For our kickoff episode of our 3rd season, we’re honored to present this touching, illuminating, and entertaining dialogue with 40-year veteran therapist Bob Edelstein, LMFT, in which he guides us through life’s big questions (AKA existential themes) through an Existential-Humanistic lens. 

Bob shares his amazing story of coming of age as a human and therapist in the 1960s during the modern-to-postmodern shift. Highlights include his life-changing reading of Carl Rogers’ Freedom to Learn as a teacher-in-training, being ripped apart by primal therapy, becoming a therapist through “the paraprofessional route”, working in the Haight, making space around the need to achieve, training with Jim Bugental and LSD researcher Stan Grof, and being ok with the idea of dying. 

Bob is such an authentic human being in every interaction, and you’ll feel that come through as he teaches us about E-H through his own transforming views. If you’re a fan of Carl Rogers, Maslow, Jim Bugental, Viktor Frankl, Kirk Schneider, Rollo May, and/or Irvin Yalom, this is the episode for you.

Bob Edelstein, LMFT has been a therapist and consultant since 1973, practicing in Oregon since 1984. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the states of Oregon and California, a certified Clinical Supervisor through Lutheran Family Services, a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy, a professional member and former Board member of The Association for Humanistic Psychology, and a founding member of both the Association for Humanistic Psychology – Oregon Community and the Existential-Humanistic Northwest professional organization.

Resources:

-Bob’s web site: www.BobEdelstein.com

-Bob is also the executive director for the Association for Humanistic Psychology. Their website is ahpweb.org

-The website for EHI (existential humanistic institute) is ehinstitute.org

-The website for EHNW (existential humanistic northwest professional organization) is ehnwpdx.org

-Books mentioned include Carl Rogers’ Freedom to Learn, Jim Bugental’s The Search for Existential Identity and The Art of the Psychotherapist, and more

Welcome to The Psychologists Podcast, where we talk about all things psychology through a very personal lens.

Gill Strait PhD and Julia Strait PhD are both Licensed Psychologists (TX) and Licensed Specialists in School Psychology (LSSPs, TX). They are alumni of The University of South Carolina School Psychology Doctoral Program (Go Gamecocks).

Gill is a teacher, researcher, and supervisor at a university graduate psychology training program.

Julia is owner and therapist at Ocean Therapy in Houston, TX, offering telehealth therapy to young adults in their 20s and 30s who are struggling with anxiety. Check it out here: https://www.oceantherapy.net/