Good therapy changes lives: people stop worrying as much, they make better decisions, they are kinder to themselves and their loved ones, they achieve more at work, they can control their anger, they are able to stop destructive habits, they form loving relationships.

This week therapists Graham Johnston and Matt Wotton talk to Andrew about their new book, A Straight Talking Introduction to Therapy. Matt and Graham both experienced the transformative power of effective therapy, and both left lucrative, high-status careers to retrain as therapists. They discuss the evidence that therapy works, which type of therapy to choose, and why it works so well. 

Graham Johnston is a psychotherapist and educator. He is Director of Policy at The Bowlby Centre, the UK’s leading training institution in attachment-based psychotherapy, and has also worked for the UK Government, specialising in home affairs. He and Matt Wotton are the Co-Founders and Directors of LCAP. 

Matt Wotton is a psychotherapist and executive coach, and also Chair of The Bowlby Centre and Director at LCAP. Matt has over two decades of experience in forensic mental health in the criminal justice system - in operations, coaching leaders, and advising ministers. He led the review of Race in the Criminal Justice System (The Lammy Review), commissioned by the Prime Minister, and has been a member of the Prison & Probation Board. 

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things https://andrewgmarshall.com/download/ 

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools https://courses.andrewgmarshall.com/relationship-tools 

Read Graham Johnston and Matt Wotton’s new book A Straight Talking Introduction to Therapy: What it Is, Why it Works, How to Get it 

Learn more about the London Centre for Applied Psychology (LCAP), where Graham Johnston and Matt Wotton work as Directors.

Learn more about The Bowlby Centre,  the UK’s leading training institution in attachment-based psychotherapy.

Follow LCAP on Twitter and Facebook @LCAPsychology.

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

How can we live with loss? What can we do when death shakes to the core our comfortable belief that life is predictable, the world is just, and people are reliable?

 This week Dr Robert A. Neimeyer of the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition joins Andrew to discuss the work of grief.

Andrew and Robert discuss the task of rebuilding meaning in the face of death, relationship breakdown or unwelcome life transitions. Robert shares his “six tasks of grief”, which are designed to help integrate loss into our lives. 

Dr Robert A. Neimeyer directs the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, actively practices as a trainer, consultant and coach, and has published over 600 articles and 35 books, most on grieving as a meaning-making process. His most recent books are New Techniques of Grief Therapy with Routledge and The Handbook of Grief Therapies with Sage.

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things https://andrewgmarshall.com/download/ 

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools https://courses.andrewgmarshall.com/relationship-tools 

Read Dr Robert A. Neimeyer’s books, New Techniques of Grief Therapy and The Handbook of Grief Therapies.

Find out more about the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition https://www.portlandinstitute.org/about-us .

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall 

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

Have you allowed yourself to explore your sexual fantasies, or do they feel like dark territory that is off-limits? Have you explored them with your partner?

This week I talk to Jungian psychotherapist Dr Douglas Thomas about his new book, The Deep Psychology of BDSM and Kink. We cover:

• Why it’s so hard to talk about your fantasies with your partner.

Dr Douglas Thomas is an author and a Jungian psychotherapist in private practice in California. He has presented workshops and talks throughout the state of California on LGBTQ issues and on dream therapy, his two areas of specialization. He teaches at the Pacifica Graduate Institute. Dr. Thomas holds a masters degree from the USC School of Social Work, and a PhD in Depth Psychology with an emphasis in psychotherapy from Pacifica Graduate Institute. 

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things https://andrewgmarshall.com/download/ 

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools https://courses.andrewgmarshall.com/relationship-tools 

Buy Dr Douglas Thomas’ new book, The Deep Psychology of BDSM and Kink https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Psychology-BDSM-Kink/dp/1032122072 

Visit Dr Douglas Thomas’ website https://www.drdouglasthomas.com 

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall 

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

If you were raised in a sad, chaotic home, you will unsurprisingly experience difficulties in your adult relationships. If your parents were cold and distant and discouraged the expression of emotions, you’ll be equally ill-prepared for successful relationships or effective parenting.

This week Andrew talks to Dr Samantha Rodman Whiten (also known as Dr Psych Mom) about dysfunctional parenting and how to overcome its complex legacies. 

Dr Samatha Rodman Whiten is a clinical psychologist, a writer, and the mother of three children. She hosts and writes the hugely popular Dr Psych Mom podcast and blog. 

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things 

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools 

Visit Dr Samantha Rodman Whiten’s website, DrPsychMom.com 

Listen to Dr Samantha Rodman Whiten’s podcast The Dr. Psych Mom Show 

Dr. Samantha Rodman Whiten also runs Best Life Behavioral Health, a virtual group practice of therapists and coaches.

Follow Dr Samantha Rodman Whiten on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @drpsychmom.

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall 

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

Estrangement from adult children can be one of the most disorienting and painful experiences of a parent's life. 

This week, Andrew talks to Dr Joshua Coleman, the author of Rules of Estrangement. They discuss:

• Why estrangement has become so common

Dr Joshua Coleman is a psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and a Senior Fellow with the Council on Contemporary Families. He has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. He has been a frequent guest on The Today Show and NPR, and has even been featured on Sesame Street.

 Follow Up

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things 

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools 

Buy Dr Joshua Coleman’s new book, Rules of Estrangement 

Visit Dr Joshua Coleman’s website 

You might also enjoy Andrew’s interview with Celia Dodd on how to Navigate Your Relationship with Your Adult Children

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

Could the ancient wisdom of Taoism help us with the emotional challenges of modern life? Author and Taoist priest Greg Ripley believes that a little-known 6th-century Taoist text called the Bai Yao Lu (Statutes of the Hundred Remedies) offers some profound answers.

In this episode, Greg and Andrew discuss some of the Hundred Remedies, and how they can help us go with the flow, deepen our meditation practice and find the natural balance in all things.

Greg Ripley is a Taoist Priest in the 22nd generation of the Quanzhen Longmen tradition as well as a Nature and Forest Therapy Guide. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree in acupuncture from Northwestern Health Sciences University. He is the author of The Hundred Remedies of the Tao, Tao of Sustainability and Voice of the Elders. He lives in Golden Valley, Minnesota.

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things 

Buy Greg Ripley’s book, The Hundred Remedies of the Tao: Spiritual Wisdom for Interesting Times 

Visit Greg Ripley’s website 

Follow Greg Ripley on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. 

You might also enjoy Andrew’s interview with Henry Emmons, Bring More Calm and Joy Into Your Life 

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

For many women, intense caring and nurturing relationships cause their inner fire to dim, leaving them feeling they have lost themselves.

Author and Jungian analyst Lisa Marchiano’s new book is called The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire. Lisa wrote the book to help women “break free from the conditioning that has kept them confined to rigid roles and muffled the sound of their soul”.

Andrew and Lisa discuss the eight qualities Lisa identifies in the book: shrewdness, disagreeableness, desire, trickiness, sexuality, anger, authority, and ruthlessness. They also cover the ways in which the ancient wisdom of fairy tales (such as The Frog Prince and Fitcher’s Bird) can help women access these lost qualities and build a more complete, authentic self.

Lisa Marchiano is an award-winning author, certified Jungian analyst, and the co-host of This Jungian Life podcast. Her highly-acclaimed books draw upon the healing wisdom of fairy tales to help women connect more deeply with themselves.

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things.

Take a look at Andrew’s new online course: My Best Relationship Tools

Read Lisa Marchiano’s new book, The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire or her first book, Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself.

Get a free 1-month trial of Lisa Marchiano’s new online fairy tale group for women, Spinning Straw

Listen to or watch This Jungian Life podcast  

Visit Lisa Marchiano’s website.

Follow Lisa Marchiano on Instagram  and Twitter @lisamarchiano 

Listen to Andrew’s 2021 interview with Lisa Marchiano on Being a Mother. 

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

Read Andrew’s Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

Menopause is a seismic transition for women, and for their partners. The physical and emotional changes it brings will undoubtedly reverberate into a couple’s sex life. 

Irish therapist Beth Wallace believes that this transition can be an opportunity rather than an ending. While decreases in hormones definitely impact women’s bodies in some detrimental ways (which will need management), decreased satisfaction with our sensual and sexual lives is NOT inevitable.

Andrew and Beth discuss the ways in which the natural changes of menopause can be a time to reflect on desire, expectations and sexual creativity. With good communication, menopause can allow a couple to reflect on their new life stage, and maximise its opportunities. 

Beth Wallace is a psychotherapist and applied psychology graduate. She supports adults to create and maintain satisfying intimate relationships with themselves, with others & with life itself through private client sessions with individuals & couples, workshops, online courses, retreats & intensives.

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s NEW free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Take a look at Andrew’s new online course: My Best Relationship Tools

Explore Beth Wallace’s website 

Follow Beth Wallace @bethwallacerelationships on Facebook , @drbethwallace on Instagram and Twitter, and on LinkedIn.

You might be interested in some of Andrew’s other interviews:

• Tracey Cox on Great Sex After 50.

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there. 

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

If you’ve suffered serious trauma, you may well be feeling confused by the sudden ubiquity of the term. The concept of trauma is having its cultural moment in the sun, and seems to be constantly under discussion on social media. 

This week, Andrew speaks to Jeremy Fox, a therapist and trauma specialist, about:

• How to define trauma

Jeremy Fox is a licensed mental health therapist, certified professional counseling supervisor, and an EMDR trauma counselor and consultant. He has been published in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research.

Subscriber Content This Week

If you’re a subscriber to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Patreon), this week you’ll be hearing:

• The link between anxiety and trauma

Follow Up

Get Andrew’s NEW free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things 

Take a look at Andrew’s new online course: My Best Relationship Tools.

Read Jeremy Fox’s Substack newsletter 

Follow Jeremy Fox on LinkedIn 

You might be interested in Andrew’s other episodes on trauma:

• Galit Atlas on Buried Trauma

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there https://bit.ly/TheMeaningfulLifeSubstack 

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

I’m excited to launch my new online course for couples: My Best Relationship Tools. This week, I talk with my friend and podcast engineer, Michael Dooney, about how the course can make a difference in your relationship.

We discuss:

• Why couples struggle to communicate

• How to stop using failing strategies

• New ways of approaching conflict

• How to listen, build rapport and make certain both of you feel heard

• Healing your relationship.

Follow Up

Find out more about my course: My Best Relationship Tools.

Get my free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things