Letting go and giving up are near enemies: one is healthy while the other might try to look like it's healthy, but really isn't. Letting go frees us to pursue more fulfilling ways of living, while giving up causes depression. Join us for a discussion of the differences and how to come out on the better side.

We're all equipped to hold on to the things that ground our lives and give them meaning. But that tool is too often enlisted in ways that do neither. Too often we hold onto rules, money and time in ways that make our minds crowded and noisy, and prevent us from letting in the things that really feel good. Join me in a discussion of psychological hoarding, the obsessive-compulsive tendency that runs in the background far more than we like to imagine.

The effects of shame can be seen all around us--largely in people's attempts to avoid it. If not confronted directly, shame can lead us to either withdraw, or to compensate with achievement, virtue or perfectionism. None of which work. Join us for this exploration of one of the most destructive emotions we experience, and find a better way to handle it.

The obsessive-compulsive personality can make you rigid, or it can be enlisted for healthy change. Fixed mindset can get you stuck while growth mindset can help you utilize its predilection for mastery. This episode lays bare the ongoing battle between the two and the unrecognized allegiance to fixed mindset. It also offers suggestions about how to make sure that growth mindset wins the fight.

We all like to be right. But our need to be right can get us into wrong because it can lead to self-deception and rationalization. The more convinced you are that your thinking and intuitions are right, the more likely it is that you're wrong. Join me as I question what it means to be certain, and explore why the answer to being certain is to question.

Believing that we are somehow insufficient often leads us to work too hard, try too hard and think too hard. Enough of that. This episode explores the impact this belief has on us and how we can change that perspective.

Getting help for perfectionism, control issues, work addiction, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) isn't easy, but it can be life-changing. Having some idea of what types of treatment are available, and how to best use your time once you get into therapy can make it easier to find you way in, and to make it more effective. This two-part episode includes "What is the Best Psychotherapy for OCPD" and "How Does Therapy for OCPD Actually Work," and offers guidance in your search for help. If you can put your obsessive and compulsive tendencies into service for change, you can make your life much more fulfilling.

What if you had been taken over by a part of your personality, a part of your personality that was meant to help you, but had become a tyrant? Join us for an interview with "Obsessive-Compulsive," also known as OCom, as we explore how to make the best use of this driven part of you. Playful, yet at the same time serious, this episode describes an example of parts work, experiential, psychological work that gets past the conflict between reason and feeling that we too often run into when trying to change.