The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall

What We Learned in 2023

Better sex, coping with strong emotions, healing your inner child and harnessing the power of compassion: these were some of the big themes that spoke to The Meaningful Life listeners in 2023.

Jon from the Marshall Method team of therapists is Andrew’s special guest for this New Year’s Day episode. Andrew and Jon each choose their favourite episodes, and share highlights from them.

These are the episodes chosen by Andrew and Jon as their 2023 favourites:

What is the Feeling Trying to Tell Me? with Karla McLaren.

Healing Your Lost Child with Robert Jackman

Tantra: How to Make Your Lovemaking More Connected with Jan Day

Slay Your Dragons With Compassion with Malcolm Stern

How to Heal Stubborn & Inexplicable Health Problems with Sharon E. Martin

Rites of Passage and Mentoring: How to Become an Adult with Conroy Harris

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:

• Highlights from interviews with Avrum Weiss on Anxiety, and with Olivier Clerc on Forgiveness.
• 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

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.

Book a counselling session with Jon or with one of the other Marshall Method team.

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

Read Andrew’s book I Love You But I’m Not In Love With You

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 

Dr Cheryl Fraser: A More Loving Christmas

Christmas isn’t usually thought of as a romantic holiday, but this week Dr Cheryl Fraser explores some of the ways you and your partner can share intimacy, sensuality and thrill over the winter break (however you choose to celebrate).

Andrew and Cheryl discuss:

• Making the most of beautiful moments.
• Finding the strength to say no. 
• Planning ahead so things go how you’d like them to
• Avoiding the people-pleasing trap.
• Giving your partner a “sexy stocking”.

Dr Cheryl Fraser is the author of Buddha’s Bedroom, the host of the Sex, Love and Elephants podcast, and the therapist behind the Become Passion online immersion program for couples. Cheryl has helped thousands of couples jump-start their love life and create passion that lasts a lifetime. She lives in Vancouver, and is regularly featured in Mindful and Best Health magazines. 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:

• Top Resolutions for Better Sex and Communication in 2024.
• 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

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. 

Learn more about Dr Cheryl’s online immersion program for couples, Become Passion, and join the waitlist. 

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 

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 

Mark Matousek: Stoicism: How Ralph Waldo Emerson can save your life

American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson taught a path of self-reliance and self-knowledge. He emphasised self-knowledge and mindfulness as paths to happiness; also, self-reliance, cooperation, non-conformity, originality, adaptability, and receptiveness. 

This week, Andrew talks to author and teacher Mark Matousek about how Emerson’s twelve essential teachings hold the answer to living an authentic and fulfilling life, one that is in harmony with our souls.

Key principles include:

• Each person creates their own reality. 
• Obstacles are teachers in disguise
• Your character is your destiny
• Wonder and awe are the keys to the kingdom
• Nonconformity is the greatest virtue
• Nature is the doorway to God
• Life without self-knowledge is not worth living.

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:

• When you're falling, dive.
• Three things Mark Matousek 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

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 Mark Matousek’s new book, Lessons from an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life. 

Read When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living by Mark Matousek. 

Visit Mark Matousek’s website.

Follow Mark Matousek on Facebook @mark.matousek

Read Andrew’s book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier

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 

Dr Susan Schwartz: Imposter Syndrome

The idea of “imposter syndrome” has found its cultural moment - we hear it talked about constantly, and many of us resonate with the idea of feeling like a fraud in our work or relationships. 

In this episode, Susan Schwartz PhD returns to the podcast to help explore the concept of imposter syndrome in more depth. Susan and Andrew discuss

• The ways imposter syndrome is rooted in childhood.
• Painful experiences of imposter syndrome in our romantic relationships
• The difference between presenting different aspects of who we are VS suffering from imposter syndrome. 
• The related concept of the “as-if” personality - the individual who goes through life pretending they have a meaningful identity, when at heart, they feel that they do not. This person faces a “conundrum around whether to hide or expose the truth of who they are”. 

Susan Schwartz is a Jungian analyst who trained in Switzerland and lives in the USA. She teaches in numerous Jungian programs, workshops, and lectures in the USA and worldwide. She is also a clinical psychologist and member of the International Association of Analytical Psychology. Her new book is Imposter Syndrome and The ‘As-If’ Personality in Analytical Psychology.

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:

• Ageing, the “As If” personality and Narcissism.
• Three things Susan Schwartz 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

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 Dr Susan Schwartz’s latest books: 

Imposter Syndrome and The ‘As-If’ Personality in Analytical Psychology

The Absent Father Effect on Daughters, Father Desire, Father Wounds. 

Listen to Andrew’s previous interview with Dr Susan Schwartz on Fathers and Daughters 

Visit Dr Susan Schwartz’s website

Follow Dr Susan Schwartz on Facebook and Instagram

Read Andrew’s book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and Be Stronger, Wiser and Happier 

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 

 

Krystal Mazzola Wood: Setting Boundaries

Setting boundaries can seem really hard - you wonder how the other person will react, and whether you’re strong enough to manage such a task. You’re perhaps not even sure of the difference between boundary-setting and laying down an ultimatum. 

Relationship expert Krystal Mazzola Wood likes to focus on the good news. If you CAN learn to set healthy boundaries, your relationships will grow stronger, livelier and more sustaining. 

In this episode Andrew and Krystal discuss how recovering people-pleasers can approach boundary-setting, how to practice setting boundaries and how to find the boundaries that are non-negotiable for you. 

Krystal Mazzola Wood is a practicing licensed marriage and family therapist. She works with clients at her private practice, The Healthy Relationship Foundation, which she founded to help people experience greater self-love and deeper intimacy with others.

Krystal is also the author of a number of relationship guides. Her latest book is Setting Boundaries: 100 Ways to Protect Yourself, Strengthen Your Relationships, and Build the Life You Want Starting Now!, 

Krystal also maintains a weekly blog, Confidently Authentic, which focuses on balanced, mentally healthy dating and relationship advice.

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:

• How to Deal with Resentment
• Three things Krystal Mazzola Wood 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

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.

Buy Krystal Mazzola Wood’s books:

• Setting Boundaries: 100 Ways to Protect Yourself, Strengthen Your Relationships, and Build the Life You Want Starting Now!
• The Codependency Recovery Plan
• The Codependency Workbook

Visit Krystal Mazzola Wood’s website The Healthy Relationship Foundation 

Read Krystal Mazzola Wood’s blog Confidently Authentic 

Follow Krystal Mazzola Wood on Instagram @krystal_mazzola.  

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 

Michelle Brown: Step-Parenting & What It Teaches Us About Love & Relationships

Nobody dreams of becoming a stepmother. Yet for Michelle Brown, a blogger and step-parenting expert, being a step-mother feels like something she was meant to do. 

Michelle has a unique bond with her step-son, and through her writing she has also become a light in the darkness for many new step-parents struggling to make things work. Michelle is the first to admit, however, that step-parenting can be painful and exceptionally complex. 

In this week’s episode, Andrew and Michelle discuss:

• How society sees step-parents
• The challenges of running a blended family.
• Dealing with your partner’s ex (your step-child’s other parent).
• Defining your role in your step-child’s life.
• Parenting your biological child alongside your step-child.
• Looking after your marriage as a step-parent

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:

⭐️What I learned having breakfast with my ex-husband.

⭐️Three things Michelle Brown 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

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 Michelle’s writing on step-parenting at www.theponderingnook.com and on Medium

Listen to Michelle’s podcast, The Pondering Stepmom Podcast 

Follow Michelle on Instagram and Facebook @theponderingnook and on Twitter @MichellePonders

Read Andrew’s book The Happy Couple’s Handbook: Powerful Life Hacks for a Successful Relationship https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/the-happy-couples-handbook-powerful-life-hacks-for-a-successful-relationship/ 

You might also enjoy last week’s episode with therapist Terry Gaspard on Making Your Second Marriage Work.

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 

Terry Gaspard: Making Your Second Marriage Work

The divorce rate for second marriages is in most countries higher than the rate for firsts. If you’re onto a second or third marriage (or if you’re contemplating one) you’ll need a strong toolkit. 

In this episode, Andrew welcomes marital therapist Terry Gaspard back to the podcast for a second interview, this time to discuss the particular challenges of second marriages. These can include:

• Unfinished business with ex-partners
• Dealing with debts and handling money
• Blending families
• Finding time and space for sex.

Terry Gaspard, MSW, LICSW, is a licensed clinical social worker with extensive experience in counselling and writing. Her latest book is The Remarriage Manual, and she is also the author of Daughters of Divorce. 

Sponsor

This week's episode is sponsored by Biyaku: a sexuality app with the motto: ''Let your libido drive you.'' The app shares a huge variety of practices, including meditations, breath-work, Kegel exercises and even body movement that are specifically designed to help you connect with your libido.

Download the app (iOS or Android) for a free trial for 7 days and see the effects for yourself.

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:

⭐️How to know if it's a small issue (and not sweat it) or a big one to be resolved

⭐️Three things Terry Gaspard 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

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 

Buy Terry Gaspard’s new book The Remarriage Manual https://movingpastdivorce.com/the-re-marraige-manual/ 

Read Terry Gaspard’s first book, Daughters of Divorce https://movingpastdivorce.com/order-daughters-of-divorce/ 

Visit Terry Gaspard’s website https://movingpastdivorce.com 

Follow Terry Gaspard on Twitter/X @MovePastDivorce and on Facebook @movingpastdivorce

Listen to Andrew’s previous interview with Terry Gaspard on Daughters of Divorce: the Long-Term Impact of Marital Breakdown

Read Andrew’s book The Happy Couple’s Handbook: Powerful Life Hacks for a Successful Relationship https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/the-happy-couples-handbook-powerful-life-hacks-for-a-successful-relationship/ 

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 

 

Bea Gonzalez: Fairy Tales and the Route to Wholeness

Healing from profound exhaustion of the spirit requires more than just thinking of a good plan. Author and Jungian Bea Gonzalez believes in storytelling and myth as powerful tools for healing.

In this episode, Andrew and Bea discuss:

• Why fairy tales have so much to teach us.
• Rediscovering feminine wisdom (which both men and women need)
• How to analyse a fairy tale to find the message it contains for YOU.
• The tale of the Skeleton Woman - Andrew and Bea tell this story section by section,  discussing its rich metaphors along the way.

Bea Gonzalez is the creator of Sophia Cycles, a project to bring feminine wisdom back to the world. She is the author of several novels (including Invocation, The Bitter Taste of Time and The Mapmaker’s Opera). Bea is also a lecturer and educator, and has taught classes on the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell all over the world. 

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:

• Code Breaking: Unlocking the symbolic life
• Three things Bea Gonzalez 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

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 Bea Gonzalez’s new novel, Invocation and her other books, The Bitter Taste of Time and The Mapmaker’s Opera.

Visit Bea Gonzalez’s website https://www.sophiacycles.com/ 

Follow Bea Gonzalez on Instagram, Twitter/X and YouTube @sophiacycles

You might enjoy Andrew’s other episode on fairy tales, How Fairy Tales Can Refresh & Move You Forward, with Libby Nugent, or his interview with Jungian analyst and author James Hollis on How to be Resilient.

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 

Shelia Rubin: Embracing Shame and Turning it into a Powerful Ally

“Shame is a powerful, universal, mysterious emotion. It can be incredibly painful and destructive AND it is designed to protect you” (Sheila Rubin). 

Marriage therapist Sheila Rubin is a leading authority on how to heal the shame that might be holding you back in your relationships and your life. In this interview, Andrew and Sheila discuss how to achieve a deeper understanding of your shame, stop resisting it, and even turn it into an ally. 

Sheila Rubin, MA, MFT, RDT/BCT is a Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in Berkeley, California. She is the Co-Director of the Center for Healing Shame, a continuing education provider that offers Healing Shame workshops to therapists and other helping professionals. Sheila has developed therapy techniques integrating somatic and expressive processes to work with the all-pervasive shame and trauma that underlie eating disorders, addictions and toxic family dynamics. She is also the co-author (along with her husband, Bret Lyon) of a new book, Embracing Shame. 

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:

• Shame and eating disorders
• Three things Sheila Rubin 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

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 

Read Sheila Rubin’s new book, Embracing Shame. 

To download a free guidebook, Resilience and Hidden Shame, please visit www.SheilaRubin.com

For more information about Sheila’s Healing Shame workshops, please visit www.HealingShame.com.  

Read Andrew’s book The Happy Couple’s Handbook: Powerful Life Hacks for a Successful Relationship.

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 

 

Julia Keller: How do you Know When Enough is Enough?

Quitting - jobs, marriages, musical instruments - is often seen as a sign of a weak character. Author and journalist Julia Keller is on a mission to reframe quitting as an act of self-love, which can help us lead more meaningful lives.

This week Andrew and Julia discuss why it is that we value perseverance and “grit” so heavily, how to know when enough is enough, and the art of the “quasi-quit”.

Julia Keller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist, playwright, and teacher, is the author of Quitting: A Life Strategy / The Myth of Perseverance and How the New Science of Giving Up Can Set You Free. 

Julia earned a Ph.D. at Ohio State University, and has taught at Princeton University, The University of Chicago, and the University of Notre Dame, and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She was the literary critic at The Chicago Tribune for more than a decade before quitting in order to write books. As well as her non-fiction writing Julia is the author of a series of mystery novels, a science fiction series for young adults.

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:

⭐️How to ask good questions. 

⭐️Three things Julia Keller 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

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.

Buy Julia Keller’s new book Quitting: A Life Strategy 

Visit Julia Keller’s website

Follow Julia Keller on Facebook @Julia.Keller.Writer 

Read Andrew’s book Wake Up and Change Your Life: How to Survive a Crisis and be Stronger, Wiser and Happier 

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