38 episodes
Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel Esther Perel Global Media
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- Society & Culture
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4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
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Listen to the incomparable therapist Esther Perel counsel real couples as they reveal the most intimate, personal, and complicated details of the conflicts that have brought them to her door. This season Esther speaks to a constellation of new relationships: A couple wrestling with the guilt they feel over the happiness their infidelity created. Another trying to make space for their queerness in an outwardly appearing hetero relationship. A set of friends trying to sort out if their childhood friendship needs to continue into adulthood. And Esther checks back in with couples from seasons past to see where they are now as she creates a space for us to hear our own lives and struggles articulated in the stories of others. So....where should we begin?
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Love In War with Esther Perel: Ukraine
In this session Esther counsels a couple torn apart by the war in Ukraine. Young sons divided between a mother who leaves for the sake of her youngest. And a father who stays with the oldest for the sake of their country.
This episode was done in partnership with The International Trauma Studies Program and One Ukraine.
(Ukrainian and English language transcripts available at http://www.estherperel.com/love-in-war-en)
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I've Had 100 Conversations With You In My Head, Part 2
We first met them three seasons ago in the painful aftermath of an infidelity. She was diagnosed with an STD during a routine visit to her OBGYN, leading to the revelation that her husband had been visiting sex workers. Four years later, they’re still together, but old wounds persist.
Transcripts for this episode are available at https://www.estherperel.com/podcasts/wswb-s5-episode10.
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Esther Calling - I Need Her to See Me
In this latest episode of Esther Calling, we meet a young woman looking for advice on how to stand up for herself in a fraught and traumatic relationship with her mother. She worries the trauma and violence she experienced in upbringing is dictating how she responds to authority figures elsewhere in her life.
The transcript for this episode is available at https://www.estherperel.com/podcasts/wswb-esther-calling-i-need-her-to-see-me .
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Esther Calling - Still Single at 40
In this episode of Esther Calling, Esther meets a man who’s never been in a relationship for more than five months. As he approaches age 40, he knows the reason lies with him, and not the women he’s dating. Esther encourages him to look back and see if the clues can be found in his early parental relationships. Perhaps the work starts there.
The transcript for this episode is available at https://www.estherperel.com/podcasts/wswb-esther-calling-still-single-at-40.
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We Started As An Affair
Esther says in this session, “a love story is between two people, a marriage engages an entire community of people.“ Here we see how that plays out when the relationship in question is the result of an affair; when it means the dissolution of two prior marriages and the breaking up families. How does this couple write their own two-person love story when there’s "an entire community of people" with a stake in the plot?
The transcript for this episode is available at https://www.estherperel.com/podcasts/wswb-s5-episode9.
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Esther Calling - Stuck In the Middle
He prides himself on being an empathic confidante to his friends…but is it to a fault? In this episode of Esther Calling, we meet a man fed up with being the container for his friends’ relationship woes. But, he wonders, can I put up barriers without losing the intimacy of those friendships?
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Customer Reviews
My favourite podcast
Esther is such a class act. Every time I listen to her work with a couple I realise things about my own life and relationships that years of personal therapy didn’t touch. She is so insightful and so precise in her guidance. I am very grateful to my friend who recommended I listen!
No to new format
The new format with Esther taking calls is just not interesting or well vetted. Have lost interest.
Inspiring, fabulous team production
I first became aware of Esther when I heard her on Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s brilliant podcast Feel Better Live More. I went back and listened to every episode of ‘Where shall we begin?’‘How’s Work?’ I could listen to Esther all day, and in fact I did whilst I ‘read’ her books on Audible ‘Mating in Captivity’ and ‘The State of Affairs- rethinking infidelity’
I would agree with what many other reviews have said-all of these episodes help us to listen to Esther break down relationships, attitudes and responses where we are not involved, whilst allowing us to look inside of ourselves and find parallels in our own behaviours and relationships. The books were inspiring and insightful and encourage all of us to hold back judgement and look more into why we adopt certain strategies and sometimes make imperfect decisions.
I’m a GP in the UK and I know that listening to Esther’s wisdom and observing her talent in zoning in on key behavioural patterns has changed me as a person. I hope it has made me into a better doctor too. Thankyou Esther and to all your team who work so hard to produce such a top notch podcast. Long may it continue!