Being Human

Latest Episodes:

Episode 300: Being Human Together: Celebrating 300 Episodes and What God Can Do with a Little Faith Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

It's pretty wild: Being Human has reached episode 300. Dr. Greg gathered his friends to celebrate, and the celebration quietly became an example of what this show has been saying all along — being human can't be done alone.

Dr. Greg is joined by Dr. Bryan Violette and his wife Teresa, along with Dr. Gerard McNicholas, to look back on 300 episodes of the podcast. Then a simple question about Teresa's new hobby opens into something far more personal, and gives a first taste of what comes next: Being Human Together.

Key Topics:

Why what you start in faith rarely turns out to be what you thought you were building
Why the thing you're most upset about is often standing in for a grief you haven't named yet
How a hobby you'd rather not talk about can be the most honest thing about you right now
Why the people closest to you can sometimes see your grief before you do
Why your favorite song can make you feel completely understood — and strangely alone when you share it
How art slips past the part of you that would rather explain a feeling than feel it

Learn More:

Past episodes remembered in this conversation:
- Where it all started: Ep. #1: The Beginning
- Ep. #225: Humility, Time Travel and Philosophy with Peter Kreeft — Dr. Greg's favorite
- Ep. #102: ADHD and Me, w/ Teresa Violette
- Ep. #231: Music as Accompaniment: Matt Maher and a Mission to Heal through Song
- Ep. #172: A Journey through Faith and Music with John Michael Talbot
- Ep. #291: OCPD and Scrupulosity: How the Worship of Rules and Control Leads to the Loneliness of Certainty
- Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary: Why Real Change Happens through Love not Willpower
The CatholicPsych Show — the live news show Dr. Greg and Dr. Bryan hosted
Dr. Greg on The Lila Rose Show
St. John Paul II's Letter to Artists
The Personalist Cure by Dr. Greg Bottaro
Missed the Summit of Integration? Catch the replays, including Christopher West's keynote on the Feast of St. John Paul II
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Episode 299: 10,000 Free Books and an 'Impossible' Edit: Launching The Personalist Cure Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

Dr. Greg thought the draft was good. A year later, he called it "terrible." That's how a book ends up taking almost ten years to write.

With The Personalist Cure finally launching, Dr. Greg sits down with his good friend Dr. Bryan Violette for a conversation that circles back on itself the way John Paul II's own writing does. Along the way, they get to the heart of the book: the difference between love that controls and love that sets free.

Key Topics:

Why so much of what passes for love is really a compulsive effort to get your own needs met
What emancipating love looks like: willing the good of the other for their sake, even when it costs you
Why the love Jesus shows on the cross changes how you see every relationship in your life
What John Paul II meant by mutual submission in marriage — and why it's the opposite of control

Learn More:

The Personalist Cure by Dr. Greg Bottaro — the book behind this episode, almost ten years in the making
Join us at the Summit of Integration in Dallas, October 20–23, celebrating the Feast of St. John Paul II (virtual tickets available)
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Episode 298: Your Working Genius: Exploring What the Grind Reveals About Your Gifts Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

You've been called lazy. Maybe you've been told you're just bad at your job. But what if that was never the problem at all — what if you've simply been sitting in the wrong seat?

Dr. Greg sits down with his good friend Dr. Bryan Violette to explore what the Working Genius reveals about the work that drains us. Along the way, they make the case that even the parts of us we're most embarrassed by are usually protecting something good: our dignity.

Key Topics:

Why the task that grinds you down says more about your gifts than about your character
Why "you're lazy" is usually the wrong story — and "wrong seat on the bus" is often the right one
What "adaptive narcissism" is actually protecting
Why shame doesn't produce lasting change — it just teaches you to hide better
Why "I'm not myself today" gets it wrong, and why curiosity about the part that just showed up works better
Why giving yourself away fills you up, even though handing over your coffee only leaves you with an empty cup

Learn More:

Join us at the Summit of Integration in Dallas, October 20–23, celebrating the Feast of St. John Paul II (virtual tickets available)
The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni — the framework Dr. Greg and Dr. Bryan discuss throughout the episode
Gaudium et Spes — the Vatican II constitution behind "Christ reveals man to himself" and finding ourselves through a sincere gift of self
Previous episodes on parts work (IFS):
Ep. #34: A New Theory! w/ a Catholic Lens
Ep. #35: Why Do I Feel Like I Have Conflicting Thoughts? w/ Dr. Peter Malinoski
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Episode 297: Throwing Darts in the Dark: What Happens When Psychology and Education Forget What a Human Person Is Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Psychology is supposed to be a hard science with clear answers about what's healthy. It isn't — and when the people forming our kids can't say what a human being actually is, even their best work turns into darts thrown in the dark.

Dr. Greg sits down with Dr. Brett Salkeld — host of the Making Every Class Catholic podcast — to trace what psychology and education both get wrong when they skip the question of what a person is for, and why the schools racing hardest to keep up with technology may not be the ones still standing in five years.

Key Topics:

Why psychology has no agreed-on standard for mental health — and what that gap is doing to real kids in real classrooms
Why you have to know what a healthy human being is before you can help one heal
How one true principle about the human person let Dr. Greg call the phone crisis in 2014 — years before the data caught up
Why a phone doesn't connect two people so much as stand between them — and who profits from keeping it there
Why the schools racing hardest to keep up with technology may be the ones that don't exist in five years
What actually makes a school worth attending once AI can hand a kid any fact for free

Learn More:

Dr. Brett Salkeld's podcast: Making Every Class Catholic — bringing the Catholic faith into every subject in the classroom
Educating for Eternity: A Teacher's Companion for Making Every Class Catholic by Dr. Brett Salkeld
Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyła (St. John Paul II)
Duc in Altum Schools Collaborative — the Catholic-schools network where Dr. Greg first met Dr. Salkeld
Join us at the Summit of Integration in Dallas — launching the Year of St. John Paul II
The Personalist Cure — Dr. Greg's new book, launching this October at the Summit
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Episode 296: A Saint in the Subconscious: JP2 and the Search for the Human Person Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

John Paul II is the most important psychologist of the twentieth century — and almost no one knows it. In three dense paragraphs on the subconscious, he named what Freud got wrong and gave us a fuller picture of the human person.

Dr. Greg sits down with Fr. Randy Sly to trace how a pilgrimage through Poland turned a philosopher he'd studied for twenty-five years into a father he'd finally met — and why that kind of encounter, not more theory, is what integration actually asks of us.

Key Topics:

What John Paul II saw about the subconscious that Freud missed entirely
Why studying a saint for twenty-five years isn't the same as actually meeting him
How explaining integration can be the very thing that keeps you from it
Why you don't have to be in crisis to need help becoming who you're meant to be
What it means to be a channel instead of a closed loop — and why receiving isn't optional if you want to keep giving

Learn More:

Join us at the Summit of Integration this October in Dallas — launching the Year of St. John Paul II
The Personalist Cure — Dr. Greg's upcoming book, launching this October at the Summit
Sign up for our newsletter
Fr. Randy Sly's podcast: The Follow to Lead Podcast
Integration Pilgrimages — the encounter-focused pilgrimage Dr. Greg helped lead this summer
Practice Catholic mindfulness to find the presence of God in the moment
Go deeper in the integrated life through the Integrated Life app and community
John Paul II on the subconscious: Person and Act and Related Essays by Karol Wojtyła
Duc in Altum Schools Collaborative
Black Elk Healing Retreat (Wyoming)
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Episode 295: God Threw My Journal into a River: A Conversation on Love and Freedom from the Streets of Zakopane, Poland Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

You can become who you are. Which means you can also become who you're not.

Recorded on location in Poland during a pilgrimage through the life of John Paul II, Dr. Greg Bottaro and Dr. Gerard McNicholas trace JP2's line "let yourself be molded by love" — and what happens in the subconscious that blocks our freedom to choose it.

Key Topics:

Why "become who you are" carries a hidden warning — you can also be molded into who you're not
Why virtue never becomes automatic, no matter how many years you practice it
How the one freedom no one can take from you is the freedom St. Maximilian Kolbe used to step forward and say "take my place"
Why the buried things in your subconscious actually want to be known — and why John Paul II called surfacing them a task of morality
How art slips in the back door of the subconscious and unlocks what analysis alone can't reach

Learn More:

Person and Act and Related Essays by Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II) — his account of conscience and the subconscious
Our God's Brother — the Wojtyła play that gives us "let yourself be molded by love"
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
John Paul II's Letter to Artists
The Personalist Cure — Dr. Greg's upcoming book, launching this October at the Summit
Join us at the Summit of Integration this October in Dallas — launching the Year of St. John Paul II
Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation
Want to help? Learn more about our Certification in Professional Accompaniment

Episode 294: When "Figuring It All Out" Is the Problem: A College Senior Speaks About an Uncertain Future Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Not knowing what comes after graduation feels like failing. It's not. The real problem is the pressure to have it all figured out. Dr. Greg sits down with college senior Sandy Napolitano to talk about the anxiety of life after graduation — where the fear of the unknown really comes from, and why discernment starts the moment you stop trying to force certainty.

Key Topics:

Why "What's your plan?" quietly writes God out of the decision
How the need for a plan can be fear wearing the mask of responsibility
Why starting at the end — not the next step — makes half your options disappear
Why naming a fear out loud drains most of its power
How the experience that changed you becomes the one you most need to integrate

Learn More:

The Personalist Cure — John Paul II's blueprint for a Catholic standard of psychology
Join us in Dallas, Oct 20–23: Summit of Integration
Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation
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Episode 293: God Is Tired of One Thing (Hint: It's Not Your Sin): Healing the Scrupulous Spirit Through Loving Trust Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

Trust isn't something you manufacture through effort — it's something you receive through relationship. In this episode, Dr. Greg Bottaro concludes the series on OCPD and perfectionism by exploring why control feels so necessary, how our earliest relationships shape our ability to trust God, and why freedom begins not when we become perfect, but when we allow ourselves to be loved. Because holiness isn't built on mastering the perfect spiritual routine — it's built on learning to rest in the love that has always been pursuing you.

Key Topics:

Why trust can't be built through more effort, more surrender, or the right devotion
How "trying harder" to trust God is actually the pattern itself, not the way out of it
How the parts of us that need control aren't bad, but are protecting something deeper
Why compassion, not correction, is the first step toward healing a controlling part
How self-possession exists for the sake of self-gift — and why you can't give what you don't have
Why holiness was never meant to end fear of hell, but to end the need to earn love in the first place
How real healing only happens in relationship — not in a program, a podcast, or a novena

Learn More:

Previous episodes in this series on Obsessive Compulsive Personality Patterns:
Join us at the Summit of Integration this October in Dallas — launching the Year of St. John Paul II
Presence Virtual Retreat: Practice the presence of God and trustful surrender
Previous episodes on parts work (IFS):
- Ep. #34: A New Theory! w/ a Catholic Lens
- Ep. #35: Why Do I Feel Like I Have Conflicting Thoughts? w/ Dr. Peter Malinoski
Start of the Being Human series on the Antisocial Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #281: Control or Be Controlled: The Devastating Wounds Behind Antisocial Behavioral Patterns
Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation
Start of the Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation
Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing
Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary
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Episode 292: Holy Anxiety: The Understandable Underbelly of Scrupulosity Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Scrupulosity often looks like devotion — but when fear takes over, even our spiritual life can become consumed by doubt, checking, and the search for certainty. In this episode, Dr. Greg Bottaro continues the series on OCPD and perfectionism, exploring the difference between a healthy conscience and a scrupulous one, why mercy can be hard to trust, and how our experiences shape the way we see God. Holiness was never meant to be an endless audit — it was meant to lead us into relationship with the One who loves us.

Key Topics:

How reciting the truth about mercy in your head does nothing to change what your body still believes
Why certainty about being forgiven is the one thing this pattern can never actually get
Why confession, meant to bring peace, can quietly become just another form of checking
How the voice you call your conscience might actually be a punishing voice in disguise
Why the face you're afraid God is making at you was never really His
How the saints wrestled with scrupulosity — and what finally brought them peace wasn't more proof
Why doing this work alone almost always makes the pattern worse
How the way out can feel too easy to trust

Learn More:

Previous episodes in this series on Obsessive Compulsive Personality Patterns:
- Ep. #290: "I'm Only Loved When I'm Perfect": The Lie Fueling Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
- Ep. #291: OCPD and Scrupulosity: How the Worship of Rules and Control Leads to the Loneliness of Certainty
Episode referenced on spiritual bypassing: Why "Everything Happens for a Reason" Isn't Working: The Holy Words We Use to Avoid Healing
Join us at the Summit of Integration this October in Dallas — launching the Year of St. John Paul II
Start of the Being Human series on the Antisocial Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #281: Control or Be Controlled: The Devastating Wounds Behind Antisocial Behavioral Patterns
Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation
Start of the Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation
Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing
Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary
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Episode 291: OCPD and Scrupulosity: How the Worship of Rules and Control Leads to the Loneliness of Certainty Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Certainty feels like safety. But you can only ever be certain alone — and the life you build on control slowly becomes a lonely one.

In week two of the series on OCPD, Dr. Greg explores why we reach for control when trust feels dangerous — and how the certainty we build to feel safe ends up costing us the very relationships it was meant to protect.

Key Topics:

Why the certainty that makes you feel safe is the same thing that leaves you alone
How a rule can feel safer than a person — because a rule never changes its face
Why the control you use to protect the people you love can drive them straight into the danger you feared
How devotion can quietly turn into a contract with God instead of trust in Him
Why trying harder to get it perfect is the pattern itself, not the way out of it

Learn More:

Previous episode in this series — OCPD Part 1:
- Ep. #290: "I'm Only Loved When I'm Perfect": The Lie Fueling Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
Join us at the Summit of Integration this October in Dallas — launching the Year of St. John Paul II
Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism by Dr. Paul Vitz — on how wounded trust in a father can shape our capacity for faith
Person and Act — St. John Paul II's (Karol Wojtyła's) philosophical work on the acting person, and the personalist heart of this episode
Stop Walking on Eggshells by Paul Mason & Randi Kreger — the book on borderline patterns Dr. Greg references
Start of the Being Human series on the Antisocial Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #281: Control or Be Controlled: The Devastating Wounds Behind Antisocial Behavioral Patterns
Start of the Being Human series on the Borderline Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #269: BORDERLINE: The Push-Pull Between a Fear of Abandonment and Annihilation
Start of the Being Human series on the Histrionic Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #274: To Be Loved Is to Perform: Inside the Histrionic Compulsion for Attention and Validation
Start of the Being Human series on the Dependent Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #265: Jerry Maguire, Gollum, and the Fear of Not Existing
Start of the Being Human series on the Narcissistic Defense Patterns:
- Ep. #261: Narcissism and the Terror of Being Ordinary
Need help? Schedule a free CatholicPsych consultation.
Want to help? Learn more about our Certification in Professional Accompaniment.

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