Category: Emotions & Inner Life

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The History and Purpose of Emotions January 19, 2010

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Every emotion has a full personal history, and the ones missing from your parents reveal as much as the ones present. Armand DiMele maps the six basic emotions, then introduces newer candidates like elevation, interest, and pride, exploring their physiological roots and social purpose. Callers from Haitian immigrant families reflect on inherited emotional suppression.

Unfinished Business and Gestalt Therapy January 13, 2010

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Unresolved childhood patterns drive adult behavior, and Gestalt therapy offers tools to name them. Armand DiMele walks through core Gestalt concepts including retroflection, deflection, confluence, and projection, showing how each keeps people stuck in the same drama. The episode opens with a heartfelt reflection on the Haiti earthquake.

Finding Your Balance with Gestalt Therapy January 12, 2010

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

True balance comes from within, not from relationships, pills, or endless talk therapy. Armand DiMele introduces Gestalt therapy’s core ideas, including dream analysis and the here-and-now philosophy, while fielding calls from listeners stuck in old patterns and questioning whether antidepressants are actually working.

Music as a Healing Process with John Pelletieri January 7, 2010

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: John Pelletieri, Stephanie D'Ambra
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Music stirs feelings that words cannot reach, and John Pelletieri, author of a textbook on music therapy, explains why. Armand and Pelletieri trace how rhythm, melody, and imagery each activate different brain regions, and how therapists use that to unlock the unconscious. Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW, co-hosts.

The Heart Is Not Just a Pump January 6, 2010

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Sherri Siegel, Teresa Palmer
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

Neurocardiology is upending the old idea that the heart is merely a pump. Armand DiMele and Dr. Sherry Siegel, M.D. examine how extreme stress and emotional loss can literally stop the heart, where serotonin is actually stored in the body, and why fragmented specialist care leaves patients powerless.

How Was Your Year December 31, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Akilah, Alex, Debbie, Joanne, Juana, Lauren Sykes, Lynn, Tony Thomas
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Armand DiMele opens the phones and asks listeners to rate their year on a scale of zero to ten and name three things that shaped it. Callers share stories of job hope, health crises, death, financial collapse, and hard-won perspective, turning the show into a candid collective inventory of 2009.

Sobriety as Being Present December 29, 2009

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Armand DiMele reframes sobriety not as abstinence but as full presence in the moment, arguing that most of us are “drunk” on distraction, worry, and longing nearly all the time. Drawing on a candid conversation with a group of men, he explores why being truly present is so rare and so difficult, and how tears, non-judgment, and even the word “yes” can open a doorway to it.

Why Love Fades Over Time December 22, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Stephanie D'Ambra
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Love & Romantic Relationships

Love doesn’t just end, it erodes through unmet needs and biological programming. Armand DiMele argues that fading attraction follows a natural but not inevitable course, drawing on evolutionary drives and caller stories, including one man’s struggle with touch after years of violation.

When Love Turns Into Irritability December 17, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Stephanie D'Ambra
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Love & Romantic Relationships

Why do people treat their closest partners with more contempt than strangers? Armand DiMele and co-host Stephanie D’Ambra, LCSW examine the hormonal roots of relational irritability, tracing how shifts in dopamine, prolactin, and testosterone erode compassion, and offer practical steps for breaking the cycle.

How the Brain Fills in the Blanks December 16, 2009

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Sherri Siegel
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, The Mind & Neuroscience

The brain is wired to fill in gaps, and that drive shapes everything from vision to dreams to romantic longing. Armand DiMele and Dr. Sherry Siegel, M.D. trace the neuroscience of synapses and blind spots outward to nightmares, compulsive thinking, and why an excited amygdala conjures danger from thin air.