In need of a new podcast? Fancy a change from the depressing (but equally thrilling) tales of S-Town?

Where Should We Begin is going to be your new favourite because, well, everyone loves relationship drama as long as they've got nothing to do with it, amirite?

This new series is like nothing you've heard of before: it gives unfettered access to the most private of conversations, the one between a therapist and their client.

The host is couples therapist and author Esther Perel, a Belgian-born psychologist known for delivering viral TED Talks on subjects like infidelity (in which she argues that cheating doesn't spell the end of a relationship, it can sometimes actually help improve it) and long-term sexual desire.

Each episode is a raw and unscripted recording of a therapy session she has conducted with a different unidentified couple. Names and identifiable characteristics have been left out, but their voices and stories are real.

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Surprisingly, they didn't have huge problems finding people to feature in the series. 'We sent out one email to a portion of my mailing list and we put it out on social and we got about 450 applicants,' Perel told Vogue last month.

The ten episodes cover infertility, unemployment, betrayal, sexlessness, communication, sexual abuse, trauma, and 'all kinds of other issues that people experience in life,' explains Perel.

In the first episode, a couple is still reeling from the husband's brief affair a year earlier. A later episode, called 'The Addict', features a couple whose marriage is in turmoil after uncovering the husband had been having sex with other women — often paying for it — from the start of their 40-year relationship. He has now been diagnosed as a sex addict.

It's fascinating, but gut-wrenching stuff. As Perel says, '[The podcast] is very, very powerful. It's compulsive listening; it's moving; it's true; it's real; it's humble.'

Listen for free through mid-July at audible.com/esther. Alternatively, the podcast will be available on the iPhone's podcast app this October.

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Louise Donovan
Deputy Digital Editor
Louise Donovan is the Deputy Digital Editor at ELLE UK, with a focus on international women's rights, global development and human interest stories. She's reported from countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.