K.J. Ramsey, MA, LPC - The Place Between Our Pains - D3

Joy and pain are not opposites, and you do not have to wait for your body to improve before your life can hold beauty. K.J. Ramsey, a trauma therapist and author living with lupus, Sjögren's, and several other conditions, makes that case not as theory but as testimony, recorded live on the book tour for her memoir The Place Between Our Pains: A Memoir of What Joy Can Survive. This session is a reading and conversation filmed at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with journalist and memoirist Jeff Chu. K.J. reads from her memoir, then talks candidly with Jeff about writing the book by hand when she was too sick to sit at a desk, learning she had a rare, aggressive tumor one month before her book launch, and what it means to say she is well while carrying more diagnoses than ever. An audience Q&A with other patients and therapists closes the hour. What you will take away Why hope is a team sport, and how a support team gets built through small, practiced risks rather than found ready-made. A reframe of the body as not a thing to possess nor a problem to solve, but a place to love, offered against the clinical habit of calling a body "it." What it looks like to let people love you at your least presentable, and why tolerating the pain of feeling alone is often the first move toward connection. A therapist's honest account of living alongside pain that does not resolve, with no tips, no fixes, and no promise that it gets easier. About K.J. Ramsey K.J. Ramsey is a body-centered licensed professional counselor specializing in trauma recovery, and the author of The Place Between Our Pains, The Book of Common Courage, The Lord Is My Courage, and This Too Shall Last. She describes herself as a disabled mystic devoted to the joy of being alive. She writes the Embodied newsletter and lives with lupus, Sjögren's, and several other chronic conditions. In conversation with Jeff Chu Jeff Chu is an award-winning journalist, essayist, preacher, and speaker, and the author of the memoir Good Soil. He serves as editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure, teacher in residence at Crosspointe Church in Cary, North Carolina, and parish associate for storytelling and witness at First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, California. Filmed by Amy Warkentien of Flourish Films at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Not registered yet? If you want to join the conversation live, July 16 to 18, 2026, register for the free Virtual Sjögren's Summit: https://sjogrenssummit.com Connect with K.J. Ramsey Website: https://kjramsey.com Instagram:   / kjramseywrites   Facebook:   / kjramseywrites   Threads: https://threads.com/kjramseywrites Newsletter: https://kjramseywrites.substack.com Chapters 0:00 Welcome from K.J. Ramsey 2:09 On stage with Jeff Chu 2:46 First reading: the joy that survives 11:55 Second reading: the body is a place to love 15:18 A rare tumor, one month before launch 18:57 Writing the memoir by hand 25:55 Blessing your survival 28:16 Hope is a team sport: building your support team 33:33 Letting people love you at your least presentable 37:36 Audience Q&A 39:50 Being a therapist while living with chronic illness 44:45 Naming what is good: a closing blessing This session is educational and does not take the place of individual medical advice. Please bring what resonates to the care team who helps you manage your health.