What if everything you've been told about meaning is wrong?For centuries, philosophers, theologians, and self-help gurus have treated meaning as something that either descends upon us like grace - or withholds itself forever. Either life has meaning, or it doesn't. Either you find it, or you spend your days searching.Dr. Eric Maisel proposes something far more radical - and far more liberating.Meaning is a feeling. A specific, cultivatable psychological experience t...

ENTER THE AGE OF THE EXISTENTIAL NOMADWe are entering a psychological and cultural era in which the old structures that once organized human life-stable identities, lifelong careers, prescribed roles, and shared pathways to meaning-are dissolving. In their place is emerging a new kind of person: the existential nomad.Earlier generations often accepted ready-made identities supplied by family, religion, community, or profession. Toda...

In this 2026 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Maisel shares how we can cultivate serenity not just in meditation, but in the thick of daily life. Serene readiness, Maisel explains, means being mentally and emotionally prepared for life’s surprises while staying grounded in one’s values and creative intentions. This dialogue offers a powerful reminder: Serenity is not withdrawal—it’s readiness in motion.Eric Maisel is a retired, licensed psychotherapist and an internationally res...

Helping Survivors of Authoritarian Parents, Siblings, and Partners considers the notion of the authoritarian personality in a family context and examines the extent to which authoritarians traumatize the people closest to them. Building on primary research, Dr. Maisel presents first-person accounts of life with authoritarian family members and provides clinicians and other professionals with tactics and strategies for helping clients who struggle with the impact of these experienc...

Learn from master coach Eric Maisel exactly how to build and maintain your coaching career. Whether you're just thinking about coaching as a profession, in training as a coach, or already working as a coach, get clear on what a successful coaching practice looks like and how you can have it!You'll learn:+ How to attract and secure clients+ How to make choices with a big impact+ How to think both locally and globally+ How to find partners who can real...

As a therapist and creativity coach Eric Maisel has worked with thousands of creative people. He knows firsthand the struggles that writers musicians artists dancers and actors face and has helped them find balance in their lives while pursuing their artistic endeavors. His new book presents a comprehensive approach to the much-misunderstood life of the artist. Creativity for Life offers practical ideas as well as exercises and inspiration to nurture growth as an artist and as a person exp...

Eric Maisel’s prolific, multifaceted career is a testament to his profound understanding of what it takes to live out one’s creative ambitions. A therapist who is also a bestselling author, coach (and coach trainer), columnist for Professional Artist magazine, and featured blogger for Psychology Today and the Huffington Post, Maisel is an expert on all that blocks the creative. In Making Your Creative Mark, Maisel distills his decades of coaching, teaching, listening, and creating into nin...

Anyone who has ever picked up a creativity or self-help guide has likely been advised to keep to a daily schedule, daily pages, or other everyday ritual. But "just do it" usually just doesn't work. Longtime creativity coach and therapist Eric Maisel has found an approach that does work: giving clients, and now listeners, a clear understanding of what makes them personally blocked or stuck and unable to start or finish. Not enough time, resources, or talent? Fear of success, guilt about bei...

A no-excuses, cut-to-the-chase program for defining, training for, and achieving your goalsAs life gets busier and more complicated we crave something larger and more meaningful than just ticking another item off our to-do list. In the past, we’ve looked to religion or outside guidance for that sense of purpose, but today fewer people are fulfilled by traditional approaches to meaning. Bestselling author, psychotherapist, and creativity coach Eric Maisel offers an ...

Make Your Gifted Life Meaningful"This book will make a smart person even smarter." ―Dr. Katharine Brooks, You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career#1 Bestseller in Counseling & Psychology, Attention-Deficit Disorder, and Mood DisordersOvercome your unique challenges. The challenges smart and creative people encounter―from scientific researchers and genius award winners t...

Creative people will experience depression-that’s a given. It’s a given because they are regularly confronted by doubts about the meaningfulness of their efforts. Theirs is a kind of depression that does not respond to pharmaceutical treatment. What’s required is healing in the realm of meaning.In this groundbreaking book, Eric Maisel teaches creative people how to handle these recurrent crises of meaning and how to successfully manage the anxieties of the creative process. Using e...

Have you ever wished you had a professional coach who could encourage your creative pursuits help structure your efforts and cheer you on? Coaching the Artist Within is the first book to explain the techniques that creativity coaches use to help their clients survive and thrive in the arts. Designed to help any person become more creative this book offers a complete program for developing the habits that make creating an everyday routine. The books twelve lessons and numerous exercises are...