What if therapy is not about fixing what’s broken… but about retrieving what was lost?

In this deeply reflective episode of the Project I AM Podcast, David explores the idea that therapy is a modern form of soul retrieval, the gentle, relational process of helping clients come back into connection with the parts of themselves that had to go into hiding in order to survive.

Drawing from the work of Irvin Yalom, Carl Rogers, and Lawrence Heller (NARM) — alongside the wisdom of poets and mystics like John O’Donohue, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Ávila, Mary Oliver, and David Whyte, this episode weaves psychology, spirituality, neuroscience, and lived experience into one powerful truth:Healing is not becoming someone new. Healing is becoming someone true.

Whether you are a therapist, a student, or someone on your own healing journey, this episode invites you to reconsider what growth really means — and what it feels like to finally come home to yourself.

If you’ve ever felt successful but not fully alive… connected but not fully known… this conversation is for you.

Welcome home.

Most of us move through life solving, fixing, performing, and managing.

We answer emails. We check boxes. We handle problems. We get things done.

But somewhere along the way… we forget how to truly meet each other.

In this reflective and deeply human episode of the Project I AM Podcast, David explores the work of philosopher Martin Buber and his timeless idea from I and Thou: that there are two ways of relating in the world.

I–It: where people become roles, problems, or tasks to manage. I–Thou: where we slow down and encounter each other as whole, sacred human beings.

This is an invitation to slow down. To soften. To listen differently. And to remember that healing often happens not because we said the perfect thing… but because we stayed.

Come sit for a while.

Because sometimes the most powerful words we can offer another person are simply:

I’m here.

In this Project I AM episode, David slows everything down and brings you back to one of the most life-changing practices you can learn: living and healing in the here and now. So much of our suffering comes from getting stuck in the past or bracing for the future. In this conversation, you’ll learn how to recognize the subtle moments when your system shifts into protection, like shutting down, speeding up, people-pleasing, numbing out, overthinking, or trying to control. And you’ll learn how to come back to yourself with compassion.

If you’ve been feeling anxious, disconnected, or stuck in patterns you can’t think your way out of, this episode will bring you back to what’s real, what’s here, and what’s possible.

The inner critic often disguises itself as responsibility and “honesty,” but it runs on threat. This episode helps you spot the disguise, understand what the critic is protecting you from, and practice nonviolent truth — the kind that leads to change without humiliation.

In this episode:

• How to tell the difference between wisdom and threat
• Why urgency + contempt are big “tells”
• A simple real-time practice: name it, locate it, ask what it’s protecting
• The CFT “three systems” frame (threat, drive, soothing)
• Why self-compassion is not indulgence, it’s a different nervous-system strategy

In this special end-of-year episode, David steps away from teaching and enters the realm of blessing, offering an extended inspirational poem instead of a traditional talk. “The Year Is Turning: A Blessing for Your Becoming” is a gentle, hope-filled reflection for anyone standing at the edge of 2026 feeling tired, hopeful, conflicted, or all of the above.

This poetic episode invites you to release harsh self-judgment, honor the year you’ve survived, and step into the new one with softer eyes and a kinder voice toward yourself. It’s not about resolutions or reinvention, but about learning to treat yourself like someone you’re committed to stay with—through every chapter, every stumble, every new beginning. If you need words that feel like a hand on your shoulder and a hand over your heart, this episode is for you.

In this episode of the Project I Am Podcast, David invites you into a compassionate conversation about the stories you tell yourself, especially the ones shaped by shame. Together, you’ll explore the difference between what happened to you and what you made it mean about you, and how those old meanings can quietly run your life in the present.

David normalizes the deeply human experience of carrying harsh internal narratives like “I’m too much,” “I’m not enough,” or “I’m the problem,” and helps you trace where those stories came from (families, culture, relationships, faith communities) and how they once functioned as survival strategies. With humor, warmth, and shared humanity, he offers a new way to see your shame story: not as proof that you’re broken, but as a script you’re finally allowed to rewrite.

By the end, you’ll feel less alone, more understood, and more empowered to say:

“My old story made sense once… but it is not the whole truth of who I am. I’m allowed to write something new.”

What if the biggest barrier to your self-acceptance isn’t your past…but your refusal to forgive yourself for it?

In this episode of Project I Am, David explores why unforgiveness toward self is the #1 block to genuine freedom, confidence, and wholeness.

Together, you’ll unpack:

· Why shame and guilt are not proof that you’re a good person

· The hidden reasons we cling to self-punishment and can’t “let it go”

· How unforgiveness becomes a prison we decorate and call virtue

· What “delusional” self-forgiveness really means (and what it doesn’t)

· How changing your internal narrator opens the door to real self-acceptance

This episode is a compassionate, honest invitation to step out of lifelong self-condemnation and into a cleaner, freer inner world—where you can take bold action, love more fully, and actually enjoy being alive.

If you’ve ever thought, “I can’t forgive myself for that,” this conversation is for you.

In this episode, we name a kind of grief that rarely gets spoken aloud: not grief for what happened, but for what couldn’t happen. The unlived life. The version of you that never got to thrive. The dreams that never had safe ground. The tenderness that had to go quiet just to survive. This is grief without ritual and often without witnesses—yet it shapes how we carry ourselves, love others, and imagine our future. Together, we slow down enough to honor what was missing, to tell the truth about what was lost, and to soften the shame that can form around invisible sorrow. And in the naming, something gentle opens: not a way to “move on,” but a way to make room for what is still possible. If you’ve ever felt an ache you couldn’t explain, this episode is for you—an hour of quiet companionship, remembrance, and hope.