GOLDEN BALL PODCAST

Playing the game of life better
We look at what top athletes  and depth psychology can teach us about playing the game of life in a more fulfilling way. 

The Golden Ball Podcast explores what soccer reveals about who we are, how we deal with achievement, loss, and the search for meaning. 

What is the Golden Ball Podcast?

The golden ball takes soccer as a living metaphor for living life. 

Everything that happens on the pitch also happens at home, at work, and in everyday life. 
  • What is winning really about? 
  • How do we deal with setbacks?
  • What drives us, consciously and unconsciously, in the way we play the game of life?

for the love of the game 

Watch our latest episode now

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What themes are covered?

Striving for gold

Believing in yourself 

Identity

How to let talent express itself

How to deal with criticism

How to deal with loss

When winning matters

Who am I without the match

Meet your hosts

Each episode, three depth psychologists, one of them a former World Cup player, gather around one theme from the game and follow it somewhere deeper. 

John O'Brien

John O'Brien is a former Olympic and World Cup soccer player. He is a sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply.

Machiel Klerk

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, author, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. 

Akke-Jeanne Klerk

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, teacher, author, and co-founder of Jung Platform. 

Is the Golden Ball Podcast for you?

This podcast series is ideal if you want to:

Learn how depth psychology can help you play the game of life in a more fulfilling way.
Explore depth psychology through the universal language of soccer.
Bring psychological awareness to how you respond to pressure, failure, and success.
Discover what your own gold is, and how you are currently trying to reach it.
See the game and your own life through a richer, deeper lens.

Meet your hosts

Each episode, three depth psychologists, one of them a former World Cup player, gather around one theme from the game and follow it somewhere deeper. 

John O'Brien

John O'Brien is a former Olympic and World Cup soccer player. He is a sports psychologist who combines performance tools with sand, symbols, and imagination to help athletes and others perform and understand themselves more deeply.

Machiel Klerk

Machiel Klerk is a psychotherapist, author, founder of Jung Platform, and lifelong lover of the game. 

Akke-Jeanne Klerk

Akke-Jeanne Klerk is a personal development coach, teacher, author, and co-founder of Jung Platform.