The World Must Nothing.
The title is grammatically wrong. The content is experientially real. The message is a potential journey to liberation — from the tyranny of unexamined lives and unmet expectations, directed at realities that simply do not care.
“Live your life as you see fit. That's not selfish. Selfish is to demand that others live their lives as you see fit.” Anthony de Mello
Why am I writing this book, and why now?
For sixteen years I have worked with people of all ages — from 13 to 82. Hundreds of hurt souls, in therapy, in pursuit of relief from distress and regret. Too often I have heard a student, a scholar, or an adult say: "How did I not know this? It seems so obvious — yet it's been so elusive, and so costly, in my life. This stuff should be taught at school."
I've been there too. And these thoughts still visit me — whenever a solution becomes painfully obvious, all too late. So I've decided to share what I have lived, and what I have witnessed in the therapy room, both as the one counselled and as the counsellor.
Read on SubstackWhat’s inside Client Resources
A curated library for Integrated Life clients: readings from our sessions, practice forms, trusted articles and recommended books. Here is what you will find inside.
See what’s inside
Practice forms
- Client Intake Form
Working with difficult feelings
- Understanding & Working with Anger
- Understanding & Working with Anxiety and Stress
- Understanding & Building Self-Esteem
Knowing yourself
- Reflections on the Self
- Becoming Your Adult Self
- Growing Up Around Someone Else’s Drinking
- The Human Bill of Rights
Meaning, purpose and the examined life
- Awareness — 15 Core Messages
- On Contentment
- Radical Mutual Non-Obligation
- Existential Themes in The Brothers Karamazov
- Faith & Void
- Eros & Thanatos
Practical guides for daily living
- Living an Integrated Life
- Planning & Overcoming Procrastination
- Time, Attention and Planning
- Staying Grounded in the Age of AI
From my bookshelf
- Awareness
- Man's Search for Meaning
- The Choice
- The Book of Joy
- Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life
- The Road Less Traveled
- When Nietzsche Wept
- The Daily Stoic
- Letters to Sartre
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
- The Brothers Karamazov
- Staring at the Sun
- A Brief History of Time
- Why Good People Do Bad Things
- The Art of Living
- The Consolations of Philosophy
From elsewhere
- Navigating AI-Generated Advice
- AI and Adolescent Well-being
- Understanding “AI Psychosis”
- Social Media and Youth
- Online Predators and Youth
- Why Do I Keep Replaying Conversations in My Head?
- The Psychology of Singlehood, Revealed Through 5 Films
- Suicide and Suicidal Ideation
- Self-Harm
Available to clients. The link and password details are in the welcome note below.
Welcome to all Integrated Life clients!
As I might have mentioned in my lectures or group therapy sessions, you have access to my database of readings and lectures.
Visit the client resources page →
Password required — ask Chris if you don't have it.
You may have attended my lectures during in-patient clinic treatment, attended school talks, or have questions about references I might have made to books, articles, talks, and online discussions during our time spent together in counselling.
For additional information, or any questions with reference to the above, please email me at:
chris@integratedlife.co.za
or leave a message in the comments section during our YouTube Live Streaming / Podcast events.
Coming soon: a video mini-series
I am putting together a short series of videos to discuss the therapeutic issues I most often encounter in my work.
Is there a topic you would like covered? Leave me a message to request or suggest one.
Recommended reading
...and many more.