The Self-Help Trap: Therapy, the Passions, and the War for the Soul, with Fr. Turbo Qualls

We’re living in a moment where everyone is “doing the work”—therapy, healing, boundaries, trauma language—and yet people seem more anxious, unstable, and internally fragmented than ever. In this episode, Fr. Turbo Qualls joins me to challenge the assumptions behind modern mental health culture and to ask a deeper question: are we misdiagnosing spiritual problems as psychological ones? We get into the difference between trauma and the passions, where therapy can be helpful—and where it quietly falls short—and how certain modern practices can drift into spiritually dangerous territory when they’re detached from the life of the Church. We also discuss why the Orthodox tradition emphasizes repentance over self-focus, how confession differs from therapy, and what real healing actually looks like—not as self-optimization, but as transformation. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing everything right but still feel stuck, this conversation goes beneath the surface. OINTMENT is a conference and movement centered on healing the soul through the life of the Church. At a time when “healing” is often reduced to self-focus and psychological frameworks, OINTMENT aims to reorient people toward repentance, ascetic struggle, and communion with God as the true path to restoration. The conference brings together Orthodox clergy, teachers, and speakers to address topics like spiritual illness, the passions, modern therapy culture, and what it means to actually be healed—not just feel better. It’s designed for people who sense that something is missing in the modern conversation around mental health and are looking for something deeper, more grounded, and ultimately more transformative. Learn more: www.ointmentconference.org Fr. Turbo Qualls / OINTMENT www.ointmentconference.org https://www.skool.com/synaxisofsophia... Sponsors: Podsworth App: https://podsworth.com Code: BUCK50 for HALF off your first order! Clean up your recordings, sound like a pro, and support the Counterflow Podcast! Full Ad Read BEFORE processing:    • BEFORE: Counterflow Podsworth Ad 2025   Full Ad Read AFTER processing:    / j6trrtgmpw   Please consider supporting me on Patreon:   / counterflow   Visit my website: https://www.counterflowpodcast.com Audio Production by Podsworth Media: https://podsworth.com Leave us a review and rating on iTunes! Thanks! The Counterflow Podcast is a weekly show featuring discussions and interviews with people who are outside of and critical toward mainstream liberal and conservative politics. Counterflow challenges the conventional right/left binary and is concerned with the more important distinction of free vs unfree. The show will feature thinkers from all backgrounds, who do not fit into the narrow framework of fashionable opinion. The show will address cultural and lifestyle issues as well as philosophy and politics. Host Buck Johnson (formerly of The Death To Tyrants Podcast) is a musician and firefighter and has always had an interest and drive to go one way while everyone else runs the other direction.