Category: Personal Growth & Change

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Breaking Out of Isolation January 8, 2014

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dr. Bill Hickok, Giullian Gioiello, Linda Vanella
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Isolation can feel safe, but stepping into the world transforms a person. Armand DiMele walks through eleven therapeutic factors that make any group experience healing, from a coffee house to a marriage, showing how Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, applies the same principles in her women’s groups. Callers round out the conversation with their own experiences of loneliness and connection.

Looking Back on 2013 December 31, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Aileen, Alexandra Beller, Carla, Christina McDowell, Elisa, Giullian Gioiello, Jamie Ross, Linda Vanella, Mariah Haskins, Mark, Mimi, Rashida, Rick
Category: Personal Growth & Change, Trauma & Healing

New Year’s Eve 2013 becomes an occasion for taking stock. Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, shares her year working with combat veterans and their families on PTSD, and Armand reads an open letter from Christina McDowell confronting her father’s fraud. Callers reflect on loss, loneliness, and the quiet sustaining power of memory.

The Healing Heart of Medicine with Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen November 12, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen
Category: Meaning, Spirituality & Philosophy, Personal Growth & Change

Medicine was never meant to be a collection of procedures and tools. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, physician and UCSF professor, describes her course The Healer’s Art, now taught in half of American medical schools, which helps first-year students reclaim the values of compassion, service, and human connection that drew them to medicine in the first place.

From Misanthropy to Trust November 5, 2013

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

Can a person who distrusts or dislikes others learn to open up again? Armand DiMele takes calls from listeners wrestling with resentment, false accusations, childhood neglect, and the habit of performing friendliness to win approval, tracing each back to early wounds and pointing toward gratitude and genuine closeness as the path out.

Dignity and Self-Respect with Dr. Majid Ali September 18, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Dr. Majid Ali
Category: Identity & The Self, Personal Growth & Change

Cheating the system quietly erodes self-respect, and most people mask that erosion through justification and denial. Armand traces how small compromises accumulate into a loss of dignity, links that pattern to unprocessed childhood pain, and speaks with Dr. Majid Ali, Physician, about how physical health and self-perception are intertwined.

Funny Thinking September 17, 2013

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

Irrational thinking is the hidden engine of unhappiness. Armand DiMele walks through nearly twenty common cognitive distortions, from needing universal approval to believing everyone else is happy but you, drawing on rational emotive therapy and his own clinical stories to show how funny thinking fuels emotional distress.

Courage in Love September 10, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Giullian Gioiello
Category: Love & Romantic Relationships, Personal Growth & Change

Most people love timidly, hiding thoughts and swallowing resentments. Armand DiMele, joined by co-host Giullian Gioiello, argues that real love demands emotional courage far harder than physical bravery, and walks listeners through what it takes to say the things we only tell cab drivers or therapists.

The Art of Mentoring with Esther Armand August 14, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Esther Armand
Category: Personal Growth & Change, Society, Culture & Current Events

Esther Armand, producer and WBAI colleague, brings a Ghanaian Ashanti perspective to the question of why Americans struggle with mentoring. She argues that supporting others is not a special act but a natural function of community, and shares her work helping formerly incarcerated young women discover their own strength through media and storytelling.

Why We Resist Change August 13, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Andrea Katz, Andrew Phillips, Giullian Gioiello
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Personal Growth & Change

Change is inevitable, but transition is psychological and far slower than the physical event. Armand DiMele breaks down why people cling to the status quo, why being changed against your will hurts more than choosing change yourself, and how to use the uncertain in-between period as a space for growth. Co-host Giullian Gioiello joins the conversation.

The Art of Presence and Silence July 9, 2013

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Baccha Schwartz, Dieter Middleston Scheid
Category: Meaning, Spirituality & Philosophy, Personal Growth & Change

Therapy can release old wounds, but can it bring you fully alive? Psychiatrist-turned-retreat-leader Dieter Middleston Scheid and his partner Baccha Schwartz describe their immersive silent retreats in Italy, where open sensory attention, slow-motion movement, and ten days without speech help participants rediscover a wordless inner home.