Family secrets can live on for generations, shaping our lives in ways we may not recognise or fully understand.

In this episode Andrew talks to Dr Galit Atlas, author of Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma about how our struggles in life are linked to the emotional inheritance we receive from our families.

Dr Atlas is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in Manhattan.She is a clinical assistant professor on the faculty of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis and faculty at the National Training Program (NTP) and the Four-Year Adult training program at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) in New York City.

Dr. Atlas has published three books for clinicians and numerous articles and book chapters that focus primarily on gender and sexuality. Her New York Times publication “A Tale of Two Twins” was the winner of a 2016 Gradiva Award

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 Dr. Galit Atlas knows to be true.

- How to repair a relationship with an estranged family member

- 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

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

Read Dr Galit Atlas’ new book Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma

Visit Dr Galit Atlas’ website

Follow Dr Galit Atlas on Facebook @GalitAtlas and on Instagram @galit_atlas

If you’re interested in the drama triangle discussed in this episode, you might also enjoy Andrew’s interview with therapist Chris Partridge on Being a Rescuer

You might also like to listen to Andrew’s interview with Julia Samuel MBE on Inherited Pain

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

Child Proof Your Relationship.

You love your children but if you focus too much on their needs and exhaust your relationship, that helps no one.

From 40 years helping couples make better marriages, I know that many couples lose their way when they become parents.

Day to day issues about getting them of to school in the morning and managing bedtimes can also disguise deeper conflicts about different parenting philosophies. It means that many couples arrive in my therapy office with lots of unresolved issues that are driving them apart.

Lisa Bruton has a masters degree in integrative counselling and psychotherapy and an advanced diploma in couple’s therapy. She is a Mindfulness Facilitator and a guest tutor at Oxford University.

Her speciality is helping couples not only be better parents but better partners 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:

- Keeping the sexual flame alive even when you have children

- Three things Lisa Bruton 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

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

More information about Lisa Bruton at lisabruton.com

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

Love and relationships are already complicated, but they can feel even more so if you’re living with a mental health condition.

This week author Allison Raskin talks about her experiences with OCD, and how overthinking can be managed in relationships and dating. How do you talk to a partner about your mental health? What is the difference between having valid concerns and catastrophising? What can you do if you’re overwhelmed by negative thoughts?

Allison Raskin is a New York Times bestselling author and podcaster. Her latest book is Overthinking About You: Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Have Anxiety, OCD, and/or Depression. She also has a highly successful YouTube channel, Just Between Us, and has worked as a screenwriter for Netflix, MTV and 20th Century Television.

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 Alison Raskin knows to be true.

- How to keep going when looking for love, change, or growth

- 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

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

Read Allison Raskin’s new book Overthinking About You: Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Have Anxiety, OCD, and/or Depression

Watch Allison Raskin on her YouTube channel Just Between Us

Follow Allison Raskin on Instagram @emotionalsupportlady and on Twitter @AllisonRaskin.

Visit Allison Raskin's website

You might also enjoy Andrew’s interviews with Kathleen Smith on Making Anxiety Your Friend and with Kate Lucey on Depression: What Worked For Me.

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

When women and men argue, women can often be more comfortable in expressing their feelings of hurt and anger.

Men can feel distressed by this strength of feeling, and may pull away emotionally. They may feel a very strong urge to occupy the ground of rationality and objectivity, which in turn leads their partner to push harder, desperately seeking emotional connection.

Dr Avrum Weiss is a US-based author and psychotherapist specialising in the internal lives of men. His writing and his work with couples help men and women understand each other more deeply and build a stronger connection.

In this episode Andrew and Dr Weiss discuss the emotion of anger and how our childhoods can influence our adult experiences of it. They share insights from Dr Weiss’ book Hidden in Plain Sight: How Men’s Fears of Women Shape Their Intimate Relationships , and look at how men and women can better understand each other’s internal world.

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 Dr. Weiss knows to be true.

- The seven fears of men in relationships

- 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

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

Buy Dr Avrum Weiss’ book Hidden in Plain Sight: How Men’s Fears of Women Shape Their Intimate Relationships

Find Dr Avrum Weiss’ other books via his website https://www.avrumweissphd.com

Read Dr Avrum Weiss' columns for Psychology Today

Follow Dr Avrum Weiss on Facebook @AvrumWeissAuthor and on Twitter @avrum_weiss

Read Andrew’s books on relationships and self-development

You might also be interested in hearing Dr Matthew McKay talking with Andrew about Loving in the Face of Pain

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

What is the right kind of therapy for you? Should you go for individual therapy (which is where most people start) or would couple or group work be best?

This edition of the podcast is a little different because I have been invited on a podcast called Gruppenechos (Group Echoes in English) by a colleague here in Berlin called Ief Nicassi. He is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist who works with groups and offers individual therapy.

Our conversation was so interesting, I thought you might enjoy hearing me answering rather than asking the questions and finding out more about how I work.

We discuss the similarities and differences between couple and group work, and explain how these forms of therapy might help you.

Follow Up

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

Visit Ief Nicassi's offical website: psychotherapie Nicassi

Listen to the Gruppenechos podcast on Spotify

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

Lots of us are afraid of the very word: fear. We’d rather say anxiety, or worry, or panic.

Yet according to Thom Rutledge, fear underlies most difficult emotions, and is a close companion to shame. Fear plays into just about every decision we ever make in our lives.

To defeat fear, according to Thom, is neither possible nor desirable. Instead we need to live beyond its control, and to understand it. Rather than squashing down the voices of panic and dread, we can face up to them, explore them and respond.

In this episode Andrew and Thom explore:

✅ The meaning of fear

✅ How we can understand fear in our own lives

✅ How our family background shapes our experience of fear

✅ Four ways we can start to “embrace fear”.

Thom Rutledge has been a psychotherapist for more than 40 years and is the author of several books, including Embracing Fear, The Self-Forgiveness Handbook, Earning Your Own Respect, The Greater Possibilities and What Love Is. He draws on professional training and experience as well as his own personal experience in recovery and personal growth to work with his clients.

Thom and his colleague, Dr. Allen Berger, co-host their own weekly podcast, Emotional Sobriety.

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 Thom Rutledge 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

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

Visit Thom Rutledge’s website

Read Thom Rutledge’s books, including Embracing Fear.

Listen to Emotional Sobriety, a podcast co-hosted by Thom Rutledge and Dr Allen Berger.

Follow Thom Rutledge on Twitter @ThomRutledge

Read Andrew’s blog on how keeping a journal can help deal with difficult emotions: Top Twelve Benefits of Journaling

If anxiety is a topic of interest for you, you may also enjoy Andrew’s conversation with Richard Paterson: No More Overthinking

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

What happens when we ignore pain?

Particularly if you’re a man, you have been taught that pain is the enemy – perhaps it is unmanly even to feel it – so you soldier on ‘it’s not that bad.’ or ‘it will go away if I can get a good holiday’ and you find ways to manage the pain. Women are often just as guilty – thinking ‘people are relying on me, I must keep it together’. After a while, we don’t really notice the pain – it’s like the hum of the fridge – always there.

We sort of know that a problem ignored seldom gets better but we plough on – sometimes in blissful ignorance – until there is a crisis and our world comes tumbling down.

My guests today are experts in what happens when it is impossible to stop pretending. Tyler and Brandon Patrick are brothers – Therapy Brothers (with a podcast of the same name). Tyler is a licensed marital and family therapist and Brandon is a licensed clinical social worker. They specialise in addiction and affair recovery…..

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 Therapy Brothers Tyler and Brandon know to be true.

- How to move on without answers

- 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 mens’s retreat near Berlin in June 2026: details here

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

Listen to Therapy Brothers Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify

Visit Therapy Brothers official website to learn more about their work.

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