Therapy doesn’t have to be all talk, it can also be an adventure. Geek Therapy offers a creative, engaging approach that taps into the power of pop culture, using everything from video games and comics to tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) as tools for healing. If you or someone you care about connects deeply with geek culture, this style of therapy could be a great fit.
What Is Geek Therapy?
Geek Therapy uses clients’ passions (whether it’s anime, sci-fi, comics or gaming) as a bridge to explore mental health. By weaving familiar stories, characters, and worlds into therapy, it creates a shared language that feels natural and accessible. This approach can make it easier to open up about emotions, build coping skills, and engage more fully in the therapeutic process.
In our recent podcast episode, Kailah Tuttle, LPC, an Ellie clinic director and a certified Geek Therapist, shared that Geek Therapy “is a language and skill set that helps deepen my connection with clients. When you understand what they’re passionate about, you can spark insights and make the work more meaningful.”
Using Dungeons & Dragons in Therapy
Think of Geek Therapy as play therapy, but for all ages. It often incorporates role-playing tabletop games, geek culture, and scenarios where clients can explore their feelings through fictional characters. For example, in D&D-based therapy, the therapist may take on the role of a Therapeutic Dungeon Master (TDM), guiding clients through imaginative quests that foster emotional regulation, problem-solving, and teamwork. This format allows clients to practice real-life skills in a safe, fictional environment, making difficult topics easier to approach.
In the podcast interview above, Kailah talks about how she brings a unique twist to her therapeutic practice by incorporating Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). As a Dungeon Master, she creatively uses tabletop role-playing games to help her clients engage with therapy in an interactive and fun way. Currently, Kailah is working on writing and creating a brand-new D&D campaign designed specifically for group therapy. She believes that D&D provides an immersive and imaginative way for clients to process emotions, practice interpersonal skills, and explore difficult topics (plus make new friends and connections!). By stepping into different roles and characters, clients can express themselves, navigate conflicts, and work through challenges, all while remaining engaged and motivated by the game’s structure and storytelling elements.
Geek + Art Therapy = Creative Self-Discovery
Geek Therapy easily intersects with art therapy. Clients might design their own superhero origin stories to reflect their personal strengths or create visual representations of their internal struggles. Seeing yourself as the hero of your own narrative can be incredibly empowering, especially when working through challenges.
I recently worked with a kid in therapy who’s really into video games and different fandoms. To connect with him, we did an art therapy activity where we each created a video game character that represented ourselves. We talked about the strengths and areas for growth in our characters, exploring how they were similar to or different from our own experiences. This approach helped us blend solution-focused skills and narrative skills with Geek Therapy, making the session both engaging and therapeutic.
Intersection of Geek Therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS)
This approach supports the development of emotional flexibility, communication skills, and self-awareness. In the interview, Kailah talks about how techniques from models like Internal Family Systems (IFS) are sometimes integrated, helping clients explore their inner “parts” through the lens of different fictional characters or avatars. By engaging with beloved stories, clients can gain fresh insights into their own internal worlds.
Geek Therapy Meets You Where You Are
Geek Therapy isn’t just for teens or self-identified geeks—it’s for anyone who connects with storytelling and creative play. Whether through gaming, movies, books, or comics, this approach makes therapy feel less clinical and more like a shared adventure.
Research and Evidence Behind Geek Therapy
You might be wondering if geek therapy is an evidenced-based therapy, and good news– there has been research done on various parts of it!
Recent studies have shown that role-playing tabletop games (including therapeutic Dungeons & Dragons) showed increased confidence, empathy, and a decrease in anxiety, especially social anxiety. The collaborative, imaginative nature of tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) provided a safe space to practice interpersonal skills, making it a tool for building real-world confidence. They hypothesize that by facing fictional challenges that might mirror real-life fears, clients practice emotional regulation and problem-solving in a low-pressure, fun setting. More studies can be found at this list.
Unsurprisingly, cosplaying itself has therapeutic benefits. A qualitative study revealed that cosplaying helped individuals express and explore parts of their identity, reduce social anxiety, and build confidence. By stepping into a character’s shoes, participants were able to experiment with self-expression and embrace new social roles.
Who Can Benefit from Geek Therapy?
Geek Therapy can benefit a wide range of individuals, including:
- Gamers and pop culture enthusiasts who like expressing themselves through fictional characters.
- People who struggle with traditional talk therapy. Talk therapy isn’t for everyone: a lot of people can benefit from types of therapy that are more creative and play based.
- Individuals with social anxiety or depression who find comfort in role-playing or creative outlets. Geek therapy can be offered in groups, and this can be an excellent way to connect with others that share your passions and interests!
- Neurodivergent clients (e.g., those with autism or ADHD) who benefit from structured but imaginative environments. A lot of the research was targeted specifically for autistic clients and the progress they made though this therapy modality.
DIY Geek Therapy Techniques to Try at Home
Not quite ready to jump into geek therapy? Here are some ideas for geek mental health activities to do at home.
Character Journaling
Character journaling is a creative way to bring geek therapy home! It involves writing a journal entry from the perspective of a fictional character, whether from a book, movie, TV show, or even a character you’ve made up. By stepping into their shoes, you can explore emotions, motivations, and experiences in a creative and perhaps more comfortable way. People like this tool, because writing as a character creates a level of separation, making it easier to express vulnerable emotions that might feel too raw when written in your own voice. Plus it’s an imaginative outlet that can reduce stress and encourage flow-state writing.
How to do it:
- Choose a character whose experiences or emotions you want to explore. This could be someone you admire or relate to.
- Imagine a specific situation the character is facing (it can be from their fictional world or a new scenario you create).
- Use their language, tone, and inner dialogue style. Capture their thoughts, emotions, and reactions authentically.
- Dig into their feelings. Are they angry? Conflicted? Hopeful? Let them express it fully.
Example as a sci-fi character: “Stardate 5923.4. The loneliness out here is suffocating. My only friend is the blinking red light on the console, reminding me I’m still alive. Barely.”
“In Control, Out of my Control” Video Game Activity
Helping kids understand what they can and can’t control can be tricky, but connecting it to something familiar or concrete (like video games) makes it more engaging. A simple way that Kailah recommends to do this is by creating a video game controller worksheet.
How to do it at home (or in sessions, if you’re a therapist):
- Draw or Print a Controller: Design your own or use a template.
- Label the Buttons – On one side, they write things they can control (like how they react when upset). On the other, things they can’t control (like their parents arguing).
- Add “Wish Buttons” – If they say, “I wish I could press a button and disappear when my parents fight,” use that to explore real coping strategies.
- Reframe & Reflect – Discuss how focusing on what they can control helps them feel more empowered.
- Use It as a Coping Tool – They can keep their controller as a reminder to focus on their own choices, even in tough situations.
D&D-inspired Goal Setting
Another way that I found you can incorporate Geek Therapy into everyday life is by using Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) mechanics as a framework for goal setting. This can make the process more engaging, creative, and motivating. This approach gamifies personal growth by turning goals into quests, milestones into challenges, and rewards into loot or experience points. Here’s how to bring this concept to life:
Instead of writing a standard goal like, “Exercise three times a week”, transform it into an adventure-style quest, like: “Strengthen your body and fortify your stamina by conquering three physical trials each week.”
Here’s another example, plus ways to break down your larger goal into “mini-quests:”
Goal: Strengthen your mental resilience and emotional well-being by completing three mindfulness-based mini-quests each week.
- Mini-Quest 1: The Breath of Clarity → Practice a 5-minute deep breathing or grounding exercise
- Mini-Quest 2: The Scroll of Reflection → Journal for 10 minutes about your thoughts, feelings, or experiences
- Mini-Quest 3: The Shield of Stillness → Complete a 10-minute guided meditation or body scan
Reward: Consistently completing the quest for a month earns the title “Master of Serenity” and grants a reward, such as a mental health day or a special experience of your choice.
As a therapist, I know that many of my clients benefit from “gamifying” their mental health goals, plus this breaks down larger goals into smaller, more manageable steps.
Considering Geek Therapy?
If this style of therapy sounds like a fit for your (or maybe you’re a parent and you think your kid would connect with this), we can help you find a clinician trained in Geek Therapy. They can help you in a therapeutic journey that feels less like traditional talk therapy and more like an adventure of self-discovery, filled with the stories and characters you already love.
Listen to the podcast interview about geek therapy here, or read the transcript below:
Miranda: Welcome to the Therapist Thrival Guide. My name is Miranda, and we’re here with Kailah. Kailah, thank you so much for joining again. I’m excited to talk to you about this topic and have you back.
Kailah: Yeah, I’m so excited to be here. Hello, fellow Therapy Nerds!
Miranda: I love it. Today, we’re going to talk about geek therapy, which I feel like I know nothing about, so I’m excited to dive in. Kailah and I were just chatting beforehand about birthday plans and all sorts of things before we started recording. I started to ask a question and thought, “You know what? Let’s just start recording and make this authentic.”
So, geek therapy—what is it?
Kailah: Geek therapy encompasses a lot. Essentially, it’s about finding people’s passions and fandoms—things like anime, role-playing games, video games, comics, manga—and using those as a lens for talk therapy and mental health concepts. It’s about creating a common language with clients by using references they understand and relate to.
Miranda: I love that. You just named so many different interests. It seems like geek therapy covers a wide range of topics. Since so many things are considered geeky, this therapy approach must be pretty broad. It sounds like it’s really about meeting clients where they are, through their interests. It almost feels like play therapy in a sense. You’re nodding—did I get that right?
Kailah: Yes! There’s actually a whole field of geek therapy now, with more research emerging. I did a training last summer in 2024 called Therapeutic Dungeon Master training. You learn how to be a Dungeon Master and run therapy groups using mental health topics. It’s essentially play therapy because it’s so adventure-based. You lead people through a quest while integrating skills like mindfulness.
For example, you might have clients embody their character and describe their surroundings, take a deep breath, and access their “internal guide” or wisdom. You can create entire worlds while teaching regulation skills.
Miranda: That makes so much sense. With play therapy, you can be either directive or non-directive, depending on your style and the client’s needs. The way you’re describing geek therapy feels similar—meeting clients where they are and using their preferred language to help them process.
When I think of kids, they naturally process through play. For example, my daughter knows we’re about to move, and now her Barbie family is constantly moving houses in her dollhouse. It’s all they talk about during play. It helps her make sense of the transition. It sounds like geek therapy taps into a similar concept, but for all ages—using interests like games or fandoms as a form of processing.
I’m curious, though—does geek therapy have formal certifications? Like with play therapy, you can use play-based techniques without being a Registered Play Therapist, but there are also certifications that require specific training. Is it the same for geek therapy?
Kailah: Yes, exactly. You can be competent in geek therapy without being formally certified. Geek Therapeutics is the organization I’m part of. I went through their training five or six years ago, and I’m now a certified geek therapist. They offer a bootcamp of classes, and they also host monthly CEU trainings on specific skill sets and new media trends.
Miranda: That makes sense—you’d have to stay current with pop culture, video games, and movies since new content is always coming out.
Kailah: Exactly. What’s cool is that you don’t have to be a therapist to take the training. They offer competency classes for teachers, youth workers, and people in other fields. It’s really versatile.
Miranda: So, when you did the bootcamp, was there an exam or supervised practice required, like with other therapy modalities?
Kailah: Yes, it’s similar. You take an exam, complete 30 to 50 courses, and do supervision. They offer supervision for both geek therapy and therapeutic DMing (Dungeon Mastering), so you can specialize in either area.
Miranda: That’s so interesting. What does geek therapy look like in your practice?
Kailah: Sometimes it’s as simple as identifying a client’s favorite characters or fandoms and using those to explore mental health concepts. For example, if a client relates to an anime character or a superhero, I might use that character to help them understand their own experiences.
I also use Internal Family Systems (IFS) a lot, so I’ll have clients assign parts of themselves to fictional characters. They might have a “Batman part” that’s a loner or a vigilante, and we’ll explore how that part approaches situations in their life. It creates a safe way to discuss internal conflicts.
On a larger scale, I’m developing a therapeutic Dungeons & Dragons group that will run for 10 weeks. Participants will create characters, level up, and go on an adventure together, while working on skills like regulation and problem-solving.
Miranda: That’s so cool! Is it a closed group, with the same participants throughout? I don’t know much about Dungeons & Dragons, but I do know being a Dungeon Master requires a ton of creativity and planning. It sounds like a lot of work to combine it with therapy.
Kailah: It is! You’ll notice I said I’m “working on” the group—it hasn’t started yet because it’s so time-intensive. I’m a therapist, a mom, and a clinic director for three clinics, so it’s a passion project that’s slowly coming together. Even if you use a pre-existing campaign, you still have to adapt it with therapeutic elements, run character-creation sessions, and teach the basics of tabletop role-playing. It’s a lot of prep work, but once it’s done, I’ll have a reusable framework.
Miranda: That makes sense—it’s like group therapy. It sounds like it has psychoeducation elements where you’re teaching skills, but is there also a processing component? Do clients share personal experiences during the campaign?
Kailah: It depends on how you structure the group. Typically, we start with check-in questions. For example, we might ask how a client and their character would respond to a current event. Speaking through a character often makes it easier for people to be vulnerable.
Characters can represent idealized versions of clients, more reserved or more expressive than they are in real life. Through their characters, clients reveal insights into their own emotional world. It creates distance, which helps some clients express emotions they might otherwise avoid.
Miranda: I can see how helpful this would be. As you’re describing it, I’m like, this makes so much sense. Especially when you’re talking about character creation. Other modalities do that too, where they’ll have you talk about a preferred future or your safe space. IFS makes a lot of sense—you have your manager parts—and it makes sense how you can use character building to explore how a person might be similar or different from the character they’ve created. This is fascinating.
Okay. First off, I don’t know much about Dungeons and Dragons, but can’t a single session last for hours? How would you contain this to a short group?
Kailah: Yeah, it depends. We would probably do a long campaign with different modules or scenes. If you think about it like a play or a movie, there are different acts. Sometimes you have to get really creative, and that takes some flexibility. There’s a lot of improv involved in role-playing settings. Sometimes you need to say, “This is a good time to pause,” and maybe fill the last 20 minutes with something else. Or you have to stop at an awkward point and pick back up later.
It takes a lot of note-taking and being mindful of where everyone’s at. It doesn’t always fit neatly into a time period, so ideally there’s some flexibility.
Miranda: I’m just thinking about how you would bill insurance and write your progress notes. You’d have to be creative about it. You’d probably say something like, “Client processed X, Y, and Z through therapeutic play” or something like that. Or tweak the notes to frame it as a therapeutic intervention. I’m just envisioning how you would write down some of the different things.
Kailah: Yeah. You typically just focus on the skill, like you would with anything else. You’d write, “Learned how to ground using breathing techniques” or whatever it is you’re targeting in the group setting.
Miranda: You wouldn’t write, “Miranda went on this adventure, encountered a dragon, and stole all of their loot.”
Kailah: No, but that would be so much more interesting to read.
Miranda: It would! I would much rather write a note like that. But… insurance.
Kailah: Yeah, insurance.
Miranda: That’s so funny. Okay, so Dungeons and Dragons—I can’t wait to hear more when you actually run this campaign. This is super cool. But in order to do this, did you call it Therapeutic Dungeons and Dragons?
Kailah: Yeah, so I am technically a Therapeutic Game Master after completing this training.
Miranda: Game Master, okay. What did that training look like? Did you have to do additional training after your Geek Therapeutics certification?
Kailah: Yeah, this was a whole separate program. It was structured in a similar way. I had a cohort of other therapists across the U.S. It was all virtual, and we had our own therapeutic dungeon master. It was both learning and process-oriented.
It was two hours every week for about 10 weeks. The first hour was theory—game and character creation, adventure planning, and technical Dungeons and Dragons skills. The second half was focused on blending it with therapy. We also facilitated our own group. We acted as characters and role-played to get a sense of the process.
For our final project, we each had to take turns being the DM (dungeon master) and lead a scene. We created our own content—called “homebrew”—and walked people through it. We outlined the skills we wanted the group to practice throughout the process.
Miranda: I remember a couple of years ago when we first started this podcast, we had one of my colleagues, Tamara, on. She talked about how therapists find their niche. She was someone who, right out of grad school, knew she wanted to work with elderly or geriatric clients. That was her niche.
But for a lot of us, it takes longer to figure out what type of client we love working with. By the time this comes out, we’ll have another episode with Karna, who talked about how her niche became all trauma. But seeing trauma clients for five to eight hours a day caused her to experience secondary traumatic stress.
When we talk about finding our niche, sometimes it takes experimenting with different clients and realizing, “Actually, I really like working with this group.” From that old episode, I remember Tamara said it’s all about the clients where you feel in flow—the ones where it doesn’t feel like work. Everything just flows naturally.
I can see how, for a lot of people who identify as geeks, this would be such a cool modality. They probably feel like you do—it’s fun. You can see how it helps people, and it also helps you. This modality seems like a lot of fun, especially for people who are really into games, role-play, or geek culture.
Kailah: Yeah. It’s really fun, and it makes it easier to talk about hard topics through this lens. And not just individually, but also with the group behind it.
One of my favorite things to do is go to Comic-Con. When you’re there, you find your community—your people. It’s the same for anything, whether it’s going to a football game or whatever your thing is. You meet people who resonate with the same stuff.
Through characters, people process their own content. A lot of geek culture and media is based on Jungian theory—archetypes and the collective unconscious. You see these repeated themes throughout humanity—stories, fables, and characters that show up again and again. There’s a reason they resonate so deeply—they reflect the human experience.
Miranda: What are some other things you like to do with clients that fall under this realm?
Kailah: I do art therapy as well. Art therapy and geek therapy blend together really beautifully.
Miranda: Ooh, how?
Kailah: There’s so much you can do with narrative therapy. If you think about it through the “hero of your own story” lens, I’ve had clients write their origin story—similar to a superhero’s backstory.
Most superheroes have gone through trauma. Batman, Superman—most of them have some sort of traumatic past that shaped them. What better lens to view humanity and the therapeutic process through? It allows clients to reflect on their strengths and how they’ve grown.
Miranda: Interesting. So when you do art therapy, would you ever have people create a comic book? For some reason, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. What other types of activities would you have them do?
Kailah: It really depends on what the client is into. I’ve definitely done comic books, especially with younger clients. I mostly see adults now, with some teens. I still see kids, but my schedule makes it harder to take on as many.
At Comic-Con events, I run therapy resource rooms and usually include some sort of art activity. We’ve done journal origin stories and comic book-style projects. We’ve also done mask-making—creating an alter ego superhero mask.
Another fun activity is making trading cards, especially for clients who like Pokémon. They design cards based on their strengths or values. You can get creative with it—this is my deck, and I can collect attributes, trade them out, or give them to others. You can use it however you want, but it becomes a tangible representation of their qualities.
Miranda: Oh, that’s so cool. I remember a couple of years ago, we had Neil Peterson on—shoutout to Neil! He was actually the one who first told me about geek therapy. I learned about this topic because of him.
He’s a play therapist and a clinic director here in Minnesota. In his episode, he talked about his big closet full of games. As part of his geek therapy, he uses really specific, awesome board games with clients.
When I first heard about geek therapy, I thought it was just about playing board games like Dominion or other geeky games. But it seems like it can also just be talk therapy, using shared language or this lens. What does that look like?
Kailah: I think you have to have one foot in both worlds—steeped in geek culture and aware of what’s out there. Even if it’s something I don’t necessarily watch, you just learn how to talk the language and understand the basic components. But then also, of course, mental health is the primary focus.
Sometimes it’s about crafting metaphors to walk alongside people on their journey. I use the Hero’s Journey a lot in therapy—thinking about where people are. Most people don’t come to therapy because things are awesome. They come because they’re in a really hard season of life. So, if you can mirror that with another character or experience they resonate with—whether they’re having the same struggles or they see strengths in that character they haven’t found in themselves yet—they can draw on that for wisdom or support. It’s almost like they have their own little Yoda guiding them.
Miranda: So, if you were starting out with a new client, would you have them identify characters they admire or relate to? How would you begin to tease that out?
Kailah: I don’t usually ask directly, “Which geeky characters do you identify with?” during an intake—unless they’re obviously super nerdy. Instead, I ask about hobbies, interests, or just walk through their day. If they mention playing video games, I’ll ask, “Ooh, what games?” Or if they say they play board games with friends, I’ll get curious about which ones. That gives me a sense of shared commonality and helps me understand their world. Books, movies, shows—anything they engage with can be a doorway into that connection.
Miranda: Man, you really have to be on top of everything! Geek culture is so broad—it covers movies, board games, video games, and more. I admire you for keeping up with it all. Are there parts of geek culture you gravitate more toward? You mentioned Dungeons & Dragons, but if someone is super into Marvel or superheroes, do you lean into that?
Kailah: Definitely. There are certain areas where I can speak the language more fluently. I’m by no means a D&D expert—I’m still learning a lot—but I know enough to engage with it. Harry Potter is a big one for me. I’m a huge fan—I actually had a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings-themed wedding!
Miranda: Oh my gosh, I love that!
Kailah: Yeah, so naturally, I draw from those worlds a lot. There’s so much built-in magic, facing fears, and overcoming traumatic backstories. Because I consume that content so frequently, it’s easy to reference it in therapy—like comparing a client’s journey to Harry facing his fears or Frodo carrying his burden.
Miranda: That makes so much sense. It’s funny—about a year or two ago, I was seeing a 14-year-old client who was super into Harry Potter. At the end of each session, she would bring me Harry Potter trivia questions.
Kailah: That’s adorable.
Miranda: It was so fun, but also humbling because I was terrible at the trivia! I’ve read the books, but she knew it inside and out. She’d be like, “Who did this?” and I’d guess, “Hermione?” and she’d go, “No, of course not—it was blah, blah, blah.” She beat me every single time.
It’s funny, though—if I had known about geek therapy back then, I probably would’ve thought, “I should refer her to a geek therapist. She would thrive in that setting!”
Would you actually consider geek therapy its own modality? How would you describe it?
Kailah: I think of it more as a lens rather than a standalone modality. It’s typically paired with other evidence-based approaches. There are people with doctorate degrees doing research on geek therapy, and there are conferences and books dedicated to it. But it’s usually integrated with something else—like art therapy, narrative therapy, or CBT. For example, you can use characters to build psychological flexibility or explore personal values.
For me, it’s more of a language and skill set that helps deepen my connection with clients. When you understand what they’re passionate about, you can spark insights and make the work more meaningful.
Miranda: Yeah, I can see how it would be a powerful tool for building rapport and finding common ground.
Are there any other parts of geek therapy you feel we haven’t covered?
Kailah: There are so many different aspects to it. Geek Therapeutics sends out a weekly newsletter that’s a great resource—even if you’re just mildly interested. You can sign up for free at geektherapeutics.com. They share tips like, “How to explore strengths and values through Pokémon” or other creative interventions. It’s a great way to get new ideas.
Miranda: That’s a fantastic resource.
If a therapist wanted to start incorporating geek therapy with a client, are there any specific interventions or activities you recommend? I loved your idea of making trading cards or comic book characters. Do you have other go-to strategies?
Kailah: Yeah, a few come to mind. One simple activity is creating a video game controller worksheet—especially for kids. You have them draw buttons that represent things they can and can’t control in their life. For example, they might say, “I wish I could hit a button and disappear when my parents argue.” It’s a creative way to talk about control and coping.
Another one is working with ideal vs. current self. Around the new year, people naturally reflect on their goals, but you can gamify it. I sometimes have clients create a D&D-style character sheet with their current stats—things like strength, charisma, wisdom—and then make an ideal version. We talk about what it would take to bridge the gap. Do they want to be stronger? More confident? What skills or experiences would help them level up?
Miranda: Those are brilliant. I’m not a geek myself, but I could definitely see using these activities with clients—especially adolescents. So many of them are into manga, video games, or other geek culture.
Kailah: Absolutely! It’s such a fun and meaningful way to connect with them. Miranda, I wanna learn more about your fandom. Like, if you were working with a geek therapist and they asked, “Miranda, what are we gonna use?”—what would be your thing?
Miranda: Oh my gosh, that’s such a good question. Hmm… maybe superheroes? I’ve never been super into superhero movies, but when I was little, I would write stories about superheroes all the time. I think there’s just something about imagining what my superpower would be or what I’d want to be able to do.
And honestly, there’s still a part of me—the inner kid—that totally loves that kind of stuff. It’s just fun. Oh! I’m also a Disney nerd. My husband and I are actually taking our kids to Disney next month, and, Kailah, I am obsessed. I live and breathe everything about our trip.
Right before I jumped on here, I texted my sister a screenshot and was like, “This is where we meet Mickey, and we have to be there at 2:00 PM.” I’d been looking at historical data and figured out that’s when the line is shortest. I don’t know, I just… maybe I geek out about Disney logistics.
Kailah: No, that’s so good! I love it. And you’re bringing up something really important—staying connected to your inner child. I’m such a big believer in keeping that sense of wonder alive.
Miranda: Yes!
Kailah: Play, imagination, love—all those things we tend to lose sight of as adults. Our world gets so hectic and busy that it takes conscious effort to tap back into that childlike joy. And play is one of the most powerful ways to do it.
Miranda: I totally agree. I feel like I’ve never felt more connected to my inner child than I have since becoming a parent. Having a 4-year-old and seeing the world through her sense of wonder, excitement, and pure magic—it’s just so much fun. It’s brought a lot of that back for me, too. It’s like I get to experience things through her eyes.
Okay, wait—what’s your main fandom? What’s your thing?
Kailah: Oh, probably Harry Potter. But I’m also a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Miranda: I’ve never seen it!
Kailah: Oh my gosh. You’re missing out!
Miranda: I know, I’m a bad millennial.
Kailah: Haha! It’s so good. I love vampire lore in general—it’s always really fun. Anything with vampires or witchy magic vibes, I’m into it.
Miranda: I like it.
Thank you so much for joining me today—this has been such a fun conversation. It was really helpful to learn more about geek therapy and how you incorporate it into your work. I’ll be sure to include some of the resources you mentioned in the episode description so people can check them out.
Oh! And are you currently accepting clients, or are you way too busy?
Kailah: I’m pretty busy! I oversee about 20 therapists, and most of them are accepting clients. I’ll probably be running groups in the future, once I get everything rolling, so people can stay tuned for that.
Miranda: Awesome. Well, I can’t wait to hear about your D&D groups—I bet they’re gonna be amazing. Thanks again for joining, and thanks to everyone for listening. We’ll see you next week!
