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Wendy Ulrich

Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D., M.B.A., has been a psychologist in private practice, president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists, and a visiting professor at Brigham Young University. She founded Sixteen Stones Center for Growth, which offers seminar-retreats for Latter-day Saint women and their loved ones (sixteenstones.net). Her books include national bestseller The Why of Work, coauthored with her husband, Dave Ulrich.

October 19, 2023 07:39 AM MDT
While missionaries’ challenges are many, our support from home can make a big difference! Here are a few practical ways parents and friends can help.
7 Min Read
April 23, 2019 09:04 AM MDT
Priesthood power is more than priesthood authority. With priesthood authority (authorization through someone holding priesthood keys), women and men can fulfill callings and assignments, represent the Church as missionaries, make covenants, and perform ordinances that are valid. With both priesthood authority and priesthood power, they can do these things in ways that magnify those callings, invite the Spirit, bless lives, develop spiritual gifts, and even bring about miracles. Relief Society General President Linda K. Burton affirms, “There is a difference . . . between priesthood authority and priesthood power. Priesthood authority is conferred by ordination, but priesthood power is available to all.”1
9 Min Read
April 13, 2019 12:57 PM MDT
"I’m grateful that female lives provide at least some of the images Christ draws on in explaining the mighty realities behind some of our most important symbols for who He is."
6 Min Read
January 08, 2019 04:00 PM MST
One of the most distressing phone calls I ever received came late one evening while my husband, Dave, fairly recently sustained as the bishop of our ward, was out of town on business.
5 Min Read
December 28, 2018 02:00 PM MST
I’ll admit it: sometimes I get tired of the scriptures referring so extensively to men, and I wish I didn’t have to work so hard to apply them to me as a woman. Just to keep sane, I have painstakingly collected scriptures in which Jesus compares Himself to a woman, refers to Zion as “she,” or calls the temple “the house of the daughters of Zion” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:11, 26–27). So I really appreciate scriptures like those above that refer to all of Israel, men and women alike, as the bride of Christ. I’m sort of sadistically grateful that when men read such verses they get to do the same mental gymnastics I have to do in order to remember how we all fit into the picture of God’s relationship to man. Mankind. Humanity. Huwomanity. People. All of us. You know what I mean.
7 Min Read
December 27, 2018 01:59 PM MST
Godly sorrow, or mature guilt, is a constructive emotion. We are guilty of sin, and so feeling guilty is completely appropriate, including feeling deep remorse for our rebellion against God and sorrow for the hurt we have caused others. Awareness of our guilt is the first step in repentance and change. This godly sorrow appropriately follows the recognition that we have violated our own moral code.
4 Min Read
September 22, 2018 12:00 PM MDT
With all the emphasis in the scriptures on repentance, worrying about our weaknesses has almost become a national pastime for good Christian folk and Latter-day Saints in particular. But a psychologist named Martin Seligman figured out that we don’t necessarily become happier by trying to fix what’s wrong with us. Fixing what’s wrong gets us to neutral—to being less miserable and having more options. But we are more likely to get to the positive side, to happiness, by pursuing our strengths.
4 Min Read
August 20, 2018 04:24 PM MDT
In response to our humility about our weakness, God offers to “make weak things become strong” unto us (Ether 12:27). There must be ways for weak things to become strong other than through noticeable improvement in our ability. . . .
4 Min Read
July 21, 2018 12:39 PM MDT
Although Latter-day Saints are among the best people I know, they are also among the most self-critical. Too often we work hard to improve and repent and then fail to fully claim the “amazing grace” of Jesus Christ. As a psychologist and as a Church member, I’ve struggled to help clients, missionaries, friends, and colleagues let go of excessive self-blame and like themselves again.
6 Min Read
March 22, 2018 04:33 PM MDT
When I was about 5 years old, someone gave me a small, iridescent butterfly pin with hinged wings that formed a tiny clasp. I loved how it held securely to my shirt so it would never get lost. I loved that even with my small fingers I could make its wings move, like the wings of a real butterfly. I still remember how much it delighted me.
4 Min Read
December 28, 2017 04:16 PM MST
We learn who we are and what we can expect from others in the context of relationships. Some of what we learn from our mortal relationships encourages us to trust our Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to reach optimistically toward Them. Some of what we learn can interfere with that trust, making it hard to comprehend Their love, let alone be filled with it.
7 Min Read
November 04, 2017 02:58 PM MDT
The following is an excerpt from Weakness Is Not Sin: The Liberating Distinction That Awakens Our Strengths by Wendy Ulrich.
6 Min Read
August 21, 2017 01:05 PM MDT
Admitting our weaknesses is not the easiest thing to do, but we should strive to follow the counsel given in D&C 1:28, "And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time." As we become humble, we will learn how to fulfill the Lord's calling despite those weaknesses and be able to bless others.
2 Min Read
October 22, 2016 12:46 PM MDT
The following is a segment of an address originally given by Latter-day Saint Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D., at the FAIR Mormon conference and reposted with permission. To access the first part of the address, click here.
7 Min Read
October 17, 2016 06:00 PM MDT
The following is a segment of an address originally given by Latter-day Saint Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D., at the FAIR Mormon conference and reposted with permission:
5 Min Read
October 05, 2016 05:00 PM MDT
Both men and women can be given priesthood authority, exercise priesthood power, perform priesthood ordinances, and more.
6 Min Read
July 27, 2016 09:35 AM MDT
Sometimes we are reluctant to draw closer to God because we fear that by doing so, Satan will work harder against us or that God will test us. But learning to trust in God and endure life's storms is vital to us drawing closer to Him. While there are some hardships in life, Heavenly Father can help us benefit from these trials and turn the straw in our lives into gold as we draw closer to Him.
3 Min Read