Eric Wolterstorff: How transference impacts growth & healing in therapy

Eric Wolterstorff: How transference impacts growth & healing in therapy

Author: Serge Prengel August 27, 2025 Duration: 21:51
We discuss how transference in the context of trauma therapy. Eric shares an experience that illustrates how this can lead to healing.

Serge Prengel hosts Proactive Mindfulness, a space where the concept of personal growth is examined not as a distant goal but as something woven into the fabric of daily life. This podcast moves beyond passive theory, focusing instead on change as an active and mindful practice. Each episode features dialogues with experienced therapists, coaches, and mindfulness practitioners, turning abstract ideas into tangible, relatable conversations. You’ll hear real-world examples of how awareness can be applied to moments of stress, decision-making, and personal challenge, making the principles discussed immediately relevant. The discussions are thoughtful and often meandering, allowing for depth and nuance rather than quick fixes. It’s for anyone who finds that standard self-improvement advice feels disconnected from the messy reality of being human. Through these talks, the podcast builds a practical philosophy-one where mindfulness is a dynamic tool for navigating life’s complexities, not an escape from them. Tune in for a perspective that is both grounding and invigorating, reminding us that growth happens in the process of engaging with our present experience, exactly as it is.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 101

Proactive Mindfulness
Podcast Episodes
Maia Szalavitz: An inspiring perspective on addiction [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:26
Maia Szalavitz blends personal experience and years of investigative research into an inspiring perspective on addiction. Conversation with Serge Prengel about her perspective on addiction.
Kirk Schneider: Life-enhancing anxiety [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:52
We do our best to avoid anxiety, and in so doing, risk missing out on the best of the depth and mystery of existence. We also risk compounding the very anxiety we hoped to avoid and becoming destructive as a result.
What is Polyvagal-informed Mindfulness? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:07
How does the Polyvagal Theory affect our understanding of mindfulness? Blake O'Connor, Education Director of the Polyvagal Institute, interviews Serge Prengel.
Elizabeth English: Gentle mindfulness [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:15
We talk about freeing meditation from pressures and welcoming every aspect of our inner experience.
Noga Arikha: The embodied mind [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:58
Antonio Damasio described Nora Arikha as a poet and a painter with the soul of a scientist.
Ken Benau: Shame, Pride, and Relational Trauma [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:07
This conversation with Ken Benau serves as an introduction to shame and pride-informed psychotherapy with adult survivors of relational trauma
Lawrence Berger: A quest for meaning [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:04
We start this conversation from the perspective that human beings are self-interpreting animals, and go on to explore what gives us a sense of meaning.