SHADOW is a Jungian concept that refers to those traits we have suppressed in ourselves that may be waiting to find expression in our lives. This week Connie Zweig PhD returns to the podcast to talk about shadow-work for conscious relationships.

We explore:

• How the unconscious erupts in our lives and sabotages our relationships
• Why we can become caught up in repetitive arguments, criticism, distancing, projections, or addictions.
• How the shadow forms in childhood and how to detect it when it emerges
• Making a conscious relationship to the shadow, and choosing different outcomes.

Connie Zweig, Ph.D., is a retired psychotherapist, writer, and Climate Reality Leader. Known as the Shadow Expert, she has written several books about shadow-work, including Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature and Romancing the Shadow: A Guide to Soul Work for a Vital, Authentic Life, both of which have recently been reissued. Connie has been doing contemplative practices for more than 50 years, and is a wife, stepmother and grandmother.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50

This week supporters will hear:

• Psychology of Evil
• Three Things Connie Zweig knows to be true.
• AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.

Follow Up

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Read Connie Zweig’s books:

• Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature

• Romancing the Shadow: A Guide to Soul Work for a Vital, Authentic Life

• The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul

• Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path: The Dance of Darkness and Light in Our Search for Awakening

Explore Connie Zweig’s Substack, Shadow Work to Expand Awareness

Listen to Connie Zweig’s podcast with her husband, Dr Neil’s Spiritual Awakening to Non-Duality

Visit Connie Zweig’s website https://conniezweig.com

Follow Connie Zweig on Twitter @InnerWorkofAge and on Facebook at @Dr.ConnieZweig

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall

We all know that good boundaries are essential if we want happy relationships. There is a lot of confusion, though, about what exactly a boundary is and how to make it work. Can we have too many boundaries? Should we ever compromise on the boundaries we set?

In this week’s classic reissued episode, Andrew talks about boundaries with Graham Johnston and Matt Wotton from the London Centre of Applied Psychology. Matt and Graham share their own experiences of creating boundaries in both love and parenting, and what it means if we are struggling to get this right.

Our ability to set boundaries is linked closely to our attachment style: those with an anxious attachment may allow their boundaries to crumble too easily; while those with an avoidant attachment can have so many rigid boundaries that they struggle to let anyone in.

Andrew also shares a prayer for good boundaries, which he often uses with marital therapy clients:

'I am me and

You are you.

It's a miracle that we've found each other

But I'm responsible for my stuff

And you're responsible for yours'

Graham Johnston is a psychotherapist and educator. He is Director of Policy at The Bowlby Centre, the UK’s leading training institution in attachment-based psychotherapy, and has also worked for the UK Government, specialising in home affairs. He and Matt Wotton are the Co-Founders and Directors of LCAP.

Matt Wotton is a psychotherapist and executive coach, and also Chair of The Bowlby Centre and Director at LCAP. Matt has over two decades of experience in forensic mental health in the criminal justice system - in operations, coaching leaders, and advising ministers. He led the review of Race in the Criminal Justice System (The Lammy Review), commissioned by the Prime Minister, and has been a member of the Prison & Probation Board.

Follow Up

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Learn more about the London Centre for Applied Psychology (LCAP), where Graham Johnston and Matt Wotton work as Directors.

Learn more about The Bowlby Centre, the UK’s leading training institution in attachment-based psychotherapy.

Follow LCAP on Twitter and Facebook @LCAPsychology.

Read The Mindful Athlete by George Munford.

Read the poem “On Marriage” by Kahlil Gibran.

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50 https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall

There are people in our lives who mesmerise but at the same time diminish and damage us. They excite us about the possibilities life holds, while teaching us that we are not worthy of achieving them. Their impact can be so great that for years after we continue trying to replicate the intensity of our time with them, seeing everything through our monster’s lens.

Psychotherapist and author Charlotte Fox Weber joins me this week to discuss SACRED MONSTERS - the people we encounter in love, friendship or work whose devastating charisma may shape us for years after they depart.

We cover:

• Charlotte’s personal experiences with sacred monsters
• Scapegoats in family and society, and how they can also be understood as sacred monsters
• The trickster archetype as sacred monster
• The “perverse imp” inside us that can render us vulnerable to monsters.

Charlotte Fox Weber is a psychotherapist, author and the founding head of The School of Life Psychotherapy. Her latest book, Sacred Monsters will be available in 2026.

If You’re Looking for More….

You can subscribe to The Meaningful Life (via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts) and hear a bonus mini-episode every week. Or you can join our Supporters Club on Patreon to also access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50

This week supporters will hear:

• Maternal Monsters
• Three Things Charlotte Fox Weber knows to be true.
• AND subscribers also access all of our previous bonus content - a rich trove of insight on love, life and meaning created by Andrew and his interviewees.

Follow Up

Attend Andrew's new men's retreat, Reconnect With Yourself, this autumn in the Brandenberg countryside near Berlin

Get Andrew’s free guide to difficult conversations with your partner: How to Tell Your Partner Difficult Things

Learn more about Charlotte Fox Weber’s book Sacred Monsters, available 2026

Read Charlotte Fox Weber’s book, Tell Me What You Want: A Therapist and Her Clients Explore Our 12 Deepest Desires.

Follow Charlotte Fox Weber on Instagram @charlottefoxweberpsychotherapy

Take a look at Andrew’s new online relationship course: My Best Relationship Tools

Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50.

Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall