Keyword: family dynamics

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How Birth Order Shapes Your Personality with Stephanie Ross April 15, 2014

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Giullian Gioiello, Stephanie Ross
Category: Family & Parenting, Identity & The Self

Birth order predicts more about your personality and relationships than most people realize. Armand DiMele and researcher Stephanie Ross break down how being an only child, firstborn, or later-born shapes anger triggers, confidence, and compatibility, while noting that adoption, remarriage, and loss can shift everything.

The Family Constellation March 13, 2012

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: John Valerio, Linda Vanella
Category: Family & Parenting, Identity & The Self

Every family is a web of valences, positive and negative, and Armand DiMele maps the full constellation: single fathers raising daughters, mothers and sons, absent parents, and the toll each pattern takes. Linda Vanella, LCSW-R, adds clinical perspective, and a caller named JT illustrates what happens when a child withdraws from an unaccepting world and how embarrassment, not circumstance, becomes the last barrier to belonging.

The Secrets We Keep December 7, 2010

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Family & Parenting

Secrets shape every layer of life, from the truths we hide from ourselves to the ones buried inside families for generations. Armand DiMele examines why some secrets protect and others destroy, when revealing them heals, and when it causes further harm. Callers share their own long-held burdens.

Accessing Your Real Self: What Does It Mean to Be Real November 30, 2010

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Alberto, Charles Bavona, Karen, Kelly, Megan, Monroe, Shakara, Teresa
Category: Identity & The Self

In this episode, Armand DiMele explores the profound question of what it means to be real. Through introspective dialogue and listener call-ins, he discusses how people present either strength or weakness depending on their needs, fears, or survival instincts. Armand connects the idea of authenticity with pain, vulnerability, and presence, arguing that “crazy” behaviors are often adaptations to protect fragile selves. Excerpts from The Velveteen Rabbit and quotes from E.E. Cummings, Judy Garland, and others enrich the philosophical journey. Callers share personal experiences with trauma, depression, overthinking, and strained relationships, revealing how pain, when accepted, can guide people back to their true selves. The episode urges listeners to face discomfort, question disguises, and reclaim their real identities.

Father’s Day Feelings June 12, 2008

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Family & Parenting

Why is Father’s Day so emotionally loaded? Armand DiMele walks through the many reasons people carry unresolved anger toward their fathers, from absenteeism and favoritism to criticism and triangulation, and how those feelings quietly shape adult relationships, work, and identity. Callers share fond memories alongside the pain.

The Psychology of Grandparenting August 10, 2006

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Catherine, David Travland, Keith, Sante
Category: Family & Parenting, Identity & The Self

Grandparents are everywhere in family life yet almost nowhere in psychology literature. Armand DiMele builds a case for why grandparenting deserves serious study, examining how grandparents transmit love, jealousy, and dysfunction across generations, illustrated by callers sharing their own grandparent stories.

Family Systems and Hidden Roles March 23, 2006

Host: Armand DiMele
Category: Emotions & Inner Life, Family & Parenting

Every family is a system, and the ‘sick’ member is rarely the only one who needs help. Armand DiMele walks through systems theory from triangulation and the rebel child to Munchausen by proxy, arguing that treating the individual without the whole family often misses the point entirely.

Toxic Workplace Patterns with Kathy Elster and Catherine Crowley Undated

Host: Armand DiMeleGuests: Catherine Crowley, Kathy Elster
Category: Communication & Conflict, Personal Growth & Change

When coworkers and bosses drive us crazy, the cause is often older than the job. Kathy Elster and Catherine Crowley, authors of Working With You Is Killing Me, join Armand DiMele to explain how family-of-origin patterns quietly shape who we hire, who we resent, and why some toxic work relationships feel impossible to leave.