ministry transitions....
In this vital episode of Sunburnt Souls, a Christian mental health podcast, founder Dave Quak (pastor living with bipolar disorder) sits down with pastor, church planter, and creative Ralph Mayhew to explore the raw realities of depression, anxiety, and ministry burnout in the Christian world. Ralph shares his deeply personal journey—struggling with mental health while attending Bible college and serving as a lead pastor—and how he...
In this second part of Ash Morrison’s story on Sunburnt Souls- A Christian Mental Health Podcast, host Dave Quak explores Ash’s journey of rebuilding her life as a Christian woman after divorce. Ash shares the challenges of navigating divorce, parenting three young children (including one with disabilities), and unexpectedly meeting and marrying Zac, a non-Christian at the time. She discusses wrestling with guilt, biblical interpr...
In this powerful episode of the Sunburnt Souls Christian Mental Health Podcast, host Pastor Dave Quak sits down with Monica Cook, a Sydney-based Christian sexologist from Life to the Full, to talk about faith, intimacy, and healing in a world still bound by stigma and silence.
Together they explore how Christian mental health and sexuality intertwine—why guilt, anxiety, and depression so often hide in the shadows of church life—and ...
Host: Dave Quak
In this solo episode of Sunburnt Souls, a Christian Mental Health Podcast, Dave Quak explores the role of AI chatbots, like Wysa, in supporting mental wellbeing, particularly from a Christian perspective. He examines their benefits, limitations, and ethical considerations, drawing on Christian thinkers to provide a balanced view on integrating AI into faith and mental health practices.
Key Points:
- Introduction to A...
It's a powerful lie: that a mental health diagnosis means you can only receive support. On Sunburnt Souls: A Christian Mental Health Podcast, Dave and Jess Quak flip the script! They share honest, real-life insights into how individuals, including those with depression or anxiety, can actively contribute to their family's healing and well-being.
Tune in as they unpack five key areas of reciprocal support:
- Spiritual Lead...
📝 Podcast Show Notes
Episode Summary:
In this powerful episode, we follow one woman’s raw and redemptive journey through decades of mental illness, childhood trauma, sexual abuse, postpartum depression, stage 3 brain cancer, epilepsy, and a massive stroke. From the depths of despair to the heights of hope, she shares how Jesus carried her through the darkest valleys—and how a 75-mile bike ride became a lifeline of purpose and ...
This week on Sunburnt Souls, Dave Quak is back with another raw, real, and at times ridiculous episode—recorded while on family holiday, but packed with depth. He reflects on how short radio soundbites have unexpectedly spread across 14+ stations in Australia, sharing stories that connect faith and mental health in bite-sized doses.
In this episode, Dave takes us on a journey that includes:
- Singing the Home and Away theme in Thai...
Dave Quak shares five real-life stories pulled from our one-minute soundbites airing on 14 Christian radio stations around Australia. From impulsively buying a house during a manic episode to watching a pelican steal a puppy, these moments are strange, hilarious, painful, and deeply human.
Topics we cover:
- 🏠 Mental illness & impulse control (bipolar mania and regret)
- 🐭 Carrying invisible burdens (the mouse on Mum’s shoulder)
- ...
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