In this episode of Transitional Objects, Bridget Tremblay and Laura Walton welcome meditation teacher and Yale Divinity School educator Brandon Nappi for a wide-ranging conversation about spirituality, suffering, and what helps people move through change.

Brandon shares his path from a traditional Catholic upbringing to studying theology, joining seminary, exploring Buddhism and Christianity, leading over 1,000 retreats, and creating the Copper Beech Institute, and he reflects on how childhood family trauma shaped his calling to walk with others through pain. Using gardening as a metaphor, they explore paradox (life and death, wholeness and healing, control and surrender) and how perfectionism and constant judgment fuel suffering. They discuss therapy as a place where existential questions emerge, the dangers of pathologizing systemic suffering, the self-help industry’s conflict of interest, and the need to rebuild community as part of healing.

Find Brandon on Instagram at  @brandon.nappi or his website www.brandonnappi.com