Relationships 2.0 With Dr. Michelle Skeen

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Dan Millman author of The Hidden School: Return of the Peaceful Warrior About the book: The Hidden School reveals a book within a book, a quest within a quest, and a bridge between worlds. In the long-awaited conclusion to the international bestselling Peaceful Warrior saga, Dan Millman takes readers on an epic spiritual quest across the world as he searches for the link between everyday life and transcendent possibility. Continuing his journey from Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Dan moves from Honolulu to the Mojave Desert, and from a bustling Asian city to a secluded forest, until he uncovers the mystery of The Hidden School. While traversing continents, he uncovers lessons of life hidden in plain sight—insights pointing the way to an inspired life in the eternal present. Along the way, you’ll encounter remarkable characters and brushes with mortality as you explore the nature of reality, the self, death, and finally, a secret as ancient as the roots of this wor

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Ilona Ciunaite author of Liberation Unleashed: A Guide to Breaking Free from the Illusion of a Separate Self About the book: Liberation Unleashed introduces you to the process of unraveling the false sense of a separate self at the center of your existence. With insightful metaphors, personal stories, and guided dialogues, this book points directly to our lack of separation and helps you move toward a new, more open reality of selfless bliss. Using the seven clear and focused steps presented, you’ll find liberation in realizing there is no individuated “I” and marvel at the true nature of things. Author Ilona Ciunaite’s search for the truth began when she first “experienced silence of the thinking mind, a sweet sense of being, contentment, peace,” and “feeling at home.” Driven by a desire to reach that state of oneness once more, her path led her through spiritual writings to the process of deconstruction and non-dual self-inquiry and finally to a peaceful empti

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Mike Whitaker author of The Decision Makeover: An Intentional Approach to Living the Life You Want About the book: Mike's book is available for pre-order on Amazon.com (publication date: September 2017) The secret of happy and successful people? Their ability to make good decisions. Changing careers, launching a business, starting a family, buying a home, moving to a new city? How do you know whether you're making the right decision? In The Decision Makeover, Mike Whitaker offers a thoughtful and strategic approach for choosing wisely in all aspects of your life whether it's about money, career, education, health, friends, or family. With his background in both business and psychology, he lays out a decision-making process that gives you the power to achieve your dreams. He even explains what to do if you've made some poor decisions along the way, so that you can move ahead without regret. Whitaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the difference betwe

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Stephanie Sarkis, PhD an author and psychologist specializing in sociopathy. About the show: Sociopaths are all around us – and they blend well with general society. In fact, even trained professionals have been manipulated by sociopaths – they are that good at hiding pathological behavior. Sociopaths thrive off of gaining control of others – and get pleasure from seeing others suffer. People can unknowingly connect with sociopaths through online dating. The online dating atmosphere is ripe for anonymity and creating a persona – something sociopaths use to get into your heart and home. In this segment, Dr. Stephanie Sarkis discusses how to indentify a sociopath – and what to do if you find yourself in a relationship with one. About the author: Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, Ph.D., NCC, DCMHS, LMHC, is a bestselling author and psychotherapist. She is an American Mental Health Counselors Association Diplomate and Clinical Mental Health Specialist in Child and Adol

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Eric Maisel PhD author of Overcoming Your Difficult Family: 8 Skills for Thriving in Any Family Situation About the book: Many of the difficult people you encounter in daily life can be avoided, but what if they’re family members? What if the difficult person is a parent, a sibling, one of your children, or your mate? In Overcoming Your Difficult Family, life coach and retired family therapist Eric Maisel offers useful strategies for dealing with the people you’re connected to for life, even when they are not cooperative. Dr. Maisel tackles the problematic aspects of families, describing eight vital skills to help you cope with challenging relationships. The book also serves as a unique “field guide” to common types of dysfunctional families — authoritarian families, anxious families, addicted families, and more — and how to thrive despite those dynamics. By following Dr. Maisel’s battle-tested advice, you’ll learn to maintain inner peace in the midst of family c

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Linda Carroll author of Love Cycles: The Five Essential Stages of Lasting Love About the book: In Love Cycles, veteran couples therapist Linda Carroll presents a groundbreaking model of the five natural stages of romantic relationships — the Merge, Doubt and Denial, Disillusionment, Decision, and Wholehearted Love — and a guide for navigating through them toward lasting love. Love Cycles helps readers understand where they are in the cycle of their relationship and provides a clear strategy for how to stay happy and committed, even in difficult times. About the author: Linda Carroll, MS, has worked as a couple’s therapist for more than 30 years. In addition to being a licensed psychotherapist, she is certified in Transpersonal Psychology and Imago Therapy, the highly successful form of couple’s therapy developed by Dr. Harville Hendrix and Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt. She is also a master teacher in the Pairs Psychoeducation Process, a nationally-recognized relation

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Marc Allen author of The Magical Path: Creating the Life of Your Dreams and a World That Works for All About the book: At the start of his career, Marc Allen never took a business course; he simply made what he calls “a sloppy, disorganized, lazy, and intuitive search through the books of Western magic.” There he found the tools that took him from being a poverty case to a multimillionaire and helped him create one of the most successful independent publishers in the country. In The Magical Path, he presents these tools — effective, easy-to-apply practices, including affirmation, visualization, and guided meditation — that can change the course of readers’ lives in miraculous ways, as they did his. Because these tools are so simple and powerful, Allen calls them magic. But far from esoteric, they are tools anyone can use to achieve their dreams and goals. About the author: Marc Allen is an internationally renowned author and speaker, the president and publisher o

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Suzanne Scurlock-Durana author of Reclaiming Your Body: Healing From Trauma and Awakening to Your Body’s Wisdom About the book: A guided tour through the body’s innate healing powers Many of us have learned to ignore, deny, or even mistrust the wise messages our bodies give us. The result is that when trauma strikes, a time when we need every aspect of our beings to master the challenge, we may find ourselves disconnected from our greatest strengths. Suzanne Scurlock-Durana, who has spent thirty years studying the gifts of the body and teaching thousands how to reclaim them, began to recognize this strength, which she likens to a GPS, when she herself experienced a life-threatening trauma. Here she walks readers through different areas of the body, revealing the wisdom they hold and how to reconnect with that wisdom. As she shows in this warm, compassionate book, the body’s abilities are always available; we must simply reconnect with them. About the author: Su

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Alexandra Solomon, PhD author of Loving Bravely: 20 Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want About the book: Real love starts with you. In order to attract a life partner and build a healthy intimate relationship, you must first become a good partner to yourself. This book offers twenty invaluable lessons that will help you explore and commit to your own emotional and psychological well-being so you can be ready, resilient, and confident in love. Many of us enter into romantic relationships full of expectation and hope, only to be sorely disappointed by the realization that the partner we’ve selected is a flawed human being with their own neuroses, history, and desires. Most relationships end because one or both people haven’t done the internal work necessary to develop self-awareness and take responsibility for their own experiences. We’ve all heard “You can’t love anyone unless you love yourself,” but amid life’s distractions and the myth of p

My radio show on Thursday June 1, 2017 This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Mark Coleman author of Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery About the book: “Nature deficit disorder” has become an increasingly challenging problem in our hyper modern world. In Awake in the Wild, Mark Coleman shows seekers how to remedy this widespread malady by reconnecting with nature through Buddhism. Each short (two to three pages) chapter includes a concrete nature meditation relating to such topics as Attuning to the Natural World, Reflecting the Rhythms of Nature, Walking with Compassion, Releasing the Inner Noise, Freeing the Animal Within, Coming into the Peace of Wild Things, Weathering the Storms of Life, and more. Incorporating anecdotes from the author’s many nature retreats, Buddhist wisdom and teachings, important nature writings by others, and nature itself, the book invites readers to participate in, not just observe, nature; develop a loving connection with the earth as a for

My radio show on Thursday May 18, 2017 This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Steve Taylor PhD author of The Leap: They Psychology of Spiritual Awakening. About the book: What does it mean to be enlightened or spiritually awakened? In The Leap, Steve Taylor shows that this state is much more common than is generally believed. He shows that ordinary people — from all walks of life — can and do regularly “wake up” to a more intense reality, even if they know nothing about spiritual practices and paths. Wakefulness is a more expansive and harmonious state of being that can be cultivated or that can arise accidentally. It may also be a process we are undergoing collectively. Drawing on his years of research as a psychologist and on his own experiences, Taylor provides what is perhaps the clearest psychological study of the state of wakefulness ever published. Above all, he reminds us that it is our most natural state — accessible to us all, anytime, anyplace. About the author: Steve Taylor, PhD, is the au

My radio show on Thursday May 11, 2017 This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Ben Sedley author of Stuff That Sucks: A Teen’s Guide to Accepting What You Can’t Change and Committing to What You Can About the book: Sometimes everything sucks. This unique, illustrated guide will help you move past negative thoughts and feelings and discover what truly matters to you. If you struggle with negative thoughts and emotions, you should know that your pain is real. No one should try to diminish it. Sometimes stuff really does suck and we have to acknowledge it. Worry, sadness, loneliness, anger, and shame are big and important, but they can also get in the way of what really matters. What if, instead of fighting your pain, you realized what really matters to you—and put those things first in life? If you did that, maybe your pain wouldn’t feel so big anymore. Isn’t it worth a try? Stuff That Sucks offers a compassionate and validating guide to accepting emotions, rather than struggling against them. With this

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Linda Lehrhaupt, PhD author of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: The MBSR Program for Enhancing Health and Vitality About the book: Practicing mindfulness helps us meet life’s challenges with gentleness and clarity. By fully engaging in the present moment as best we can, we nurture our capacity to approach difficulties with less judgment and water the seeds of wisdom and openheartedness in ourselves. This book offers a concise and thorough immersion in the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course developed by Dr. Jon Kabat­-Zinn. It features straightforward instruction in the main exercises of MBSR ― sitting meditation, walking meditation, eating meditation, yoga, body scan, and informal, everyday practices. MBSR has been shown to help alleviate symptoms associated with chronic illness, anxiety, pain, burnout, cancer, and other stress-related conditions. The authors, two leading MBSR teacher trainers, provide step-by-step instructions as well

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Sally M. Winston, PsyD co-author of Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: A CBT-based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts About the book: You are not your thoughts! In this powerful book, two anxiety experts offer proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) skills to help you get unstuck from disturbing thoughts, overcome the shame these thoughts can bring, and reduce your anxiety. If you suffer from unwanted, intrusive, frightening, or even disturbing thoughts, you might worry about what these thoughts mean about you. Thoughts can seem like messages—are they trying to tell you something? But the truth is that they are just thoughts, and don’t necessarily mean anything. Sane and good people have them. If you are someone who is plagued by thoughts you don’t want—thoughts that scare you, or thoughts you can’t tell anyone about—this book may change your life. In this compassionate guide, you’ll discover the different kinds

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Maria Felipe author of Live Your Happy: Get Out of Your Own Way and Find the Love Within About the book: Banish Fear, Encounter Love! Inspired, lively, and fun, Maria Felipe’s real-world approach to living based on A Course in Miracles will guide you toward a life released from fear and doubt and filled with joy and power. In nine crystal-clear chapters, Maria shows you how to banish the “cuckoo voice of the ego” and connect with your internal teacher, accessing unlimited love and strength. Her stories, shared from her own life and from her students’ experiences, demonstrate that with a willing attitude and an open heart, true happiness isn’t just possible — it’s inevitable! About the author: Rev. Maria Felipe, a Cuban American born in Miami, found success as a model and actress before following a spiritual path that led her to study A Course in Miracles. She became an ordained minister at Pathways of Light and now leads monthly services in both Spanish and Engli

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Laura Doyle author of The Empowered Wife: Six Surprising Secrets for Attracting Your Husband’s Time, Attention, and Affection About the book: Can a wife single-handedly bring a boring or broken marriage back to life? This improved and expanded edition of Laura Doyle’s acclaimed First, Kill All the Marriage Counselors features real-life success stories from empowered wives who have done just that–and provides a step-by-step guide to revitalizing your own marriage. Laura Doyle’s marriage was in trouble, and couples counseling wasn’t helping. On the brink of divorce, she decided to talk to women who’d been happily married for over a decade, and their advice stunned her. From it, she distilled Six Intimacy Skills–woman-centric practices that ended her overwhelm and resentment, restoring the playfulness and passion in her marriage. Now an internationally-recognized relationship expert, Doyle has shared her secrets with women around the globe, saving thousands of marriag

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Steven Stosny PhD author of Soar Above: How to Use the Most Profound Part of Your Brain Under Any Kind of Stress About the book: Success in work, love, and life depends on developing habits that activate the powerful prefrontal cortex when we need it most. Unfortunately, under stress, the human brain tends to revert to emotional habits we forged in toddlerhood: blame, denial, avoidance, reacting to a jerk like a jerk, and turning our connections into cold shoulders—or worse. In Soar Above, renowned relationship expert Dr. Steven Stosny offers a ground-breaking formula for building new, pressure-resistant habits. Based on research in psychology, neurobiology, and anthropology, Stosny will show anyone how to switch to the adult brain automatically when things get tough and to soar above the impulse to make things worse. Filled with engaging examples from his lectures and therapeutic work with more than 6,000 clients, he explains how to use two potent laws of emotion

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Lisa Smartt author of Words at the Threshold: What We Say When We’re Nearing Death About the book: What Our Last Words Reveal About Life, Death, and the Afterlife A person’s end-of-life words often take on an eerie significance, giving tantalizing clues about the ultimate fate of the human soul. Until now, however, no author has systematically studied end-of-life communication by using examples from ordinary people. When her father became terminally ill with cancer, author Lisa Smartt began transcribing his conversations and noticed that his personality underwent inexplicable changes. Smartt’s father, once a skeptical man with a secular worldview, developed a deeply spiritual outlook in his final days ― a change reflected in his language. Baffled and intrigued, Smartt began to investigate what other people have said while nearing death, collecting more than one hundred case studies through interviews and transcripts. In this groundbreaking and insightful book, Sma

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Marc Allen. Marc is joining me to discuss the 40th anniversary of Shakti Gawain’s book Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life About the book: As introduced by Shakti Gawain to more than seven million readers worldwide, creative visualization is the art of using mental imagery and affirmation to produce positive changes in your life. Gawain’s clear writing style and vivid examples make Creative Visualization easy to read and apply to your personal needs and wants. This groundbreaking work has found enthusiastic followers in every country and language in which it has been published, and Gawain’s simple yet powerful techniques are now used successfully in many diverse fields, including health, education, business, sports, and the creative arts. Whether you read it for general inspiration and empowerment or to achieve specific goals (financial, creative, medical, career, relationship), Creative Visualization remai

My radio show on Thursday March 9, 2017 This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Stephanie Sarkis, PhD. She explains Gaslighting, a manipulation technique used by abusers, sociopaths and narcissists. About the show: Gaslighting: Know it, Identify It and Protect Yourself Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn’t realize how much they’ve been brainwashed. For example, in the movie Gaslight (1944), a man manipulates his wife to the point where she thinks she is losing her mind. People who gaslight typically use the following techniques: 1. They tell blatant lies. You know it’s an outright lie. Yet they are telling you this lie with a straight face. Why are they so blatant? Because they’re setting up a precedent. Once they tell y