Season 5 #5 Julia Samuel

How To Be Sad with Helen Russell

Julia Samuel MBE is a psychotherapist, grief counsellor, and author of the bestsellers Griefworks, This Too Shall Pass. She was also one of my favourite interviewees for my book, How To Be Sad when we talked about family and relationships. With four children of her own and nine grandchildren, Julia began exploring her own family stories in adulthood and looking at how Every Family Has A Story – the title of her new book. Here, we talk about:

• Inherited trauma and why family stories matter
• Bias and how to overcome it
• why pain is an agent of change
• how family teaches us about love
• attachment theory
• rupture and repair
• The pros and cons of Zoom therapy

Every Family Has A Story is out now, and you can follow Julia @juliasamuelmbe

How To Be Sad, the key to a happier life is out in paperback and as an audiobook, read by me – and if you enjoyed this episode, give it 5 stars and I’ll love you forever.

Thanks as ever to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins and Joel Grove for production.