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The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall — Education
The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall

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.

Copyright: © Copyright 2022 All rights reserved.

Latest Episodes:

Celia Dodd: Navigate Your Relationship With Your Adult Children Oct 31, 2022

Show notes

Parenting adult children might not involve sleepless nights or dealing with detentions, but it can be highly challenging.

Often, the balance of power shifts and parents find themselves walking on eggshells, anxious about preserving a close relationship.

In this week’s episode Andrew talks to author and journalist Celia Dodd about the challenges and rewards of parenting later in life. They discuss:

- Dealing with conflict with your adult children

- What to do if you don’t get on with their partner

- Supporting adult children through periods of suffering and change.

- The sometimes thorny issue of how much you are involved with grandchildren.

- Adult siblings who don’t get on.

Celia Dodd is the author of All Grown Up: Nurturing Relationships with Adult Children. She is an author and journalist who writes about parenting and major transitions in life, such as the empty nest and retirement. Celia has written regularly for British papers such as The Times and the Independent. She recently produced a Retirement Planning Toolkit and webinar for Hampshire Police Force, and works with other organisations on retirement planning.

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 keep conflict to a minimum but still talk about difficult things.

⭐️3 things Celia 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 Celia Dodd’s latest book All Grown Up: Nurturing Relationships with Adult Children.

Read Celia Dodd’s other books, The Empty Nest: Your Changing Family, Your New Direction and Not Fade Away: How to Thrive in Retirement

Visit Celia Dodd’s website www.celiadodd.co.uk

Follow Celia Dodd on Twitter @celia_dodd and on Instagram @celiaruthdodd

You might also enjoy our episodes on Healing the Mother/Daughter Wound with author Itoro Bassey, What You Wish Your Parents Knew with therapist/author Philippa Perry or How to Reinvent Yourself at 50 with journalist Eleanor Mills.

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.

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 Suzanne Degges-White: The Unwritten Rules of Friendship: Why Things Turn Toxic Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

There's endless advice on romantic love, but how can you nurture loving friendships? And what should you do if a friendship turns sour, or leaves you feeling taken advantage of?

This week's guest is writer and therapist Dr Suzanne Degges-White, the author of Toxic Friendships: Knowing the Rules and Dealing with the Friends Who Break Them.

In this episode Andrew and Suzanne discuss:

⭐️ Making friends and why it gets harder as we age

⭐️ Being a good friend

⭐️ How many friends we need

⭐️ When to let go of a friendship.

Dr Suzanne Degges-White is a professor and chair of the Counseling and Higher Education department at Northern Illinois University. She is a licensed counsellor whose focus includes working with individuals and families facing transitions. Her academic research explores development over the lifespan with a strong focus on women’s relationships and women’s developmental transitions.

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:

⭐️Strategies to detoxify a friendship or work relationship

⭐️3 things Suzanne 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 Suzanne Degges-White’s new book Toxic Friendships: Knowing the Rules and Dealing with the Friends Who Break Them

Read Friends Forever : How Girls and Women Forge Lasting Relationships, the book on friendship co-written by Suzanne Degges-White and Christine Borzumato-Gainey

Read Dr Suzanne Degges-White’s articles for Psychology Today

Follow Dr Suzanne Degges-White on Twitter @DeggesWhite

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.

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

Libby Nugent: Exhausted? How Fairytales Can Refresh & Move You Forward Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

Are you “world-weary”? Exhausted by life to the point where a day on the couch, a mini-break or a night out with friends won’t even touch the tip of your fatigue? This week’s guest, Dr Libby Nugent, is here to help. Libby discusses with Andrew the powerful healing properties of the fairytale.

If you’ve experienced:

Strains in relationships with your children or parents
Anxiety about reaching goals you’ve defined for yourself
A nagging sense that you’re missing out on other ways to approach life

Then this week’s episode is for you.

Andrew and Libby touch on the resonances of Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel, and then dive deeper into the story of Frau Holle, the tough, nurturing underworld mother who rewards one daughter with a stream of gold, and the other with a coating of tar. They talk about accommodating the “splits” we find within ourselves and finding the capacity for self-love.

Dr Libby Nugent is a clinical psychologist and groupwork practitioner with expertise in fairytales, Greek myths, reflective spaces and Jungian psychoanalysis.

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:

⭐️Libby and Andrew discuss the myths and symbols associated with queens, with reference to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

⭐️3 things Libby 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.

Visit Dr Libby Nugent’s blog, where you’ll find more interpretation of fairytales.

Or visit Dr Libby Nugent’s website to learn about the reflective spaces she runs.

Dr Libby Nugent recommends World Weary Woman by Cara Barker if you’d like to go deeper into the Frau Holle story and the “world-weary woman” archetype.

Follow Dr Libby Nugent on Twitter @becomingethical, on Facebook @drlibbynugent and on Instagram @libby.nugent.

If you’re fascinated by some of the Jungian ideas discussed here, listen to some of Andrew’s other interviews with Jungian analysts: 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: 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

Dawn Kohler: When the Call to Be Yourself Can No Longer Be Ignored Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

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

Machiel Klerk: Ask Your Dreams for Help Oct 03, 2022

Show notes

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.

Dr Matthew McKay: Loving in the Face of Pain Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

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

Dr. Joanna La Prade: Surviving Dark Times Sep 19, 2022

Show notes

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.

Dr. Cheryl Fraser: How to Stay in Love Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

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.

Julia Samuel MBE: How We Inherit Pain from Our Parents & Grandparents Sep 05, 2022

Show notes

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 Beginningsand 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.

Joanna Harrison: How to Argue More Productively Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

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.

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