479.3K
Downloads
226
Episodes
Hello, I am a marital therapist, communications trainer and author. I have thirty-five years helping couples and individuals make better relationships. I have written twenty-plus self-help books which include the international best-sellers ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you’ and ‘How can I ever trust you again?’ My books have been translated into twenty languages. I trained with RELATE the UK’s largest counselling charity. Perhaps it has been turning sixty but I have become interested in spiritual as well as psychological questions. Who am I? What are my values – as opposed to my parents, my teachers and the wider society? What makes my life meaningful? What do I believe about life, the universe and everything? Although my clients might come to me because of destructive arguments, falling out of love and infidelity, they are also interested in having more meaningful relationships and a more meaningful life. So what is the meaningful life? Why do we so easily lose our way and get lost in depression, anxiety, doubt, addictions and obsessions: the swamplands of the soul? One thing I know for sure is that there is not one answer. Each of us has to find out for ourselves what makes our life meaningful. But we can learn from each other, share our experiences of how to navigate the journey, how to endure and learn from the swamp, and finally how to find solid ground. I have decided to use my original training in radio and journalism to interview witnesses for what makes life meaningful. Each week, I invite someone who is a therapist, academic, self-help coach or who has an enlightening personal story to share their knowledge or experiences. I hope our discussions will help you discover what makes your life meaningful and find more purpose and contentment.
Episodes
Monday Oct 10, 2022
Monday Oct 10, 2022
What happens if you ignore the voices in your head urging you to change your life? Most likely they will make themselves heard in some way, be it positive or negative.
Dawn Kohler was an award-winning entrepreneur in the computer industry when she was abruptly summoned to take a life-altering course. She began to receive “messages”, which launched her on an extraordinary healing process.
In this episode Dawn and Andrew talk about Dawn’s journey through anxiety, depression and a relentless pull towards the unknown (all while also trying to meet the needs of a young family).
Dawn Kohler is an author and sought-after executive coach, working with leaders at companies including Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, DreamWorks, Fox, Snapchat, Disney, and Amazon. She serves on the Board of Step-Up, a non-profit organisation to help mentor teen girls in low-income areas.
Dawn has written 3 books, including her recent memoir, The Messages, the story of her journey to wholeness and fulfillment.
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:
⭐️Five ways for successful women to stop feeling the need to prove themselves.
⭐️Three things Dawn knows to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
You can purchase or read a sample of Dawn’s new book The Messages here
You can find more information about Dawn Kohler’s workshops, books and coaching on her website
You can also follow Dawn on Facebook
You might also enjoy listening to Andrew’s interviews with Kay Hutchison on Navigating Midlife Crisis or with Philip Carr-Gomm on Building an Authentic Life.
You may also like to read Andrew’s book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and be Stronger, Wiser and Happier
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
Monday Oct 03, 2022
Monday Oct 03, 2022
If you’re feeling stuck in your life, could the way forward be found in your dreams? Your dreams are direct messages from your subconscious, and can tell you a huge amount if you pay them a little attention.
This week’s guest, Machiel Klerk, is a Jungian analyst and the founder of the Jung Platform. He is also the author of Dream Guidance, a guide to connecting with and finding guidance from the soul through your dreams.
Andrew and Machiel discuss Machiel’s dream incubation techniques: Machiel provides guidance on how to ask your subconscious a question relating to a specific situation in your life, and have the answer offered by your dreams.
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:
⭐️Four techniques to better interpret your dreams.
⭐️3 things Machiel knows to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Read Machiel Klerk’s book Dream Guidance
Visit Machiel Klerk’s website
Visit the Jung Platform
Follow Machiel Klerk on Facebook and Instagram
Listen to some of our other episodes featuring Jungian analysts, including James Hollis on Resilience, Lisa Marchiano on Motherhood, Susan Schwartz on Fathers and Daughters and Robert Hopcke on Meaningful Coincidence.
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.
Monday Sep 26, 2022
Monday Sep 26, 2022
If we know anything for sure about love, it’s that our beloved will change as time passes. They will look different, believe new things and feel new sorrows and joys.
Psychologist and author Dr Matthew McKay has written a new book on how we can keep love alive in an age of impermanence. He talks with Andrew about five ways to keep loving in the face of change, loss or disappointment:
⭐️Truly knowing the people we love
⭐️Actively caring for loved ones
⭐️Cultivating compassion
⭐️Setting a daily intention to act with love
⭐️Turning toward the pain of impermanence, not away from it.
Matthew has a strong belief that the power of love continues after life is over, and he and Andrew also discuss how to keep loving and communicating with those who are gone.
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:
⭐️Matthew discussing his “navigation principle” - a way to see more clearly how we approach life’s big decisions.
⭐️Matthew’s gratitude meditation to help you clean out the wounds of life.
⭐️3 things Matthew knows to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Buy Dr Matthew McKay’s new book Love in the Time of Impermanence
Read Dr Matthew McKay’s book on the transition to the afterlife: The Luminous Landscape of the Afterlife
Take a look at Dr Matthew McKay’s author page on the Inner Traditions website.
Read some of Dr Matthew McKay’s other books
You might also enjoy Andrew’s interviews with Paul Gilbert on Compassion and Self-Acceptance and with Terry Real on the Five Traps that Undermine Your Love.
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
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Monday Sep 19, 2022
How can we cope when life turns very dark? The culture tends to suggest we fix ourselves, work through the grief, and get back to normal as quickly as possible.
If we accept the challenge to go deeper, though, getting up close with the darkness of life can be enriching and freeing.
Ancient and non-Western cultures tend to offer more routes into the “underworld”. Jungian psychotherapist Dr Joanna LaPrade is the author of a new book called Forged In Darkness, in which she explores how myth and stories can help us navigate our way through the shadows.
In this episode Joanna shares stories and real-life examples to help you understand your own darkness. She and Andrew discuss:
- Creating your own rituals to deal with darkness
- Generational darkness: millennials and failure, babyboomers and shame.
- The transformative experience of suffering
Dr Joanna LaPrade is an author, educator and Jungian psychotherapist. She has a private practice in Colorado U.S.A.
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 mythical gods and heroes who can best help us understand suffering.
⭐️3 things Joanna knows to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter The Meaningful Life, and join the community there.
Read Dr Joanna LaPrade’s book Forged In Darkness
Visit Dr Joanna LaPrade’s website
Read Andrew’s memoir about the loss of his partner, My Mourning Year.
Listen to some of our other episodes on grief, such as David Kessler on the Sixth Stage of Grief, or to other Jungian guests such as James Hollis on Resilience.
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.
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Is it possible to fall in love with your partner over and over again? Can you hope to hold onto passionate sex as you grow older together?
This week Andrew is joined by Dr Cheryl Fraser, an author, Buddhist teacher, psychologist and sex therapist. They explore the nature and longevity of passion, including:
⭐️Libido and why it can wane over time
⭐️How mindfulness works in the bedroom
⭐️The “passion triangle” - intimacy, thrill, sensuality.
Dr Cheryl Fraser is the author of Buddha’s Bedroom, and the host of the Sex, Love and Elephants podcast. She also runs an online programme for couples, Become Passion.
Dr Cheryl has helped thousands of couples jump-start their love life and create passion that lasts a lifetime. She lives in Vancouver, where she has a thriving private practice in sex and couples therapy. She is regularly featured in Mindful and Best Health magazines. Dr Cheryl was also a Fulbright scholar, and has studied meditation and Buddhism for twenty-five years, in both the Tibetan and Theravaden traditions.
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:
⭐️Cheryl & Andrew on 3 big relationship myths
⭐️How Buddhism’s 4 Noble Truths can lead to a more loving, connected relationships.
⭐️3 things Cheryl knows to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack publication, The Meaningful Life
Learn more about Dr Cheryl’s online immersion program for couples, Become Passion. It will be offered only once in 2022, in October. Join the waitlist here.
Sign up to receive Lovebytes, Dr Cheryl’s tips and techniques to help you create love that lasts a lifetime.
Read Dr Cheryl’s book, Buddha’s Bedroom
Listen to Dr Cheryl’s podcast Sex, Love and Elephants
Follow Dr Cheryl on Facebook and YouTube
Read Andrew’s book I Love You But I’m Not In Love With You
Read Andrew’s blog Seven Secrets for Making Marriage Last
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.
Monday Sep 05, 2022
Monday Sep 05, 2022
This week we are celebrating our 100th episode. To mark the occasion, we have a very special guest: Julia Samuel MBE, who is one of the UK’s foremost psychotherapists, as well as an author and an expert on grief.
Julia and Andrew discuss:
⭐️How grief and loss pass from generation to generation
⭐️How you can protect your own children from generational trauma
⭐️Using boundaries, rituals and positive conflict techniques to help your family heal.
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:
⭐️Julia’s 12 touchstones for the wellbeing of a family.
⭐️3 things Julia knows to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter and join the community there
Read Julia Samuel’s book Every Family has a Story: How We Inherit Love and Loss
Read Julia Samuel’s other books This Too Shall Pass : Stories of Change, Crisis and Hopeful Beginnings and Grief Works : Stories of Life, Death and Surviving
Take a look at Julia Samuel’s website
Follow Julia Samuel on Facebook and Instagram @JuliaSamuelMBE
Listen to other episodes dealing with generational inheritances: Terry Real on Five Traps that Undermine Your Love, Jed Diamond on Your Personal Creation Story and Philippa Perry on What You Wish Your Parents Knew.
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
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.
Monday Aug 29, 2022
Monday Aug 29, 2022
Some of us spend years having the same arguments with our partner, on repeat. Others drift into a state of lonely togetherness where we don’t bother to talk about discontents, because it just feels pointless.
Joanna Harrison is a marital therapist who has identified five arguments that all couples need to have. If you can work through these issues, your chances of building a healthy, happy relationship are much stronger.
In this week’s episode, Andrew and Joanna discuss basic skills for productive conflict, why we try to avoid arguments, and how therapy can help.
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:
⭐️Joanna’s examples of practical strategies that have worked best for the couples she sees.
⭐️Andrew and Joanna’s best piece of advice for couples struggling to disagree productively.
⭐️3 things Joanna KNOWS to be true.
⭐️AND subscribers can also explore a rich trove of bonus material on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and all his previous guests.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter and join the community there
Get Joanna Harrison’s book Five Arguments All Couples (Need to) Have and Why the Washing-Up Matters
Take a look at Joanna Harrison’s website https://joannaharrison.co.uk
Follow Joanna Harrison on Twitter @JoCoupleTherapy and on Instagram @joannaharrisoncoupletherapist
Listen to other The Meaningful Life episodes on marriage and relationships: Dr Terry Real on Five Traps that Undermine Your Love and Matthew Fray on How Good People Mess Up Their Marriages
Read Andrew’s book I Love You But I’m Not In Love With You: Seven Steps to Saving Your Relationship
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.
Monday Aug 22, 2022
Monday Aug 22, 2022
Society encourages us to focus hard on “doing, achieving and having”. According to Professor Paul Gilbert, though, we would likely be much happier if we instead worked on being more compassionate to ourselves and others.
In this episode Andrew and Paul discuss:
⭐️Why being compassionate ISN’T being weak
⭐️Three key pillars of compassion: assertiveness, forgiveness & apology
⭐️Why compassion increases feelings of contentment and wellbeing.
⭐️Exercises you can do to become more compassionate
⭐️The vagus nerve and its role in regulating anxiety and moods.
Professor Paul Gilbert Paul Gilbert FBPsS, PhD, OBE is the Founder and President of The Compassionate Mind Foundation. He is also Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and honorary visiting Prof at the University of Queensland. Paul was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 1993, president of the BABCP for 2002-2004, and was a member of the first British Government’s NICE guidelines for depression. He has written/edited 23 books and over 300 papers and book chapters. He was awarded an OBE by the Queen in March 2011 for services to mental health.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter and join the community there.
Read Paul Gilbert’s book The Compassionate Mind
See Paul Gilbert’s other books
Paul Gilbert is the Founder and President of The Compassionate Mind Foundation
Follow the Compassionate Mind Foundation on Facebook @CompMindFound, on Twitter @CompMindFound, on Instagram @compassionatemind_foundation and on LinkedIn.
Learn more about the vagus nerve - “Everything you need to know about the vagus nerve” in Medical News Today and “This Nerve Influences Nearly Every Internal Organ. Can It Improve Our Mental State, Too?” in The New York Times.
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
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.
Monday Aug 15, 2022
Monday Aug 15, 2022
What if divorce were not the end? This week’s podcast guests, Tommy and Gina Mulligan, share their journey from acrimonious divorce back to happy coupledom.
Tommy and Gina started out as high school sweethearts and grew up together to create a happy life and family. As Tommy’s career accelerated, however, they encountered problems with work/life balance, gendered relationship stereotypes and a problematic dynamic that sometimes felt more like a parent and child than a married couple.
Later, however, they were able to rediscover their spark and develop their own unique approach to starting over. This involved working on communication skills, but also agreeing to parcel away the bad times and start again from the point where there had been harmony.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter and join the community there
Follow Tommy and Gina on Twitter @2ndtimearound22
Read Andrew’s book The Happy Couple’s Handbook – Powerful Life Hacks for a Successful Relationship
Listen to some of our other episodes on marriage and relationships - including Irene Fehr on Why Desire Disappears in Committed Relationships and Terry Real on The Five Traps that Undermine Your Love .
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
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.
Monday Aug 08, 2022
Monday Aug 08, 2022
Do you fall too easily into the role of rescuer in your relationships? Being the eternal rescuer is exhausting, and it tends to cast those around you in the roles of victim and persecutor.
Or, often, you and your partner will switch between the roles, caught in an eternal and unproductive “drama triangle”. None of the three roles are likely to allow true self-expression, and getting stuck in this cycle is draining and dispiriting.
This week Andrew talks with psychotherapist, spiritual teacher and author Chris Partridge about escaping the rescuer role, and developing the spiritual muscle to be able to really understand what your emotions are telling you.
Follow Up
Read Andrew’s new Substack newsletter and join the community there
Buy Chris Partridge’s book Wake Up: What Are Your Emotions Really Telling You?
Visit Chris Partridge’s website
Follow Chris Partridge on Facebook @WakeUpGuideBook and on Instagram @wakeupguide
Read Andrew’s book The Happy Couple’s Handbook – Powerful Life Hacks for a Successful Relationship
Listen to some of our other episodes on marriage and relationships - including Irene Fehr on Why Desire Disappears in Committed Relationships and Terry Real on The Five Traps that Undermine Your Love .
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
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.