The Healthy Compulsive Project
Gary Trosclair
For six years The Healthy Compulsive Project has been offering information, insight and inspiration for OCPD, obsessive-compulsive personality, perfectionism, micro-managers and Type A personality. Anyone who’s ever been known to overwork, overplan, overcontrol or overanalyze is welcome here, where the obsessive-compulsive personality is explored and harnessed to deliver what it was originally meant to deliver. Join psychotherapist, Jungian psychoanalyst and author Gary Trosclair as he delves into the pitfalls and potential of the driven personality with an informative, positive, and often playful approach to this sometimes-vexing character style.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Dec 9, 2025 • 28min
Ep. 103: 7 Vexing Questions & Encouraging Answers for Therapists Who Treat Obsessive-Compulsive Personality
Practical strategies for working with obsessive-compulsive personality traits are unpacked in short, actionable segments. Topics include using trait incursions in-session, distinguishing real progress from feared complacency, and addressing impostor fears. The conversation covers challenging harsh inner critics, assessing parts that feel no distress, reconnecting desire without guilt, and reframing compulsiveness as a strength.
Dec 2, 2025 • 1h 17min
Ep. 102: Interview with Endurance Coach Travis Macy about the Driven Personality
Gary Trosclair, psychotherapist and Jungian analyst who studies obsessive-compulsive personality, joins to explore the driven personality. They discuss competition, endurance, and how perseverance can become harmful. Topics include tension and body awareness, mindfulness for calm action, Chronic Urgency Stress Syndrome, and ways to shift perfectionism toward play and meaning.
Nov 25, 2025 • 24min
Ep. 101: 4 Ways Perfectionists and Obsessive-Compulsives Try To Avoid Humiliation
Explores four compulsive strategies people use to avoid humiliation: controlling others, overworking, people-pleasing, and obsessive planning. Uses vivid cultural and personal stories to illustrate each type. Traces roots to childhood wounds and outlines practical steps for stepping out of those protective fortresses.
Nov 18, 2025 • 11min
Ep. 100: How a Goddess Became a Modern Disease: Ananke, OCPD, & the Need for Control
Carl Jung famously wrote that the gods have become diseases. What he meant was that because we no longer consciously acknowledge the powerful forces we used to call gods and goddesses, they’ve gone underground and manifest in our physical and mental ailments. However unbelievable they might seem, they are still forces to be reckoned with. Such is certainly the case with Ananke, the Goddess of fate, compulsion and inevitability. People with a need to control can learn a great deal from her.
Nov 4, 2025 • 24min
Ep. 99: From Alienation to Connection: Healing the Spiritual Side Effects of Compulsive Perfectionism
Explore how compulsive perfectionism creates alienation, and the science-backed benefits of as sense of connection to something larger than yourself. And discover practical ways to restore a sense of connection with Nature and the Universe for greater peace and well-being.
Oct 14, 2025 • 26min
Ep. 98: How to Pivot to a Life Worth Living Through Flexibility: A Review of ACT
A practical review of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and why flexibility matters for perfectionism, OCPD, and Type A traits. A pivot metaphor for redirecting compulsive energy toward deeper yearnings. A tour of ACT’s six core skills like diffusion, acceptance, presence, values, and committed action. Brief critiques about mind-language and the role of inner parts.
Sep 13, 2025 • 9min
Ep. 97: 3 Reasons You're Having Anxiety Dreams
Anxiety dreams may seem simply like a nuisance at first glance. But slow down and pay attention and you might find they have something to tell you about how you are living and how you see your world. Issues of avoidance, authenticity, and being tested can all show up in anxiety dreams. Seen as a source of wisdom, these dreams can lead you in new directions should you choose to engage with them.
Aug 23, 2025 • 13min
Ep. 96: 4 Tools to Help Obsessives Move Past Creative Blocks
Creativity may be one of the most fulfilling activities we have. Unless it’s blocked. Then the desire to be creative can feel like torture. But there are ways to get unblocked. In this episode we will talk about the possible benefit of compulsive urges, and the destructiveness of obsessive thinking. We’ll look at how the avoidance of feelings of anxiety and insecurity becomes a block. And we’ll look at the positive benefits of being in the present moment, and personifying The Blocker can be helpful.
Aug 12, 2025 • 17min
Ep. 95: No Laughing Matter: What Being So Serious Does to Your Life
A deep look at how chronic seriousness damages relationships, mental health, and the body. Research on laughter reveals brain, immune, and cardiovascular benefits. Practical strategies for using humor intentionally are offered. Warnings explain how humor can also be defensive or hurtful when misused.
Jul 8, 2025 • 18min
Ep. 94: 2 Novels About Perfectionists Sure to Entertain and Inspire You
Two Fredrik Backman novels are examined through characters who trade feeling for rules and routine. One story follows a rigid man pushed toward connection by a persistent neighbor. The other tracks a list‑driven woman whose perfectionism both hinders and helps her community. Themes include emotional isolation, transformation, and the surprising possibilities of loosening control.
