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.
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.
When we cling to a fixed idea of who we are, something in the mind can sabotage us, as with a kicker who missed three field goals in front of his cheering family. Armand and two Gestalt therapists, Sherry Oren King and Gladys Santopal, explore how rigid self-concepts block authentic living and what awareness, inner reliance, and stopping the urge to change others can actually do.
