Soul Matters: Recent Episodes
Juliana Pope & Mark Goodman
What is soul? Why does it matter? And what does it have to do with living a joyful and whole human life? Psychotherapists Juliana Pope and Mark Goodman will engage with these questions and will engage others as they explore what it is to live a joyful and soulful life. Along the way, they will bring their over 50,000 hours of clinical experience, as well as their commitment to contemplative and mindfulness-based life practices to these questions. They hope to bring a wide range of perspectives to these questions looking at both right brain and left brain methodologies, cognitive therapy and mindfulness, the latest finding in neuroscience and the ancient teachings from eastern philosophy and practices. They invite you on this journey of exploration with them because these are essential and important questions, questions that often get overlooked in the rush and stress of the day. They invite you to explore and engage with them because Soul Matters.
A powerful practice to really invite you to come more deeply in to your body. And really become aware of your embodied experience as a human being...
In this episode, we speak with Elizabeth Spring. Elizabeth is survivor of horrific traumas in her life. She speaks so eloquently, courageously and vulnerably about her traumas and the journey from some very dark places to a life with light and love and joy in it. So much of this journey of healing was made possible by her deep commitment to mindfulness practice as a way of life and a way meeting difficulty and suffering. We found Elizabeth and her story to be quite extraordinary and inspiring. After listening to the episode, if you want to follow Elizabeth on Instagram you can find her @infinite.pause_abilities
Join Jules, Mark and special guest Peter Larson for a fascinating discussion on Social Media, Technology, & Soul.
For Day4 of this meditation series, Mark explains how to perform a walking meditation and the difference between formal and informal practice. Go outside and experience your moment. Post on Instagram @soul.matters.podcast
Join us on a meditation to learn the Tonglen practice of giving and receiving... breathing in suffering ... breathing out love and kindness and ease and relief...breaking your heart...and breaking your heart open ... This is part of a daily 10 minute meditation practice to help renew the soul. Let us know your feedback on Instagram @soul.matters.podcast!
Join us on a mindfulness journey to be in the moment and hold whatever it is inside of you that needs to be held... This is part of a daily 10 minute meditation practice to help renew the soul. Let us know your feedback on Instagram @soul.matters.podcast!
Ground yourself in a beautiful meditation where we take you in to the depths of relaxation to find your home... This is part of a daily 10 minute meditation practice to help renew the soul. Let us know your feedback on Instagram @soul.matters.podcast!
In a world full of distraction and challenge, how do we find our way back home to ourselves. This is such a crucial question because if we are going to live our lives from our most authentic and powerful selves and if we are going to truly address the challenges of this century, we have to find our way to that core place of our being. In this episode, Jules and Mark address this essential question of homecoming. There are many doors to leave home and fewer doors to come home and we hope this episode helps you perhaps find those doors.
In this episode we interview singer, songwriter, music producer and activist Valerie Orth. She talks honestly and vulnerably about her journey in the music industry, the deep and painful challenges of being a woman in that industry, and her commitment to authenticity, to finding her authentic voice as a musician, as a woman, and as a human being. She also speaks about how activism is woven into her life and her music how important that balance, that weaving, is for her. We were delighted, as well, that she agreed to play live for us two of her beautiful and soulful songs. If you want to know more about Valerie or get connected to her music and projects, you can visit her website at: https://valerieorth.com/ or search your favorite music service for her music.
Join Jules and Mark as they answer soul questions they are commonly asked as psychotherapists. "What are the main regrets you hear people talk about...?", "What's the secret to being happily married...", "How do I find and listen to my own voice...?"
In this episode, we, Mark & Jules, interview artist Carol Meckling. She is a full-time working artist living on the island of Kauai. During the interview we talk to Carol about her journey to fully listen to her soul's longing to create and become an artist. She speaks eloquently about how she was able to move art from something that was on the margins of her life to its very center and how doing that has brought her so much joy and life satisfaction. Along the way, she talks about the challenges and joys of listening to the call of the soul and the call of our aliveness. She also talks about her organic creative process, what art means her and how essential it is to our society. We found the interview inspiring and hopeful. Carol's website: www.carolmeckling.com
In this episode Jules and Mark experiment with not having an agenda and trusting the emerging moment in their conversation. The idea here is that sometimes our agendas and our desire to control things gets in the way of soul emerging. Sometimes if we let go and just trust what emerges and ride the wave of emerging life, we are taken to delightful places including places of the soul.
Welcome back to Season Two! In this episode, Mark and Jules discuss the intersection of science and spirituality in an interview with Ricco Bonicalzi, Ph.D. Ricco is a scientist, physicist , Buddhist practitioner and a professor of math and physics at Seattle Central College. He has spent many years contemplating where science and spirituality overlap and where each modality can actually support and deepen the other. We hope you find this interview as fascinating as we did.
In this final episode of the year, Mark and Jules delve in to healing and renewal after a tumultuous 2020.
Join Mark and Jules during this election season on a soul journey to "Lean In..." In this first of two fall specials they talk about and struggle with how to have soulful and fruitful conversations with friends/family/partners/neighbors with polarized views. They also talk why this kind of practice is essential for for healing the polarizations in the world and for our survival as a species.
In this episode Mark and Juliana reflect on Season 1 of this podcast as they come to the end of the season. They talk about what they have learned on this journey. Then, in honor of upcoming Father's Day, they explore what healthy masculinity and soulful masculinity might look like and the challenges for men of claiming masculinity in a culture full of toxic masculinity and few role models.
This episode is a mini-episode where Juliana and Mark discuss the inherent, potential hope in the act of protest. They go on to introduce the practice of TONGLIN, which comes from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and is practice of developing a warriors heart, a heart wide enough to take in and and bear witness to the suffering of the world. The hope is that if we can bear witness and truly take in that suffering, compassionate and effective action would be the inevitable result of that practice.
In this improvisational episode Mark and Juliana wrestle with their own white privilege and institutional racism in response to George Floyd's murder, the history of police brutality in this country, and the protests that have broken out in many cities across this country It is a raw, challenging and painful episode as they try and own the internal racism that lives inside of them by virtue of living in this culture. They go on to ask what are skillful and soulful responses to what is happening and what has been happening in our country.
Mark and Juliana interview special guest Sam Lamb who seems to have a gift of building community and connection. They discuss what it takes build a life and business through "soul connections".
In this episode, we have an inspiring conversation with Barb Lucas, an expressive arts therapist living in Montana. We talk about how creativity can be a doorway into the soulful areas of human life and we talk about the radical idea that all human beings are creative and need to create to be whole.
In this episode, Mark and Juliana talk about the definition of soul and then explore practical ways of connecting with soul in our everyday lives. Soul is beautiful, meaningful and elusive, which is what this episode points to.
Former head coach for Team USA’s Paralympic tennis team and wheelchair tennis ambassador Dan James tells his story of trauma and healing in this touching episode. Join us, for a soul's journey to "light on the other side..."
Special guest Tahir Bhatti, a UC San Diego Wellness Physician and psychiatrist joins Mark and Juliana to talk about practical practices that help us clear our hearts and minds of the wounds, constrictions and painful clutter we have accumulated throughout our lives. Tahir asserts that in doing this soul work and utilizing these soulful practices, we will be able to come home to our luminous hearts and claim who we really are.
In this episode, Juliana and Mark speak with Dawn Grace, a former oncology nurse, a former midwife, a hypnotherapist and a death doula. With Dawn, who has had a lifelong fascination with death and who currently wants to open a “Death School”, they explore how facing the reality of death opens us up to soul, joy and aliveness.
In this episode, Juliana and Mark discuss what is means to bring soul to our relationships and how to cultivate more soul and depth in our relationships. "Join us, on this episode of Soul Matters..."
In the first episode of Soul Matters, Juliana and Mark discuss what soul actually is, why it does, indeed, matter and why each of them were drawn to do a podcast on this topic. They also explore the present moment as a doorway into soul, joy, and aliveness.
In this episode, taped during the terrifying spread of the corona virus, Juliana and Mark address dealing with anxiety and the difficult question how to meet challenging life circumstances with soulfulness. The episode ends with a 10 minute relaxing meditation.
"Join us, on this episode of Soul Matters..."