The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall

We all know that good boundaries are essential if we want happy relationships. There is a lot of confusion, though, about what exactly a boundary is and how to make it work. Can we have too many boundaries? Should we ever compromise on the boundaries we set?

In this week’s classic reissued episode, Andrew talks about boundaries with Graham Johnston and Matt Wotton from the London Centre of Applied Psychology. Matt and Graham share their own experiences of creating boundaries in both love and parenting, and what it means if we are struggling to get this right.

Our ability to set boundaries is linked closely to our attachment style: those with an anxious attachment may allow their boundaries to crumble too easily; while those with an avoidant attachment can have so many rigid boundaries that they struggle to let anyone in.

Andrew also shares a prayer for good boundaries, which he often uses with marital therapy clients:

'I am me and

You are you.

It's a miracle that we've found each other

But I'm responsible for my stuff

And you're responsible for yours'

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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin 

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

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.

Read The Mindful Athlete by George Munford. 

Read the poem “On Marriage” by Kahlil Gibran. 

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

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 

 

There are people in our lives who mesmerise but at the same time diminish and damage us. They excite us about the possibilities life holds, while teaching us that we are not worthy of achieving them. Their impact can be so great that for years after we continue trying to replicate the intensity of our time with them, seeing everything through our monster’s lens. 

Psychotherapist and author Charlotte Fox Weber joins me this week to discuss SACRED MONSTERS - the people we encounter in love, friendship or work whose devastating charisma may shape us for years after they depart. 

We cover:

• Charlotte’s personal experiences with sacred monsters
• Scapegoats in family and society, and how they can also be understood as sacred monsters
• The trickster archetype as sacred monster
• The “perverse imp” inside us that can render us vulnerable to monsters. 

Charlotte Fox Weber is a psychotherapist, author and the founding head of The School of Life Psychotherapy. Her latest book, Sacred Monsters will be available in 2026. 

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests  and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50

This week supporters will hear:

• Maternal Monsters
• Three Things Charlotte Fox Weber 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin 

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

Learn more about Charlotte Fox Weber’s book Sacred Monsters, available 2026 

Read Charlotte Fox Weber’s book, Tell Me What You Want: A Therapist and Her Clients Explore Our 12 Deepest Desires. 

Follow Charlotte Fox Weber on Instagram @charlottefoxweberpsychotherapy

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

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 

 

Throw away your FitBit, stop counting your daily steps, and instead learn to run mindfully. If you can find the three key elements of space, silence and patience, you’ll be far more able to tackle big problems at work and at home.

William Pullen is a psychotherapist who helps clients using his revolutionary method of Dynamic Running Therapy. His work combines movement and talk therapy to harness the synergy of mind, body and spirit.

In this classic reissued episode Andrew and William discuss

🏃🏾‍♂️How a good walk is different from a good run

🏃🏽‍♀️The practice of “asking your run/walk a question”

🏃🏻What the way someone walks can tell us about them. 

William also tackles a particularly thorny reader’s letter about what to do if you find that your smartphone use is taking over your life and spoiling your relationships.

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:

⭐ Running to improve your anger management

⭐ Three things William Pullen 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin 

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

Buy William Pullen’s book Run for Your Life: Mindful Running for a Happy Life

Visit William Pullen’s website 

Watch William Pullen’s TEDx talk “Movement is Medicine”

Follow William Pullen on Instagram @dynamicrunningtherapy and on Twitter @pullentherapy

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

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 

There’s no one set of rules that will see us through. Psychologist and author PROFESSOR ROSS G. WHITE works instead on the concept of psychological flexibility. If we have flexible habits and mindset, we can navigate life’s inevitable storms with at least a degree of strength and grace. 

Ross believes that just as martial arts like jiu-jitsu train students to be grounded and focused, we can also train the mind to be agile and flexible; able to roll with the punches whilst staying true to core values. 

Andrew and Ross discuss:

• How to embrace emotional turbulence, and turn fear, frustration or anxiety into opportunities for growth and learning.
• Facing uncertainty with confidence and purpose. 
• Why we are easily defeated by rigid routines, and how to embrace flexibility in habits and mindset instead. 
• Practical techniques to build mental agility. 

Professor Ross G. White is an award-winning clinical psychologist who specializes in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of adults working in high-performance environments. This includes elite-level athletes in rugby, football, athletics and tennis. He is also an expert in global mental health and has conducted research in collaborations with the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on interventions for reducing distress experienced by refugees in the aftermath of humanitarian crises. He is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology at Queen's University Belfast, and is a director of Strive2Thrive, a training and consultancy.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests  and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50. 

This week supporters will hear:

• Don’t Burden Your Children with your Unlived Life. 
• Three Things Ross G. White 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin. 

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

Read Ross G. White’s new book, The Tree That Bends: How a Flexible Mind Can Help You Thrive 

Visit Ross G. White’s website 

In the bonus episode this week Andrew reads from James Hollis’ book, Living an Examined Life: Wisdom for the Second Half of the Journey. You can buy the book HERE. 

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

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 ever experienced a strange, inexplicable coincidence that left you feeling “like a grand, mysterious character in a story?” One that seemed to suggest a particular relationship was “meant to be”, or, on the flipside, that it was time to let go?

In this week’s classic episode, Andrew talks to Jungian analyst ROBERT HOPCKE about synchronicity: the strange coincidences that make us feel like the universe is sending us a message, or trying to turn our lives around. 

These coincidences have the potential to help us find the meaning we’re seeking. Synchronistic events can offer a sense of underlying wholeness in our lives. They often happen in times of transition, and help us move to the place we need to be. They offer us the opportunity to recognise the symbolic quality of everyday life, and to be alive to the symbolism that everyday objects, events and people present to us.

Robert Hopcke is a Jungian analyst, author and a licensed marital therapist in private practice in Berkeley, California. He is the author of two books on Jung’s concept of synchronicity - There Are No Accidents and There Are No Accidents in Love and Relationships - and a number of other books about Jung. 

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests  and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50. 

This week supporters will hear:

• Three Things Robert Hopcke 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin 

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

Read Robert Hopcke’s book There Are No Accidents: Synchronicity and the Stories of Our Lives

Visit Robert Hopcke’s website 

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

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 changing the rhythm of your breath offer the breakthrough you’ve been looking for?

This week, Andrew talks to psychologist and breathwork expert Dr. Richard Blake—known as The Breath Geek—about the profound impact that conscious breathing can have on mental and physical health. 

Together, Andrew and Richard discuss:

• How breathwork can reduce anxiety and support emotional healing
• A simple breathing exercise you can try right now
• Why working with the body is essential for mental wellbeing
• Differences between how men and women experience somatic therapies

Dr. Richard Blake holds a PhD in Psychology and is a leading expert in breathwork and functional breathing. A former Men’s Health Magazine fitness model, he combines cutting-edge science with holistic practices to help clients achieve mental clarity, resilience, and deeper self-awareness.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests  and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50. 

This week supporters will hear:

• Biohacking: what is it and should we do it?
• Three Things Richard Blake 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin 

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

Visit Richard Blake’s website 

Follow Richard Blake on social media:

• Youtube @richardblake3282
• Instagram @the_breath_geek
• Facebook @thebreathgeek

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

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 

 

Venus O’Hara plans to change the world, one orgasm at a time. She believes women are equally as sexual as men, and should have the time and space to embrace their multi-orgasmic potential.

Venus is a British orgasm activist, author and feminist based in Barcelona. She has a hugely popular YouTube channel on which she discusses the female orgasm and leading a healthy and authentic orgasmic lifestyle.

In this classic reissued episode, Venus and Andrew discuss many aspects of Venus’ journey, including her expertise in fetishism (which Venus sees as an intelligent, imaginative approach to sex, fascinating in its eroticisation of the non-sexual), and her career change from real estate sales to online businesswoman, writer and activist. 

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests  and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50. 

This week supporters will hear:

• Three Things Venus O’Hara 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin. 

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

Watch videos on Venus O’Hara’s YouTube channel

Take a look at Venus O’Hara’s website.

Follow Venus on Instagram @venusohara 

Read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. 

Read Andrew’s book Have the Sex You Want: A Couple’s Guide to Getting Back the Spark

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

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 

 

Can you criticise your partner without starting a flaming row, or causing them to retreat into a wounded silence? If not, you’re not alone. Many of us struggle for years to find a way to manage relationship conflict in an honest, constructive spirit. 

This week, Andrew discusses the secrets of better conflict with relationship coach JACK BOHANNON. Andrew and Jack cover:

• Attachment theory and how it influences our capacity for constructive conflict. 
• Better strategies for giving and receiving feedback.
• The healing power of men’s work. 
• AND, Andrew participates in a role play exercise designed by Jack. 

Jack Bohannan is a certified Somatica relationship coach. He helps clients overcome stuck relationship patterns, insecure attachment, and self-worth issues using somatic techniques. His work is experiential and involves role play, self-disclosure, and genuine conversation.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests  and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50. 

This week supporters will hear:

• How attachment theory can transform your relationship. 
• Three Things Jack Bohannan 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

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin 

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

Visit Jack Bohannan’s website 

Read Jack Bohannan’s writing on Medium

Follow Jack Bohannan on Instagram 

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

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 

 

So many of us have experienced depression, and if not, we’re likely to have seen people we love battle it.

In this week’s classic episode, author KATE LUCEY, who specialises in writing about mental health, talks candidly with Andrew about her own depression and the six-year journey she’s been on since her diagnosis: including physical symptoms and the effects on her personal relationships. 

Kate and Andrew also take a deep dive into what depression means - what might cause it, how therapy can help, and some exercises that have helped Kate manage when feeling overwhelmed. 

Kate Lucey is an author, journalist and public speaker, who has been at the forefront of opening up the conversation about mental health. Kate also specialises in helping brands talk to millennials. Her most recent book is Get a Grip, Love: and Other Helpful Mental Health Advice  “a candid book that uses a mix of colloquial chat, peer and personal experience, and expert advice to talk about tackling mental illness as part of the generation so often poked fun at for having feelings – and who often call themselves out for it, too”.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests  and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50. 

This week supporters will hear:

• Three Things Kate Lucey 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

 

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin.

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

Read Kate Lucey’s book Get A Grip Love

Follow Kate Lucey on Twitter @KateLucey_ 

Read The Wisdom of Depression by Jonathan Zeuss.

Read Swamplands of the Soul by James Hollis.

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

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 

Most of us dislike or even fear conflict with loved ones. Without it, however, you won't achieve sustained intimacy with your partner. 

This week, Andrew talks to writer, psychologist and Jungian analyst Polly Young-Eisendrath, the author of Love Between Equals: Relationship as a Spiritual Path. They explore the challenges and possibilities of building partnerships based on respect, freedom and real dialogue. 

Andrew and Polly discuss:

• What “real dialogue” means—and how to practice mindful curiosity with your partner.
• How and why to stop avoiding conflict with your partner.
• Projective identification in relationships. 
• What to do if you’re feeling defeated or distant in your relationship. 
  

Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., is the founder of the Center for Real Dialogue in Vermont and the author of 19 books. Her work combines psychoanalytic thinking, mindfulness, and Buddhism to illuminate the inner work required to love with both strength and humility. She is also the host of the popular podcasts Enemies: From War to Wisdom and Waking Up is Not Enough: Flourishing in the Human Space.

If You’re Looking for More…

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: Join here

This week, supporters will hear:
⭐ The Benefits of a Conversation Between the Spiritual and Psychological
⭐ Three Things Polly Young-Eisendrath Knows to Be True
⭐️AND access to all our previous bonus content—a rich archive of insight and inspiration

Follow Up

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin: Learn more here

Read Polly Young-Eisendrath’s book Love Between Equals: Relationship as a Spiritual Path 

Visit Polly Young-Eisendrath’s website 

Listen to Polly Young-Eisendrath’s podcasts:

• ENEMIES: From War to Wisdom 
• Waking Up is Not Enough: Flourishing in the Human Space 

Follow Polly Young-Eisendrath on Facebook, Instagram and X/Twitter.

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

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: 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