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Article
4 Practices for Hopefulness in the New Year

Where does hope come from—and how do we practice it?‍ Read more on four practices for hopefulness in the new year, and beyond.

Article
Letters From Esther #40: Contemplating Hope

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme: Contemplating Hope.

Article
Letters From Esther #39: Thanksgiving & Belonging

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Thanksgiving and Belonging.

Article
Sexless Relationship? Take the First Step Toward Reconnection.

From physical challenges to breaches of trust to parenting exhaustion and beyond, there are so many reasons couples fall into a sexless relationship. Read more on how to shift your focus and take the first step toward intimate reconnection. A hint: it has nothing to do with frequency.

Article
Letters From Esther #38: How I Learned to do What I do

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's topic is centered on a commonly asked question: How did I learn to do what I do?

Article
Letters From Esther #37: Eroticism is an Art. But It’s Also a Practice.

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's focus is on practicing eroticism in your relationship.

Course
Turning Conflict Into Connection

Uncover why you keep having the same fights over and over again. Learn how to break free from habitual patterns and responses. Find peace and reconciliation even when you disagree.

Course
Bringing Desire Back

Uncover what blocks desire. Learn how to tap back into pleasure and get unstuck. Discover a new sense of hope and possibility.

Perfect for date night
Course
Playing with Desire

Uncover and learn how to speak about your desires. Bring more aliveness into your sex life. Create rich, erotic rituals. Cultivate a more vibrant and fulfilling erotic relationship.

Podcast
Love the Child, Not the Father

Theirs is an accelerated love story. They moved in, decided to have a baby, and are now struggling to weather the hardships of parenting together. She feels unsupported and like she's the only adult in the room. He is overwhelmed and constantly feels put down by her. They have split up emotionally but not yet physically. Esther helps them sort through the power, gender, and trust issues that so often arise with new parents to see if it's enough to help them find their way back.

1 Hr 3 Min Podcast
Podcast
Best Friends Don't Make For the Best Bosses

They have been best friends for years. He opened a bookstore and she was his first employee. Things were great until they weren’t. She left to preserve the friendship—but a year later they still haven’t talked about what went wrong with them professionally. Esther talks to her about how to start a different kind of business relationship if they were willing to give this another go.

55 Min Podcast
Podcast
How's Work?: You're Inching Me Out

This is a classic session, from the first season of How's Work? They were mates in university before co-founding a successful communications company. They still work together from different coasts, but they barely speak. One wants to move on; the other is grasping for his former friend. Neither can find the words to talk about it.

57 Min Podcast
Podcast
Say More - Miranda July and Esther Perel on The Rebirth of Desire

This week, Esther is in a borrowed bedroom in Los Angeles, the perfect place to talk about desire and the novel on every bedside table, All Fours. The writer, director, and artist, Miranda July, joins Esther to examine the erotic and to explore how love and desire relate and how they conflict in modern relationships. They discuss the tension between the domestic and erotic through the lens of Esther's new desire courses, which Miranda had a sneak peek at.

Podcast
Esther Calling - Why Can't I Find Someone? Is it Me?

Esther speaks to a woman who feels frustrated and stuck in her dating patterns. She loves going on dates, regularly meets people out and about, and feels open to having multiple forms of a relationship. And still . . . she gets to one or two or three dates before the relationship fizzles out. Esther gives her a new way to think about it and reframes her frustrations.

Podcast
We Had Boundaries and He Crossed Them

They were in a consensual, non-monogamous relationship and happily growing their family. But he broke the first rule of their relationship, and it resulted in a major crisis—an unplanned pregnancy involving another woman. They are committed to each other, but this unforeseen transformation of their family has many unexpected consequences that involve their entire world—family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors. Will their relationship be able to survive all of these upheavals?

Podcast
The Arc of Love - Happily Divorced

They're amicably divorced divorce lawyers, carving out a new kind of relationship after the end of their marriage. Esther reframes their situation and proposes a radical solution. What you are about to hear is a series Esther calls The Arc of Love. Each session centers around a couple’s story. Whether it’s issues of trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, repair and rupture, polyamory or monogamy. The episodes can be listened to in any order you want but were curated with a beginning, middle, and end.

Podcast
The Arc of Love - All The Things We Never Said

Often when a relationship ends, we’re left with regrets, questions, and conversations we wish we could have had. Esther helps a woman process the things she left unsaid, including the sexual grief and loss she feels after her husband unexpectedly died. What you are about to hear is a series Esther calls The Arc of Love. Each session centers around a couple’s story. Whether it’s issues of trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, repair and rupture, polyamory or monogamy. The episodes can be listened to in any order you want but were curated with a beginning, middle, and end.

Podcast
The Arc of Love - A Romantic Revival

This episode contains discussions of a death by suicide. Please take care listening. The suicide of his first wife left four traumatized children in its wake; she's spent six years putting the pieces back together. They're both ready to experience joy in their marriage, but can't quite figure out how. Esther coaches them through the difference between survival vs. revival, and how to live after loss. What you are about to hear is a series Esther calls The Arc of Love. Each session centers around a couple’s story. Whether it’s issues of trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, repair and rupture, polyamory or monogamy. The episodes can be listened to in any order you want but were curated with a beginning, middle, and end.

Podcast
The Arc of Love - The Other Woman

Ten years and two kids later, a wife comes to Esther looking for answers: Does she want to explore her attraction to women because she's bisexual, or because she no longer wants to be married to her husband? What you are about to hear is a series Esther calls The Arc of Love. Each session centers around a couple’s story. Whether it’s issues of trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, repair and rupture, polyamory or monogamy. The episodes can be listened to in any order you want but were curated with a beginning, middle, and end.

Podcast
The Arc of Love - The Poly Dinner Party

Join Esther for a dinner table conversation on the topic of polyamory. The dinner was held to mark the anniversary of a panel discussion Esther was part of on the same topic ten years earlier. Together the original panel and a few new friends explore what has changed in the last decade as consentual non-monogamy has become more mainstream, why some advocate for their choices, and what consequences and challenges they still face as well. This is not a session but a fly on the wall conversation. Some of the guests chose to be anonymous, while others allowed us to use their names. What you are about to hear is a series Esther calls The Arc of Love. Each session centers around a couple’s story. Whether it’s issues of trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, repair and rupture, polyamory or monogamy. The episodes can be listened to in any order you want but were curated with a beginning, middle, and end.

Podcast
The Arc of Love - A Small Town Affair

It began as a passionate affair and ended two marriages. Now, they're struggling as they try to build trust. Esther encourages them to be brutally honest—with themselves. What you are about to hear is a series Esther calls The Arc of Love. Each session centers around a couple’s story. Whether it’s issues of trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, repair and rupture, polyamory or monogamy. The episodes can be listened to in any order you want but were curated with a beginning, middle, and end.

Podcast
The Arc of Love - Young Love

They met in college; he's a U.S. citizen and she's trapped in a cross-border limbo. Their young love complicated by immigration status and politics, Esther helps them appreciate each other's sacrifices as they contemplate marriage. What you are about to hear is a series Esther calls The Arc of Love. Each session centers around a couple’s story. Whether it’s issues of trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, repair and rupture, polyamory or monogamy. The episodes can be listened to in any order you want but were curated with a beginning, middle, and end.

Podcast
The Arc of Love - I Don't Think I Want Kids? But My Partner Might?

The Arc of Love is my gift to you as your summer beach listen of 2024. A curated collection of stories about trust and betrayal, care and aggression, closeness and distance, attraction and disgust, rupture and repair. As the stories mirror and amplify our own experiences, they help us grapple with the parts of ourselves that hold the same emotions, conflicts, and forbidden truths. Inevitably, one of these episodes will resonate with you, even if it’s not your story. I invite you to listen and tell me which one speaks to you. A man has never thought of himself as a father but the partner he's devoted to is now unsure if she wants kids or not. With additional unknowns in his life, Esther helps guide him through his different questions about what the future holds.

Podcast
Impotent Is No Way To Define a Man

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin? A husband hasn’t had an erection in 12 years and struggles with acknowledging it openly. His wife, in despair over her feelings of hopelessness in the bedroom, seeks relief for her sexual frustration and feelings of resentment. Esther reinforces to both of them that defining him as “impotent” is only making things worse.

Podcast
You Keep Planning A Future Without Me

They met as community organizers in their neighborhood. She had just gotten out of a multi-year marriage to her ex-wife and began to forge new friendships. After about a year, something shifted for her and she began to develop feelings for him, sending her seemingly solid identity into a tailspin. After 15 years of identifying as a lesbian, she was in her first straight relationship. Now, he is beginning to question what he wants out of life and their relationship and can’t seem to grow out of his youth-formed habits of yearning for greener pastures. They find themselves at an erotic stalemate and come to Esther for help.

Podcast
Esther Calling - Four Affairs, Four Divorces. Why Do I Keep Doing This?

Four affairs and four divorces later, she is searching for answers as to why she can’t stop leaving in such an abrupt way. Despite longing for a life partner, she questions her ability to maintain a healthy and stable relationship. Esther seeks to uncover the root of these issues and help her forge a new path forward as she embarks on what she hopes is her final relationship. 

Podcast
Trauma Doesn't Like to Be Touched

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin? A newly married couple comes to Esther for guidance on how to create a space of safety and physical intimacy while also giving voice to past trauma. One partner is working to overcome an aversion to physical touch due to abuse from his past while the other is learning to ask for more without triggering painful memories for his husband. From this starting point, Esther guides them through a discussion on memory, family relationships, and infidelity and helps them work out a blueprint for loving and satisfying touch.

Podcast
Esther Calling - What If I Break Up With My Dad?

Esther takes a question from a young woman struggling with her relationship with her father. A recent divorce and the slow reveal of an affair on the part of her father has ruptured the family—and leaves her questioning whether or not her father should continue to have a role in her life.

Podcast
Esther Calling - It Feels Like My Siblings Abandoned Me

In this Esther Calling, Esther speaks to a young woman grappling with the burden of caring for her ailing parents and the feelings of resentment she feels towards her older siblings. But the true cause of this family conflict goes much deeper than who is showing up and who is not.

Podcast
Does Growing Up Mean Growing Apart?

They grew up together and now run a production company. They are contending with the growing pains of transitioning from best friends to coworkers and the challenges of running, essentially, a family business. Esther helps them find the complementarity in their roles and see their story as growing and developing even in the face of challenges.

Podcast
Esther Calling - My Mom Should Have Set a Different Example

Esther speaks to a woman who is experiencing a kind of a double story. She resents her mother for the choices she made and the example she set, while also wondering if she keeps choosing the safe person as a way to combat those childhood feelings of abandonment. Esther helps her untangle these complicated feelings.

Podcast
There's You, There's Me, There's US

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin. A middle-aged couple, together for seventeen years, best friends and partners who, despite their loving and positive relationship, go months without connecting sexually. He transitioned 10 years ago, and they’re both experiencing the physical changes of ageing. Esther guides them through body exercises, in an effort to help them find sexual spaces amidst the crush of everyday life.

Podcast
Esther Calling - Love is a Trap

He gets to a certain point in relationships before he begins to start fantasizing about his ex boyfriends or other future partners. Esther talks him through what he might be holding onto from his childhood that makes his otherwise healthy relationships feel stifling.

Podcast
Couples Therapy Is the Best Theater in Town

“Welcome to my office” is often the first phrase Esther says to people, no matter how much “the office” has changed—it can take the shape of a park bench, a 2,000-seat theater, or on this podcast. This week, Esther talks to her close collaborator Mary Alice Miller about the importance of play, what makes stories so essential to us all, and why she's choosing to embark on her first ever live U.S. tour. 

Podcast
Trevor Noah Aftershow - Bonus Q & A

Listen in to what didn't make the podcast this week in a very special post recording with Esther and Trevor Noah. Esther and Trevor had a candid chat about the state of comedy in the world we live in on the Vox Media Podcast Stage at SXSW in Austin. And afterwards, Esther and Trevor agreed to stick around for a few extra questions from the crowd. Esther takes qustions in a very original way—listen and see if she answers a question you might have.

Podcast
Internal Family Systems with Dick Schwartz

We all have multiple parts inside ourselves and that's actually a good thing because we need these parts and all their resources and qualities. But these parts carry burdens. Internal Family Systems creates inner and outer connectedness by helping people access their Self and come to understand and heal their parts. This episode is part of a longer conversation that Esther and founder of Internal Family Systems, Dr. Dick Schwartz had on her membership platform Sessions with Esther Perel, where Esther hosts conversations with colleagues in and around the mental health space.

Podcast
I Think I Married the Wrong Person

She gets angry when she feels devalued and put down. He intellectualizes and rationalizes instead of sympathizing. Esther helps them to see each other and work towards dissolving the patterns they developed to protect themselves.

Podcast
Esther Calling - My Exes Exes Keep Ruining My Relationships

A woman whose ex-boyfriend cheated on her with his ex girlfriend ends a perfectly good relationship because she can't trust how close her current partner is with his own ex. She wonders if two people can meet each other's needs without having to sacrifice a part of themselves and if she can ever move past her fears and let love into her life. 

Podcast
Esther Calling - My Husband, His Other Wife, and Me

They were aid workers who met abroad, fell in love, and came to the States to get married. After two years, her partner returned to his home country to fulfill his familial duty and marry his brother's widow. Esther talks her through what comes next.

Podcast
Sex, Comedy and Context: A Live Conversation with Trevor Noah

Not all conversations with Esther have to happen behind closed doors. Last week, Esther sat down with Trevor Noah, live at SXSW in Austin, for a candid look at the state of comedy in the world we live in. The two of them uncovered some surprising similarities between being a comic and being a therapist. Esther showed Trevor a few ways to become a better listener and Trevor in return helped Esther prep for her new live tour. 

Podcast
I Can't Give You a Child

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin? A woman realizes she doesn’t want to have children and comes to Esther for help expressing this to her husband, who passionately wishes to be a father. Not wanting to deny her husband this opportunity, she comes up with a solution, but Esther encourages them to talk more honestly about what led to this crossroad.

Podcast
If He's A "High Value Man," What Am I?

Esther talks to a woman who, despite her best efforts, finds herself implicated in the same toxic cycle of abuse from her partner that she grew up watching between her parents. Rationally, she knows she deserves better, but just can't seem to get out from under this painful repetition of events. Esther talks her through why she thinks she finds herself back here time and time again.

Podcast
Behind the Scenes - Prepping for a Pivotal Pairing

In this Behind the Scenes, you'll hear Esther getting prepped by her producer Jesse for an upcoming conversation with a famous couple in the podcast universe. Be sure to tune in next week to hear if Esther was on track in her assessment of their relationship and why it works so beautifully.

Podcast
Talk to Touch: The Primer of Somatic Sexology with Jaiya

Somatic sexologist and author, Jaiya, joins Esther to discuss the five erotic blueprint types as well as the secret to magnetic attraction. This episode is part of a longer conversation that Esther and Jaiya had on her membership platform Sessions with Esther Perel, where Esther hosts conversations with colleagues in and around the mental health space. 

Podcast
Pleasure is Personal, Professional, and Political with Afrosexology

What is Erotic Power? Dalychia Saah and Rafaella Smith-Fiallo, cofounders of Afrosexology, discuss the oppression, shame, and alienation of societal control and the importance of finding our Erotic Voice as a vessel for liberation. This episode is part of a longer conversation that Esther, Dalychia and Rafaella had on her professional training platform Sessions with Esther Perel, where Esther hosts conversations with colleagues in and around the mental health space. 

Podcast
Dating in the New Year with Francesca Hogi

Dating has never been imbued with more anxiety, stress, and unprecedented expectations. To kick off the new year, Esther sits down with Francesca Hogi, a former lawyer turned dating and life coach, to talk about what she sees in the dating landscape. 

Podcast
Say More - I Don't Want to Be An Honorary Good Person, I Want to Be An Actual Good Person with Dwayne Betts

We all have an official resume that tells the chronology of our professional achievements and activities. But we also have an unofficial resume. A resume which tells the stories that shape who we are as people. But what if we don't want to be defined by the stories we grew up with? Dwayne Betts is a poet, a prize-winning author, a Yale educated lawyer, a MacArthur fellow, and the founder of Freedom Reads, which puts libraries into prisons. He was also incarcerated as a teenager and spent almost a decade in prison. Listen in on this Apple Subscriber bonus as Esther and Dwayne question what does it mean to be good?

Podcast
I Love You One Day, I Hate You The Next

They are a young couple with a small child and they fight non-stop. And while they each have good intentions, they struggle to hear or see each other. What initially made them fall in love with each other, they now experience as a threat. Can they learn to fight but still stay connected to each other?

Podcast
Say More - Ira Glass on Is This It?

Ira Glass has created over 800 episodes of the genre-defining radio show and podcast This American Life. Each week on the show he weaves together stories around a central narrative theme and he never shies away from the big hard questions. But after almost 30 years of producing the show- he's asking himself and Esther, is this it?

Podcast
I Trust You to Always Tell Me When I'm Wrong

Too often we can focus on troubles in our relationships and not what happens when the relationship goes right. This week, Esther explores the inner workings of a pivotal pair with podcast royalty Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. The hosts of Pivot join Esther to delve into what makes them great to listen to and how being open to surprise and difference invites them each to be better people.

Podcast
Esther Calling - I Lost Him, But I Lost Myself Too

She lost her husband five years ago. Now, she's finally ready to start picking up the pieces of her life to begin dating. Esther talks her through what it might mean to reframe her memories of their relationship. This conversation contains discussions of depression and a death by suicide. Please take care listening. 

Podcast
He Wants it Everyday, She Wants it Never

They find themselves at an erotic stalemate. Married for 20 years with four children, they have lost their way with each other. He wants it all the time, and she seems to want it never. Esther encourages them to create sexual invitations rather than nightly demands.

Podcast
As They Like Me More, I Like Myself Less

They are new mothers after a long wait and they are both struggling in their roles at the same international organization. One can't seem to get out from under her father's shadow to maintain an agreeable relationship with her male bosses, and the other is just returning to work after staying at home to take care of their child--a role that she never quite wanted.

Podcast
Esther Calling - Part of Me Wants to Cheat Part Two

This episode contains discussions of a sexual trauma. Please take care listening. This is the second part of a special two part conversation. Certain conversations stay with Esther long after the caller has hung up. And in this case, Esther wanted to follow up and go further with the young woman with the voice inside her head telling her to cheat on her partner. But this evil voice is not her own. It is that of her assailant in a form of trauma reenactment.

Podcast
Esther Calling - Part of Me Wants to Cheat Part One

This episode contains discussions of a sexual trauma. Please take care listening. A woman in a healthy and loving relationship talks to Esther about the fantasies she has of cheating on her partner. Together they delve into whether these are truly adulterous thoughts or if this voice in her head is connected to the unresolved shame and trauma from an earlier sexual assault.

Podcast
Now That I Have A Girlfriend, I Never Want To Leave My Wife

For years she has been the breadwinner while he has felt like a failure at home raising their daughter. After he found a new career and subsequently, a new lease on life, this couple has been erotically invigorated unlike anything previously in their marriage. She has been freed from caretaking, while he has found another person who is special to him. They come to Esther's office to see if their two (now three) is sustainable. 

Podcast
Esther Calling - Am I Just Your Placeholder?

Esther speaks to a woman who seems to get to a certain place within a relationship and then they end it. In her words, she seems to keep finding herself in the friend zone. In her latest relationship she felt he took advantage of her stability and support without sharing the same feelings. Leaving her believing that she was just his placeholder until something better came along.

Podcast
Gut Check - Jessica Fern on You Want Me To Watch The Kids While You Go Out With Another Guy?

In this Apple Subscriber bonus, Esther invites her colleague, psychotherapist Jessica Fern, author of Polysecure, to evaluate her work. In this supervisory like review, Jessica shares how she would guide the couple through their decision to open their marriage. For more information on Jessica Fern visit https://www.jessicafern.com/.

Podcast
Behind the Scenes - She's Out, He's Still In

When couples come to Esther, she works to help them find a path forward if they so choose it. But when one partner refuses to walk the path, there is profound sadness and grief there. In this Behind the Scenes, Esther sits down with her producer Jesse to debrief after a session that left her feeling like the couple's story didn't need to end that way.

Podcast
Say More - Staying in Hard Conversations with Tig Notaro & Stephanie Allynne

This episode was recorded before October 7th and before the escalation of the intractable conflict in the Middle East. Conflict and disagreement are unavoidable in any relationship. So when Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne came to Esther with a question, she was ready for them. They wanted to talk about the divide in the world (politically and socially) and how that divide can turn families, friends, and loved ones against each other. Esther believes that while people can hold contradictions and multiples, and may even think radically differently from you, they can still care for and love you. And what we lack often are the tools to deal with these conflicts and differences in values or political opinions. Listen in on this Apple Subscriber bonus as Tig and Stephanie talk to Esther about how we can learn to stay in hard conversations when we disagree with the people we love.

Podcast
Why Do We Marry?

Why do we marry? And how do the best marriages work? Social psychology professor and relationship scientist, Eli Finkel, explains the history of how marriages have changed over time, what we look for in modern marriages, and how a drop in other significant relationships in our lives has put a huge pressure on our spouses and marriages. This episode is part of a longer conversation that Esther and Eli had on her membership platform Sessions, where Esther hosts conversations with colleagues in and around the mental health space. For more Eli Finkel: https://elifinkel.com/allornothingmarriage.

Podcast
Esther Calling - I Left. Now I Want My Wife Back Follow-Up

Last spring, Esther spoke to a man who was trying to forgive himself for the pain he caused his wife and son when he left the family for a woman at work. After getting engaged to his new partner, he had regrets and wanted his old life back. Now Esther checks in on him after a summer spent carefully reconnecting with his ex-wife and learning to manage the guilt and shame.

Podcast
Say More - Ira Glass on Is This It?

Ira Glass has created over 800 episodes of the genre-defining radio show and podcast This American Life. Each week on the show he weaves together stories around a central narrative theme and he never shies away from the big hard questions. But after almost 30 years of producing the show, he's asking himself and Esther, Is this it? In this conversation for Apple subscribers, Esther and Ira question what could change look like and what if this is it?

Podcast
Behind the Scenes - The Must Listen List

Esther is not one to play favorites when it comes to her sessions BUT when pressed she would tell you the ten couples whose stories stayed with her these past few years. In this WSWB behind the scenes Esther and her producer (Jesse) curate a list of must-listen-to couples for you.

Podcast
Best of How's Work? Sex Work: An Unofficial Resume

Friends and fellow dancers at a strip club: one brings years of experience, the other a youthful energy that turns angry at times. They’re here to talk about boundaries that are crossed, educating “civilians" about their work, family acceptance, and how they'll transition from the sex work industry into professional careers. Can sex work be a bullet point on a resume?

Podcast
Gut Check - Terry Real 40 and Still Single

In this Apple Subscriber bonus, Esther invites her colleague Terry Real to evaluate her work. In this supervisory session, Terry offers his professional perspective to a caller's problem. Listen in as Terry shares how he would help a man who wants a long-term relationship despite sabotaging every relationship he's been in. For more information on Terry Real visit https://terryreal.com/.

Podcast
Esther Calling - Gaslighting Follow-Up

It's been six months since Esther spoke to a woman looking for clarity on whether she's being overly sensitive to her partner's critiques or if he is, in fact, gaslighting her. A lot has happened in the last few months since that initial call.

Podcast
Say More - Neil Patrick Harris on Friendship

Friendships are their own love stories. Our friends provide continuity in an ever-changing world. They accompany us through the trials and tribulations of lovers that come and go, job changes, family rifts, births, deaths, and recoveries. And in the case of Neil Patrick Harris it's his 50th birthday that has brought friends from all the corners of his life together—which as he tells Esther can bring with it some anxiety too. In her new Apple Subscription Esther is joined by the actor and Tony Award winner Neil Patrick Harris for an intimate chat. 

Podcast
Best of How's Work? The Break-Up

They flew fighter jets together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then they co-founded a successful business. Now, for the first time in their adult lives, they’re ready to part ways professionally, but they don’t know what their lives would look like without their "brother of choice." Side-by-side on Esther's couch, they talk about letting go of the fierce loyalty bonds forged in the cockpit. 

Podcast
Behind the Scenes - Donor Daddy Briefing

As a subscriber to Where Should We Begin, we wanted to bring you behind the scenes into how we make the show. In this episode, you'll hear Esther getting briefed for an upcoming couple therapy session where Esther helps a couple who is questioning their role in the lives of children whom the husband donated sperm for.

Podcast
If It Isn't Sexual Addiction, What Is It? with Doug Braun-Harvey

Join Esther in conversation with sexual health author, trainer, and psychotherapist Douglas Braun-Harvey as he explains his approach to sexual health and what is widely referred to as "sex addiction." This episode is part of a longer conversation between Esther and Douglas from her professional training platform Sessions, where Esther hosts salons with colleagues in and around the mental health space. For more sessions like these go to https://sessions.estherperel.com/.

Podcast
You Can Be Right, Or You Can Be Married.

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin?. They’ve been together for more than a decade, but this isn’t the first time they’ve separated. Stuck in a cycle of explosive escalations, a husband and wife want to make it work but can’t break their habit of going for the emotional jugular. Esther encourages them to start their conversations differently.

Podcast
Esther Calling - My Emotional Inheritance

A woman comes to Esther with a question about how to move on from the pain that her parents have caused her. They’ve begun family therapy but she wonders if she can continue to have a relationship with her father when his opposing political beliefs directly impact her identity. Is it okay to sweep things under the rug for the sake of family?

Podcast
Esther Calling - Is This Survivor's Guilt?

Esther speaks to a man struggling to live a life he can enjoy. He feels wracked with guilt over a troubled history with his birth mother and her life of suffering. She was unable to raise him, but now she needs him to be there for her. He questions what he owes her for the life she gave him.

Podcast
Motherless Women

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin? A couple with two small children are at physical and emotional odds in their relationship. One has given herself over entirely to the children, while the other struggles to find her place within the family dynamic. She yearns for the physical closeness she once had with her wife, while the other is, as she puts it, “all touched out.” Esther encourages them to see their different roles as mutually beneficial and stresses the importance of “feeding the relationship” away from the children.

Podcast
She's Out, He's Still In.

After 20 years together, they wonder if their marriage has run its course? She is too unhappy to stay together and doubts if she ever felt true passion for him. He is holding onto the relationship for the both of them and refusing to truly hear her. Esther explores his desire for hope and her desire for change.

Podcast
Esther Calling - Depleted Mothers Club

How do you begin to define a new identity for yourself when you've left the comforts of the world you've known in search of a bigger life? This is what Esther helps a new mom of two figure out as she navigates a new country, new friendships and a new approach to big changes. How to not put the pressure of everything on your partner and try to build a community to support YOU.

Podcast
Sexlessness

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin? A new marriage and a young child—both are first-generation children of immigrants, bridging the divide between an American childhood and an Indian cultural heritage. The moment sex was no longer forbidden, it became deeply uninteresting for one of them. Is something bigger getting in their way?

Podcast
A Hospital Divided

They're best friends and ER doctors at a small hospital. During the pandemic, they experienced a fracturing among their coworkers, who they once thought of as family. After one of them develops an autoimmune disease that renders her immunocompromised, she begins to wonder why her coworkers can't prioritize her safety. This episode was recorded after the Omicron wave in 2022 for Esther's podcast How's Work that explores conversations between colleagues, business partners, and peers.

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Esther Calling - I Left. Now I Want My Wife Back.

He fell in love with someone at work and left his wife. Fast forward a year, he's engaged and realizes he's made a mistake. Now he wants his wife and his life back—but even if she takes him back, he tells Esther he doesn't feel he deserves to be happy.

Podcast
Tell Me I'm Not Alone

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin? A young family, a ten-year age difference, and a wife who used an extra-marital relationship to find independence. After an affair, the choice to forgive and rebuild doesn’t wipe away the pain and the betrayal. Esther guides this couple on their path towards reconciliation and trust a year after the discovery.

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Esther Calling - Self Love Isn't Something I Grew Up With

Esther talks to a woman who was passed over for a promotion, again. She straddles two cultures and finds that it is impacting her work and her personal life more than she realized.

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How's Work? - The Preacher's Wife Part Two

When a tragedy shakes their church and their community, both the preacher and his wife try to put the pieces back together for themselves and his congregation. This is the second part of a special two-part episode. This episode contains discussions of a death by suicide. Please take care listening.

Podcast
How's Work? - The Preacher's Wife

She has never quite fit into the mold of the preacher's wife in their small town. He has put his self-worth solely into his career, as a bandaid over deep-seated childhood insecurities. They have never been able to come to terms with the resentment they both experience. This is the first part of a special two-part episode.

Podcast
Esther Calling - My Brother's Wife Ruined Our Relationship

In this Esther Calling, we meet a woman who feels that her brother's wife is standing in the way of her relationship with her brother. For years, she has compared the closeness she shares with her brother to all of her romantic relationships. And because of it she has found herself single, time and time again. Esther talks her through the question she came with about her brother, "If you really understood and loved me, why would you choose her?"

Podcast
The Addict

This episode is a classic session of Where Should We Begin from season 1. They're grandparents, with a 40+ year love story and a stable, happy marriage. But one of them had quite a few secrets. Now, with everything out in the open, they’re hoping Esther can help them work through some of the residual shame, guilt, and pain.

Podcast
Esther Calling - I Want Her to Like Me Less

A woman in her 40s talks to Esther about a crossroads in her life. She has begun a relationship with a supportive and loving partner, but without the constant roller coaster of emotions she's used to, she wonders if there’s something missing. Or is there something wrong with her?

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Esther Calling - I Crossed a Line I Never Thought I Would Cross

What happens when you transgress the one boundary you never thought you would? In this week's Esther Calling, Esther talks to a woman who began an emotional affair after 10 years with her partner. She has since found herself alone and devastated by her own actions, unable to forgive herself or move on from the pain that she caused.

Podcast
I've Had Better

This is a classic session, from the first season of Where Should We Begin? A couple, together a decade, with three young children. He reached out because a year after the discovery of his affair, they aren’t fighting anymore, but they certainly haven’t moved on. Esther’s not convinced they’ve ever really been able to hear each other. Can they recover from this? And do both of them really want to?

Podcast
Long Distance and Lost

They knew each other as kids. He grew up in a house where love was never a guarantee. She had the seemingly perfect family, and all the love in the world. They've recently begun a romantic relationship as adults, but still can't seem to find their footing and separate themselves from their vastly different histories.

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Esther Calling - Am I Being Gaslit?

In this Esther Calling, Esther talks to a woman looking for clarity on whether she's being overly sensitive to her partner's critiques or if he is, in fact, gaslighting her. She has struggled with boundary setting before and she wonders if she is repeating the pattern here. 

Podcast
A Marriage Organized Around Trauma

He was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. In the 20 years since, he has struggled with PTSD and addiction. She has long taken on the role of his caregiver, ready to jump in when she senses the old traumas are rising. This has often meant sacrificing her own needs as an individual, partner, and lover. With Esther's guidance they start the practice of re-orientating themselves away from a hyper-vigilant state, toward a more sensual partnership in which she too is taken care of.

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Donor Daddy

He donated sperm to help a friend start her family. A decade later that gift shattered this own. Esther talks through the consequences of a secret.

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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.

Podcast
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.

Podcast
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.

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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?

Podcast
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 put up barriers without losing the intimacy of those friendships?

Podcast
Esther Calling- I Deserve to Be a Mother

She longs for a child, but her partner isn’t there yet, and as a trans woman she already faces other barriers to parenthood. She worries she’s letting her partner’s indecision dictate her own future happiness. She and Esther navigate the delicate dance between exerting her own wishes within the relationship, without letting the pressure shut down the conversation altogether.

Podcast
You Want Me to Watch the Kids While You Go Out with Other Men?, Where Are They Now

When Esther first met with them two years ago, they’d recently opened up the marriage. At the time only she had ventured out, and after a lifetime of feeling her sexuality wasn’t her own, she felt an awakening. But at what expense? Her newfound freedom seemed to result in his misery. This time around, they are both exploring elsewhere, but the subject of their non-monogamy takes a backseat to other foundational stories within their marriage.

Podcast
Esther Calling: Having Needs Doesn't Make You Needy

He’s in a new relationship and wants it to be exclusive, but he can’t get a read on his partner's feelings. It’s hard for him to have an open honest conversation about his needs without feeling weak, especially when he’s met with silence from her. Esther encourages him to feel confident in his vulnerability and to not mistake having needs for “neediness”.

Podcast
My Orgasm Is Not Just For Me

What starts as a story of sexual incompatibility and a difference in life goals for these two women, takes a wildly unexpected turn during this session. Esther finds herself witness to a fantasy ritual unlike anything she’s experienced before in her work.

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Twice Married, To Each Other

They were married, divorced, and then married again. And with four kids between them, tensions run high. They fight about everything: the chores, the cats, who gets to tell who what to do. They come into the session with one story and Esther helps them write an alternate version.

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Esther Calling - Will He Make The Space For Me

Her new boyfriend’s wife died four years ago. Reminders of her are all over his house, from her clothes in the closet to her photos on the wall. It makes the caller feel uncomfortable and inadequate. She wonders if there’s room in his house — or his heart — for her.

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Esther Calling - It's a Matter of Pride

In another episode of Esther Calling, he worries his desire for a serious relationship is putting women off. But early in their phone call, it becomes clear to Esther that he’s talking about a particular woman from his past. He describes his feelings for that woman as “intense”, whereas she was more ambivalent. Esther and the caller explore the question: when is yearning for someone’s unreciprocated feelings more about pride and getting what you want than it is about that other person?

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I Can Be Strong And Be Taken Care Of

As Esther says, love is at once an affirmation and a transcendence of who we are. But when one partner grows up as the child taking care of his mother is it any surprise that he experiences the romantic needs of his partner as a repeat of that same responsibility rather than an affirmation of love.

Podcast
I Don't Mean To Be Mean But...

She has no boundaries, he’s walled off. And their opposing communication styles cause immediate tension in this explosive session. So much so, that Esther finds herself adding to the chorus of angry voices. There might only be three people in this session, but Esther realizes she needs at least more chairs for the in-laws whose voices and opinions are always playing in the background of this marriage.

Podcast
An Intimate Evening with Esther Perel

You are invited to an intimate evening with Esther Perel. In place of this week's session we gather for a few rounds of Where Should We Begin, A Game of Stories. Over the last year to curtail the loneliness and isolation we all felt, Esther and team created a game out of the questions you often hear her ask on the podcast. So please come play a few rounds with her anonymously, of course.

Podcast
Before We Got Together I Identified As Gay

Before they got together, he identified as straight and they identified as gay. What does it mean to make space for their queer identity while they date a straight man? And is that possible as they move into a more serious phase of their relationship?

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Where Should We Begin

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