Show Notes
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 reissued classic 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. 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:
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 Attend Andrew’s men’s retreat near Berlin in April 2026: details here Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things Read Bea Gonzalez’s novel, Invocation 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. 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
More from The Meaningful Life with Andrew G. Marshall
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
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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.
One of the toughest challenges in a relationship is being able to forge our own individual selves. And it isn’t always something that gets easier over time. Our ability to create a strong separate self independent of a couple relationship is strongly influenced by how we grew up, and what our relationship with our parents was like. In this episode Andrew talks with psychosexual therapist Juliet Grayson about the question “Do I Have to Give Up Me to Be Loved By You? Juliet Grayson provides extensive training courses and workshops for therapists, including training in attachment informed couple therapy, creative writing in the therapeutic encounter, and the Pesso Boyden system of psychotherapy. Her website hosts many informative webinars, covering numerous topics including shame, death and relationships.
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.