Witt & Wisdom

a (mostly) weekly podcast with Corey deVos at Integral Life

21st Century Integral Monasticism

I told Jeff Salzman that I tell my clients I’m a therapy monk, and he and I began to discuss the monastic qualities of our...

Orienting Questions for the Eight Zones of the Four Quadrants

The following are orienting questions about relational friendships, love affairs, and problem solving in each of the eight zones of the four quadrants....

An Integral take on Internal Family Systems (IFS)

People respond well to the idea that we have different selves, experienced as separate personalities, generally divided into exiles, managers (of which there are two...

Cancel Culture and Freedom of Speech

Is there any newscaster, journalist, or politician you dislike enough that you dismiss anything they say? You are cancelling this person....

Toward an Integral Meta-Psychotherapy

Imagine a therapy where everything is interconnected, where every moment is a golden opportunity, and where the journey is as transformative as the destination. Whether...

The Art and Science of the Intentional Love Affair

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos delve into the intricacies of intimate relationships, exploring the concept of “intentional love affairs” and how they can be...

When Therapists Go Woke

Dr. Keith and Corey examine a troubling new trend in psychotherapy, where woke ideologies are being imposed in the therapist’s office and interfering with client-based...

Mastery, Collaboration, and Finding Your Unique Healing Style

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore the multifaceted nature of integral psychotherapy, emphasizing the importance of therapists finding their own healing style and the...

What Makes Us Happy? Growing Toward Anti-Fragility

Join Keith and Corey in this enriching dialogue, as they bring forth an integral perspective on the pressing issue of mental health and resilience among...

How Self-Hatred Can Lead to Self Transformation

Dr. Keith and Corey explore how feelings of self-hatred and self-loathing, when combined with compassionate self-awareness and the natural resilience of Witness consciousness, can help...

How Attachment Theory Can Improve Your Relationships

As Dr. Keith often reminds us, “Everything is relationships.” And the earliest relationships we form in our lives often set the tone and cadence for...

Escaping the Comfort Zone: Motivation, Shame, and the Will to Transform

Dr. Keith and Corey explore the complex psychology of motivation — the various sticks and carrots we use to get out of bed in the...

Psychedelic Therapy and the Politics of Consciousness

In the recent 2022 midterm elections, Colorado joined the state of Oregon in its decriminalization of psychedelic substances for therapeutic use. Here Dr. Keith and...

How Change Works: Supporting Vertical Development

Dr. Keith and Corey explore some critical strategies to help support ongoing growth to increasing wholeness in ourselves and in other people: finding a psycho-spiritual...

How Healthy Relationships Manage Conflict

Dr. Keith and Corey discuss “post-issue relationships” — relationships where both partners have the awareness and skill to stay connected in warmth and acceptance all...

Personality as the Base Note of Change Work

Watch as Dr. Keith offers a “Psychotherapy Masterclass” that helps us work with various personality types as a foundation for healing, change, and self-actualization. While...

Making Sense of Madness: Personality Disorders and Mass Formation Delusions

Dr. Keith and Corey explore an Integral understanding of personality disorders, and how they fit into the mass formation distortions that currently seem to be...

Authoring Your Life Story: The Hero’s Journey and You

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey take a deep dive into the human superpower of self-authorship, and how we can use that superpower to construct...

How to Teach Kids About Sex and Gender

What exactly are “developmentally appropriate, age-appropriate” ways to teach kids about sex, gender, and identity, not only for kids in kindergarten through third grade, but...

An Integral Understanding of Narcissism and Gaslighting

In this episode, Dr. Keith and Corey take a careful look at the strategies and intended results of gaslighting (the effort to make you question...

Trauma to Transcendence: Using Life’s Wounds to Grow

Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff discuss a powerful realization emerging at the leading edge of culture regarding the role of trauma in our lives. Dr....

The Awakened Brain: The Neurobiology of Spiritual Experience

Dr. Keith takes a close look at the physiology of spiritual experience. What parts of the brain are being activated when we are having one...

From Codependence to Interdependence

Codependent relationships — those relationships where one person needs another, and the other person needs to be needed — are surprisingly common in our lives,...

Transforming Trauma Into Resilience

Watch as we take a look at several different kinds of trauma — micro-traumas, big traumas, “pre-verbal” traumas, generational traumas, etc. — and explore how...

Finding Resilience in a Flood of Disinformation

Dr. Keith and Corey explore multiple strategies to help us maintain our mental and emotional well-being as our informational terrains become increasingly disrupted and distorted...

Honesty, Humility, and Reality Distortion Fields

Dr. Keith and Corey discuss “the H Factor” — a variation of the Big 5 personality typology that adds a critical sixth trait, honesty and...

How to Manage Passive Aggression

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore the many ways passive aggression, anger, and codependence create more separation between people and degrade our capacity for...

[VIDEO] Psychotherapy as a Martial Art

Blending the principles of martial arts with the practice of psychotherapy was central in my early development as a clinician, and I still find the...

Martial Arts and Psychotherapy

Dr. Keith and Corey explore the fertile intersection between martial arts, psychotherapy, and integral living. Watch as Keith shares the deep wisdoms he has received...

Escaping Narcissism

In this episode of Witt & Wisdom we take a careful look at these narcissistic tendencies and how they express themselves in all four quadrants,...

Into the Dreaming

Our dreams are often drenched in meaning, significance, and symbolism. But it is often very difficult for us to make sense of our experiences in...

Overcoming Confirmation Bias

Dr. Keith and Corey explore the two primary forms of reasoning — confirmatory reasoning, otherwise known as “confirmation bias”, and exploratory reasoning, which considers multiple...

Love, Conflict, and Play

Keith and Corey talk about how all play is an abstracted version of fighting, and how we can always draw upon our evolutionary capacity to...

The Invisible Audience

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey have a fascinating discussion about the “Invisible Audience”, helping you make these unconscious observers just a bit more visible...

Putting the Pieces Back Together

Corey and Keith discuss the psychological and cultural aftermath of the 2020 Presidential Election, and the integral work ahead of us to help put the...

Illuminating Shadow: Family, Community, and Relationship

Corey and Keith are joined by a very special guest, Keith’s daughter Zoe Witt, for this tremendously touching exploration of shadow in family, in relationships,...

Just Breathe: How to Manage Your Stress and Find Your Flow

Your breath is a direct channel to the flow state. Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore this elegantly simple practice, one that can bring...

Mindfulness, Psychotherapy, and Politics

Dr. Keith and Corey lead a fascinating discussion that brings us to the heart of psychotherapy, mindfulness, and spiritual awakening, and then apply this transformational...

Integral Mastery

The mastery process has been heavily researched — from the initial ignition of passion that makes us want to excel is some area, to embracing...

Supporting Development in Adolescents

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey take a close look at a critical phase of our own development, noting all of the things that can...

From Trauma to Transcendence

This practice will help you cultivate the courage to face your trauma, discover an unbreakable source of resilience and empathy within yourself, and find deeper...

Working With Collective Trauma

Collective trauma is more than the sum aggregate of all our our individual traumas. It is a trauma that exists between us, rather than within...

How Defensive States Prevent Self-Knowledge

Dr. Keith and Corey navigate the psychological minefield of defensive states and shadow impulses that often diminish our capacity for wisdom, empathy, and self-knowledge....

The Meaning of Coincidence

Dr. Keith and Corey take an integral look at synchronicity, exploring this elusive phenomena through the lenses of the four quadrants, the major states of...

Time, Consciousness, and Development

Dr. Keith and Corey discuss how our relationship with time lies at the very root of consciousness, and explore how our perceptions of time affect...

Integrating Shadow Up and Down the Spiral

Dr. Keith and Corey shine some light on the many sorts of shadow material we can encounter during our developmental journey, and how we can...

100 Reasons Not to Have an Affair

Dr. Keith and Corey discuss why extramarital affairs happen, what the consequences of infidelity are to your relationship, your family, and your own mental well-being,...

Creating a Coherent Life Story

Dr. Keith and Corey discuss the primary goal of psychotherapy — to help people experience themselves every day as living a happy ending to their...

Considering Otto Scharmer’s “Axial Shift” Political Theory

Many integralists are fans of Otto Scharmer, MIT professor and developer of “Theory U”, a brilliant tool for activating higher stages of consciousness that has...

The One Moment That Can Make or Break Your Relationship

Dr. Keith and Corey explore how to better manage conflict in our relationships, focusing on one critical moment in these conflicts — the moment a...

The Other World: Integrating Psychological and Spiritual Health

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore the bottomless source of deep wisdom that exists at the intersection between the spiritual and psychological realms....

Shadow Work for Couples

Dr. Keith and Corey explore how shadow practices can help couples resolve conflict and deepen their intimacy....

How Emotional Coaching Makes Us Better Parents

Dr. Keith and Corey explore how the integral approach and emotional coaching can profoundly transform our ability to show up as parents for our children....

Affluenza and the College Admissions Scandal

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore the recent college admissions scandal through the lens of integral psychology, typology, and the intimate interplay between culture,...

Conflict as a Driver of Evolution and Intimacy

Dr. Keith and Corey explore the central role that conflict plays in the ongoing evolutionary process, from the big bang to today, and in our...

The Psychology of Kink: Transforming Sexual Drives Into Art

LOT of adults are into kink, and studies show those people are happier, more resilient, and more conscientious. Join Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos...

Is Masculinity Toxic?

Jeff talks with Dr. Keith Witt about an evolutionary approach that liberates masculinity and femininity into a new integration that features the best of both...

Integral Mindfulness and the Evolution of Shame

Integral mindfulness gives us the tools to make our moral discernments more visible and influenceable. Integral mindfulness can organize our relationships with shame and moral...

Staying Attuned in an Entangled Universe

Dr. Keith and Corey explore ways that people can stay attuned with one another even while our defensive states are being activated....

The Art and Practice of Happiness

Watch as Dr. Keith Witt, Jeff Salzman, and Corey deVos take an in-depth look at the art of happiness, exploring some of the central perspectives...

An Integral Look at Happiness

Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff Salzman take an in-depth look at the art of happiness, exploring some of the central perspectives and practices that can...

The Art of Happiness

Embracing happiness-producing perspectives like an optimistic explanatory style and growth mindsets help us become more joyful and wise....

Loving Completely — How to Show Up More Fully in Your Relationships

Wouldn’t you like to know — quickly, easily and succinctly — what the very best of science tells us about how to have amazing, life-changing...

An Integral Understanding of Suicide

Dr. Keith Witt talks to Jeff Salzman and Corey deVos about bringing a more integral understanding and compassion to the topic of suicide....

Integral Intimacy: A Beginner’s Guide

Dr. Keith and Corey explore the basic architecture of Integral intimacy in relationships, offering a simple roadmap for any couples who would like to level...

The Power to Serve

Dr. Keith talks to Jeff Salzman about Integral Life’s recent “Tap Your Power” event in Denver, CO, which featured exquisite teachings from himself, Ginny Whitelaw,...

The Art of the Love Affair

Dr. Keith Witt explores the art of the love affair — how they happen, how to avoid them from occurring outside of your committed relationship,...

Helping Kids Grow Strong

Dr. Keith argues that the healthy expression of a person’s type (their preferences, gifts and built-in challenges) is based largely on their early relationships....

The Butterfly and the Hawk: How “Dual Focus” Can Help You Overcome Pain, Anxiety, and Trauma

A common element of many trauma treatments, most psychotherapy, and much spiritual practice is something called “dual focus” — our capacity to anchor ourselves in...

Peering into the Post-Privacy World

Today Jeff talks with integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt about the arising of big data and its effect on our individual and collective psyches....

Why Be Normal?

Dr. Keith discusses how the concept of “normal” profoundly effects our development and functioning, and how he has dealt with these issues over the decades...

How to Level Up Your Parenting

Being a superior parent is the goal of pretty much all parents. Join us as we explore the many dimensions of integral parenting and the...

Themes of Emergence: Awareness, Responsibility, and Mutuality

Culture wars and cognitive dissonance. Consensus trance on climate change. #MeToo and emergent mutuality. Tantric sexuality and karma yoga. Self-awareness and personal responsibility. Join us...

For the Love of Chaos: What Does Complexity Theory Have to Do with Intimacy and Healing?

Watch as Dr. Keith explains how chaos can be used as an incredibly effective driver of growth, healing, and love....

The Future of Sex: More Fun, Less Creepy

Jeff talks with Dr. Keith Witt about the great consciousness raising our culture is going through regarding sexual harassment. Dr Keith’s prescription for a healthier,...

Finding Greater Resilience in the Trump Era

Dr. Keith Witt talks to Jeff Salzman about the ramifications today’s polarized politics are having upon people’s psychological health, and the strategies you need to...

Heal Thyself: How to Repair Interpersonal and Cultural Injuries

In this episode of Live with Dr. Keith we’ll talk about how we all become injured and the steps we often need to take for...

Normal Crazy vs. Extra Crazy: Disarming Your Defensive States

When we feel safe, we are usually comfortably social with ourselves and others. When we feel threatened, our nervous systems (our adaptive unconscious, our Shadow...

Finding Sanity in the Post-Truth Era

Dr. Keith Witt talks about our shared emotional reactions to the election and ongoing cultural upheavals, and some strategies help us not only cope, but...

Growing, Relating, Connecting: An Integral Tour of Couples Therapy

Dr. Keith and Dr. Mark dive into the wide world of couples therapy and relationships, using the Integral lens to locate some of the deeper...

Psychedelics in Psychotherapy

Special guest Dr. Elliott Ingersoll joins Doctors Keith Witt and Mark Forman to share their personal and professional experiences with psychedelics while reviewing relevant research,...

Increase Your Erotic Polarity

Renowned marriage and family therapist Dr. Keith Witt offers a short practice to reinvigorate your “erotic polarity” — one of the fundamental forces that sustain...

Into the Void and Back Again: Understanding and Recovering From Depression

Depression is a powerful mood disorder and – after anxiety – the most prevalent of all mental health challenges. In this episode of Psychology Now,...

Loving Completely

Dr. Keith Witt offers a taste of his Loving Completely practice program, an exceptional web course that helps deepen the whole relationship by acknowledging and...

Loving Completely Web Course

Loving Completely is a groundbreaking training program designed to help you and your partner improve your connection on every level: physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual....

The Universal Dream: Seeing Dreams In Multiple Perspectives

Dr. Witt and Dr. Forman dive deeply into the world of dreaming, exploring the neurobiology and function of dreams, the history and basics of dream...

The Art and Practice of Self-Love

Do you deeply and truly love yourself? What is preventing you from loving yourself completely? Is your capacity to love yourself contrained by poor self-esteem,...

Putting “Meta” Into Practice: A Look at Integrally-Informed Psychotherapy

Here we explore the emerging art and science of Integrally-informed psychotherapy – an attempt to integrate the best of the major approaches to therapy into...

Relationships in Therapy, Relationships in Life

In this episode of Psychology Now, Dr. Witt and Dr. Forman dive specifically into the therapeutic relationship and describe how it functions as the medium...

How to Create a More Fulfilling Sex Life

In a healthy intimate relationship, the partners don’t have to be turned on by each other all the time, says Dr. Keith, “but they do...

The Spectrum of Brokenness: What to Do When You’re Dealing With a Personality Disorder

Nearly 1 in 10 people possess some form of personality disorder. Which means there’s a very good chance that you will encounter someone with this...

In The Belly of The Whale: Joseph Campbell and The Hero’s Journey

In this conversation with Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff Salzman we explore the gift of Campbell’s formulation of The Hero’s Journey — Campbell’s name for...