psychology

The Power of a Podcast

February 24, 2020 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Power of words — Sometimes therapists find the right words to give.

When I sit with a client in my office, I try to remain aware of the power that the words I use can have. The most common way of practicing therapy is in a one-on-one setting. This allows me to tailor my words to the person in the chair across from me. I can craft words that I feel will best help that other person take in the information and hear what they need to hear to heal. Clients feel like I’m speaking to them and their needs alone. It’s not always easy, but it’s effective. If I’m reckless, my words have the power to push people further from their best self. If I’m able to pinpoint the correct thing to say, I can help them start to move past their “stuff.”

Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.
Albus Dumbledore

Dumbledore’s words sit heavy on my shoulders when I sit down to record an episode of GT Radio or The Happiest Pod on Earth. As a therapist, I understand the power of words. As a podcaster I do too. Podcasters can’t tailor their words to each listener. Whether a podcast has 5 listeners, or 5k listeners, odds are that each listener’s experience is different. That makes it hard to reach everyone.

Podcasters go it alone without feedback.

Pleasing everyone isn’t possible. I get that. If I get people thinking/talking, that’s great. Sometimes the disagreements fuel the best discussions. I try my best and hope that my words land well with whoever’s listening, and that I don’t do harm. Ultimately, I hope I can reach someone and help make them feel seen. Whenever I get a note that something I said was impactful, it makes my heart swell to know something I said landed well with someone. There are other podcasters that feel the same out there too.

Murder has…the power to heal?

True crime is very hot and popular right now. Documentaries, reenactment shows, books, subscriptions crates, and podcasts about the darker side of our world abound. I’ve discussed before how the horror genre can allow us to explore our fear in a safe way. True crime is different. In horror, the things that go bump in the night aren’t real. When we experience those stories, we know that a werewolf isn’t going to eat us or a demon isn’t going to possess us. With true crime…the stories are real. Real terror, trauma, and tragedy. So what can be positive or healing about that?

One podcast in particular comes to mind when I try to explain this: My Favorite Murder.

Image via My Favorite Murder

Murderinos unite!

The hosts of My Favorite Murder, Karen and Georgia, have a way with words for larger audiences that is hard to come even close to. Their episodes are very conversational because they record with each other in Georgia’s living room, and it has a way of making each listener feel like they’re in the room with them. Followed by thousands of murderinos (what they call their listeners), they say what they’re going to say, without trying to please everyone and doing little fact checking. What puts them apart is their willingness to admit they’re wrong.

They often have a “corrections corner” in which they admit where they’ve screwed up in past episodes. The duo admit their faults and apologize to their fans. They use humor to talk about the tough stuff (which, admittedly is their entire podcast). They’re also unabashedly honest about their mental health struggles. Georgia talks about her depression and anxiety, and going to therapy before recording on the regular, and Karen discusses her struggles with drug and alcohol use. They discuss it in a lighthearted, funny, and honest way. Friends of mine and clients alike have said they were inspired to get help and go to therapy because of listening to the show.

Murderinos don’t have to hide their interests and hobbies anymore. They’ve found their people. Karen and Georgia have built a supportive, creative, caring community out of something that scares off many people even by mentioning the title of the show. They’re saving lives, whether they know it or not.

Light from the dark

My Favorite Murder shines a light on the scary stuff, in order to help people cope with the knowledge that there is a boogey man out there. Karen and Georgia crack jokes and throw out one liners that are actually pretty good advice. “Lock your fucking doors.” “Fuck politeness.” “Call your dad, you’re in a cult.” These lines are humorous but real. Their sign off for the show “Stay sexy, don’t get murdered” is a manta for many murderinos, who’ve had it tattooed on their bodies. They also manage to be respectful of the dead, even when making light of the horrors they went through. It’s hard to imagine, but it’s definitely worth listening to.

I’m only just now finishing up the first year of the show. I can’t wait to binge the 150+ more episodes I have to hear and belly laugh to some really messed up humor.

WoW: World of Zencraft?

September 19, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Last week, Blizzard Entertainment released their latest patch in World of Warcraft, called the Siege of Orgrimmar. With it came a lot of new content (including a new island to explore, and a new raid), interesting storyline, and a lot of excitement.

Most people were excited just to be able to be the first to run through the new content, show it who’s boss, and get the new achievements and mad loots.

For me, it has been a different kind of exploration that started when the Mists of Pandaria expansion came out last year.

The WoW storyline has always interested me (enough that I’ve read a few of the novels) and has been able to hold player’s attention for years. The Pandaria expansion added a whole other level to how we think about storytelling.

In Pandaria, a person’s negative emotions (no matter how deeply buried) manage to manifest themselves in a very physical way in the form of Sha.

(Image via WoWWiki.com)

In a sense, throughout the expansion, you have to fight your own demons. You take charge and purge yourself, others, and the land of these negative emotions that can take over such as anger, despair and fear.

In the new patch content, you have to save others’ souls by purging them of the influence of the sha and save them from being possessed by sorrow, gloom, misery, sorrow and anguish.

There’s even a guardian who blocks your path. When you tell him that you’re trying to cleanse the world and save everyone, he says that you are too prideful to pass. This is where you really have to face yourself, as your pride manifests and you must defeat it to move on.

This is as far as I have made it into the new raid, but I’m intrigued. I feel that most people just move past this deep, potentially powerful, content as though it’s just something else to hack away at. If you look closely, this storyline has some potential to heal. My guildmate even joked about the game turning into a cheap self-help book.

If a therapist played with their client, think about how healing it may be to work through negative emotions and literally grapple with them, and eventually take them down. How awesome might it feel for a teenager dealing with depression to take out the Sha of Despair (who yells out comments about giving up). How empowered might someone struggling with controlling their temper feel when they’ve defeated the Sha of Anger? Those are only a couple of examples.

(Image via AdventuresInPoorTaste.com)

The last piece I wanted to touch on is the way the game handles good and evil. In general, most people think of the Alliance as the good guys, and the Horde as the bad guys (well, most people who haven’t played WoW or only play a little). In actuality, both sides have their faults and their virtues. They fight against the same evils again and again. They just don’t see eye to eye on how to get it done, and let old wounds get in the way.

In Mists of Pandaria, both sides are put in their place by the Pandaren, who feel them both arrogant and war hungry. The final boss in the new expansion is the Horde’s leader, Garrosh Hellscream. The Horde is rebelling to take him out because they’ve seen him do some horrible things. They team up with the Alliance to try to put someone more honorable and wise in his place.

(Image via Polygon)

I don’t know how it turns out, but the fact is that even the “bad guys” can have some humanity. And some acts are just too far past the line to accept.

I’m excited to see what happens…if my guild can ever make it past the second boss.

IT’S A TRAP! Star Wars and the Grieving Process

September 16, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Ok, so we all know the Star Wars prequels sucked. Now that we have that out of the way, we can move on to something…new.

Disney announced that in addition to the new trilogy starting with Episode VII in 2015, there will be a new Star Wars film every year until…whenever.

There was word of that a while back. The word on the street now is that these new films will be origin stories for popular characters. Rumors are that they could possibly be about Yoda when he was younger, Boba Fett’s fall into the seedy underworld of bounty hunting, or Han Solo’s back story.

(Image via Nerd Repository)

With the prospect of having a seemingly infinite number of Star Wars films, many fans seems split over the idea.

There are some who love the concept of having new Star Wars content coming at them at a consistent rate and will gobble it up lovingly. Others….not so much.

When I read the different fan reactions to the origin stories idea, it reminded me of something my Grief and Loss professor said to me. She said that no two people grieve in the same way, that the process is different for every person, and that everyone’s way of grieving is valid.

With that being said, everyone’s form of Star Wars fandom (and grieving over what has become of the franchise) is valid.

The fans (like myself) who feel that there were at least some redeeming qualities in the prequels are justified in thinking so. Darth Maul is my favorite character, and I found watching Anakin’s descent to the dark side in Episode III exciting.

The fans who hate everything about the prequels and only admit to the original trilogy’s existence are also justified. They may feel hurt that what they accepted as true has been distorted. Anger is a natural part of grieving a loss.

There are also those who want to give Disney a chance to do something new with the series (and praise that George Lucas will keep his hands off of these new movies). From the announcements made by Disney, it looks like Episode VII will have some promise.

(Image via Tech Fleece)

With regard to the new origin stories, some feel as though the market is over-saturated and that it feels like a dead horse is being beaten into the ground. Others feel as though this is a chance to introduce new material to a younger generation and bring them into the Star Wars universe. Some like the idea of new stand alone movies, but would prefer new characters to be explored (it isn’t like there is a shortage of things in the universe that haven’t been explored). In a way, all them are right.

My personal opinion is that I would love to see some back story on some of the characters. I love getting to know more about characters in anything I watch or read. In particular I enjoy trying to understand why they act and think the way they do (no wonder I went into psychology…). I’m excited to see what Disney will do with the franchise. Lucas already screwed things up, so they can’t do too much worse, right? I’m also excited about having good, relevant, new movies to show to my children (since Disney will still be pumping them out by the time I have kids, apparently).

That’s just my opinion, which will be different from yours. Both of our opinions will be different from the next person’s, and so on.

Regardless of whether you feel like the only way to be a Star Wars fan is to shun everything other than Episodes IV-VI, or if you want to soak up anything and everything Lucas or Disney throws at you, you are a Star Wars fan. Star Wars doesn’t just belong to me, or you. It doesn’t belong to one person. It belongs to all of us.

Our fandom is our own. We are free to grieve the loss of what we held sacred, or celebrate the release of new content. Or any combination that can be found in between. Any and all of these reactions are healthy (as long as we don’t become belligerent with each other).

So what I said about us all knowing the prequels sucked was a lie.

I’m still saying that they could have been a heck of a lot better with a little more Darth Maul, and a lot less Jar Jar Binks.

(Image via Dune Sea Times)

Where do you stand? How do you grieve?

Well, here goes..

August 26, 2013 · Discuss on the GT Forum

Here begins my first foray into the blogging world. I suppose I should start by letting you know who I am, what this blog is all about, and why the heck you should bother reading in the first place.

My name is Lara Taylor, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (born and raised), and I am a complete and total nerd. My interests are pretty general as far as geekery, I know a little about a lot. I’m an avid gamer, comic nerd, Ringer, Star Warsior, Brony…the list goes on. I’m also a Master’s student in Counseling Psychology on track for a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) license someday.

During San Diego Comic Con this year, I attended a panel called Geek Therapy: How Superheroes Empower us, and It blew my mind. Everything they spoke about was a way of combining my two biggest passions (nerdom and psychology) into one. Using comics in therapy? Had never thought of it, but loved the idea and it made perfect sense to me. Why had I not thought of this before?

After Comic Con I started listening to the Geek Therapy podcast and more and more topics came up, such as the use of video games in therapy. Or just using game terminology in therapy. The floodgates in my mind had opened and I could not stop the rush of ideas coming through them. I was inspired.

The information racing through my mind led me to the creation of this blog. I want a place to collect articles and discussions about nerdy concepts in the therapy world and how we can use them to make people feel better. I also want a place to combine those articles and discussions with my own opinions and ideas drawn from my current schooling and training as a future clinician.

Which brings me to a disclaimer: I AM NOT A THERAPIST!!!! I am a student, and the ideas I post are my own and are developing over time. Do not contact me to solve your problems. I’d love to help you, but I can’t, yet. This is a place for ideas and discussion….and geekiness.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings, and I also hope you stick with me. It’ll get more interesting soon, I promise!

Special Thanks to those who inspired me:

Comicspedia – using comics in therapy comicspedia.net

Geek Therapy Podcast – geektherapy.com