Long-term love requires peeling back the projections we bring to romance and confronting our own patterns, not just our partner’s flaws. Workshop leaders Robbie Gass and Judith Gass join Armand to discuss self-responsibility, the deadening of passion, and simple practices like eye-gazing and shared breath that rekindle genuine connection.
We are all born with slightly more of one trait than another, and under stress that trait gets exaggerated into what we call a personality disorder. Armand explores this continuum with Lisa Arnone, LCSW, and Dr. Erin Oberlander, examining projection, borderline dynamics, and why blame, whether of self or others, keeps people stuck.
Mundane complaints hide deeper wounds, and Armand DiMele shows how to find them. Working live with Lisa Arnone, LCSW, he demonstrates how a throwaway statement like “I hate people who buy lottery tickets” can be guided, step by step, into a genuine first-person admission about fear, disappointment, and unmet need.
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.
Every person becomes a symbol to someone else, and that projection shapes desire, conflict, and love more than most people realize. Armand DiMele traces how childhood wounds turn strangers into father figures, mother figures, or pain symbols, and invites callers to examine the symbols they embody and chase.
Movies are not escape but a mirror. Psychologist Dr. Maria Grace explains how film characters trigger projections that reveal hidden fears, unmet needs, and suppressed desires. Armand DiMele explores her 12-step method, from decoding a client’s George Clooney obsession to prescribing specific films that inspire real life change.
When someone you love or work with takes their anger out on you unfairly, what do you actually do? Armand DiMele walks through the spectrum of responses, from fighting back to showing genuine hurt, and argues that expressing pain rather than matching anger is both more natural and more disarming. Callers explore grief-fueled resentment and chronic irritability at home.
Your favorite animal reveals your true nature, while your favorite color is the mask you show the world. Armand DiMele builds a surprisingly revealing self-knowledge exercise from listener responses, then pivots to pity, arguing that pitying others distances us from them and that self-pity quietly sustains depression by substituting victimhood for honest self-examination.
