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Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel

Two Conversations Esther Wants You To Hear From Sessions Live

Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel

Esther Perel Global Media

Mental Health, Society & Culture, Self-improvement, Education, Health & Fitness

4.715.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Esther presents two conversations you have to hear from her clinical conference, Sessions Live. Listen in as psychiatrist and narrative therapist Paul Browde traces his journey from secrecy to aliveness. Growing up queer under apartheid and later diagnosed with HIV, Browde shares how stigma, silence, and shame shaped his early life and professional path. Through storytelling, erotic healing, and spiritual practice, he reclaims pleasure not as indulgence, but as a portal to connection, presence, and transformation. Later in the episode, licensed therapist and New York Times bestselling author Nedra Glover Tawwab offers a clear, compassionate roadmap for navigating boundaries in relationships. Boundaries do not have to mean endings. In fact, boundaries can be a way for us to connect. She explores how boundary-setting is not about pushing people away but about creating the conditions for healthy connection. In a time when many feel overstretched, overwhelmed, or emotionally enmeshed, she reminds us that boundaries are a vital act of self-respect—and a necessary foundation for mutual care. These panels were recorded at Esther Perel’s Annual Sessions Live event, entitled Mating in the Metacrisis: Connection, Polarization, and Eroticism in a World on Edge. For more information on the event and how you can watch it now, please go to www.estherperel.com For the month of July, Esther is offering 20% off to join her Office Hours on Apple Podcasts. It's a place to continue conversations on important topics like sexlessness, infidelity, or the perils of modern dating. It's also a place to follow up with couples and find out where their stories went. You'll also get an ad-free version of all the episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This whole summer we have been talking about friendship.

0:05.0

Friendship in its many, many stages.

0:07.0

But this one is different,

0:09.0

because this is when you work with friends,

0:13.0

when you manage to collaborate with them, to co-create with them,

0:16.0

when you kind of expand the relationship from friendship

0:20.0

into artistic or psychotherapeutic, I would even say,

0:25.1

collaboration. And that's when I thought of inviting my friend Paul Brody, who is a psychiatrist

0:31.7

originally from South Africa, with whom I have collaborated in conducting relationship retreats with couples and individuals.

0:41.4

And I love working with him, but there is something very special when you work with someone who is also a friend.

0:47.9

It's like playing different kinds of music together at the same time.

0:51.7

So I invited Paul Brody, who usually practices in New York City,

0:55.8

to be a presenter at my annual clinical conference, Sessions Live, to speak about the healing

1:03.3

power of pleasure and to tell his story. And I won't say a word about it because it was so gripping that I just really thought

1:13.5

you all should discover it as well. So I invite you to listen to Dr. Paul Brody.

1:23.4

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1:30.0

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1:33.6

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1:36.3

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1:39.3

With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro.

1:40.7

You just have to hire one.

1:44.1

You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the

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