Stories and Stanza

In Part 2 of our conversation with counsellor and psychotherapist John Cuturilo, we go deeper into one of the most common questions people have about mental health: How do I know what kind of help I need — and how do I know if I'm getting the right kind?

Whether you've been in therapy for years or have never taken the first step, this episode will give you the tools, language, and confidence to approach mental health support differently.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why you don't need a mental health diagnosis to justify seeking help
• How to assess what level of support is right for your situation — from counsellors and psychologists to social workers and psychiatrists
• The "grey areas" of mental health — when something feels wrong but you can't quite name it
• How long therapy typically takes, and what ongoing vs time-limited support looks like
• Why culture and personal background must be part of the therapeutic conversation
• How to choose the right therapist — and the red flags that should make you walk away
• What goal-oriented therapy actually looks like in practice

John also shares a personal reflection from his own history — a reminder that what we normalise isn't always what's healthy, and that recognising that can be the beginning of real change.

🎙️ Miss Part 1? Start here:
https://www.storiesandstanza.com/e/johncuturilo1

About John Cuturilo:
John Cuturilo is a counsellor, writer, and podcast host based in Melbourne, Australia. He works with a diverse range of clients and specialises in complex trauma and relational matters. John integrates humanity and lived experience with evidence-based methods — seeking to be versatile, educative, empowering, and relatable. As a writer and host, he helps his audience understand how psychology applies to everyday life, encouraging more critical and constructive thinking.
🔗 www.yourlistener.com.au

About Stories and Stanza:
Stories and Stanza is a podcast charting in the Mental Health top charts across the US, UK, and Canada. We run two series: Between the Lines — conversations with writers and creators — and Fail With Me — honest dialogues about mental health, resilience, and life's challenges.
Hosted by Abhra Pal.

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#MentalHealth #Therapy #Counselling #FailWithMe #StoriesAndStanza #MentalHealthPodcast #TherapyTips #SelfCare #Wellness #Psychology #MentalHealthAwareness #HowToFindATherapist #TraumaRecovery #GoalOrientedTherapy #JohnCuturilo #AbhraPal #MelbournePodcast #ComplexTrauma

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What if violence could be predicted — and stopped — before it ever happens? In this episode, we sit down with Robert Mahoney, founder of TVTP Solutions, who argues that there is no such thing as a random act of violence. Every attack follows a recognisable, interruptible pathway — if you know what to look for.

Robert walks us through behavioral threat assessment, the "three buckets" of identity, purpose, and community, and why our defensive approach to security is leaving us more vulnerable. He also shares real-world examples of individuals who were pulled back from the edge — including one whose life was transformed by a pottery class.

A vital listen for anyone working in education, community services, public health, or anyone who simply wants to understand how safer communities are built.

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In this episode of Stories and Stanzas, host Abhra sits down with Robert Rickelmann for an unflinching conversation about a life shaped by mental illness and addiction. Robert grew up with crippling anxiety — and discovered early on that alcohol made him feel fearless, confident, and finally comfortable in his own skin. That relief came at a devastating cost.
What began as a coping mechanism consumed his law school career, his sense of self, and nearly his life. In 1996, Robert made a major suicide attempt that landed him in a psychiatric hospital for a month, where he was diagnosed as Seriously Mentally Ill — carrying diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder, severe depression, OCD, and borderline personality disorder. The years that followed brought repeated hospitalizations, a long and grueling journey through medications, and immeasurable strain on his marriage.
Through it all, Robert scribbled notes on scraps of paper — in psych wards, in dark moments, in the margins of a life he was trying to hold together. Those fragments became a memoir. After years of rejections from agents and publishers, he signed with Apprentice House Publishing, releasing Jumping Off the End on May 5, 2025 — timed deliberately with Mental Health Awareness Month.
This conversation covers the seductive lie of alcohol as self-medication, the stigma men face when seeking help, dark humor as a survival tool, the invisible weight carried by caregivers, and what it means to be sober since January 10, 2013.
Robert's book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Jumping-End-Lifetime-Struggle-Alcoholism/dp/1627206604/

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In this episode, host sits down with writer, illustrator, and mental health advocate Mia Mason to explore her book Worry's Whispers — a collection of illustrated poems woven together with a graphic-novel section that follows Drew's journey through OCD and anxiety, from isolation all the way to seeking help, diagnosis, and resilience.

Mia shares her personal journey, including her own lived experience of OCD as "sticky" intrusive thoughts, morality fears, and reassurance-seeking compulsions, and discusses how therapy-inspired drawings grew into the book's unique format. She reads a poem depicting health anxiety and the spiralling "why" of intrusive thoughts, and describes OCD as a ghost named Worry whose whispers can fade to background noise with the right treatment. The conversation also touches on values-based action — doing meaningful things despite fear — and why the book resonates not just for people with OCD, but for anyone who loves or supports them.

Watch the video version of this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TeU0uxR1gP8

About Mia Mason : Artist, actress, author, and mental health advocate. Mia uses storytelling and illustration to build compassion and connection around anxiety and OCD — blending emotional honesty with advocacy so others feel understood, supported, and less alone.

Links: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worrys_whispers/ Worry's Whispers on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1BQWW63

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In this episode of Stories and Stanza, host Abhra and guest David Allen Brown discuss reframing a “midlife crisis” as a midlife renaissance, exploring how depression can feel like numbness that can turn to despair. Brown shares his background as a teacher, speaker, and writer, his divorce and move from Indianapolis to New York City, and how finding a good therapist after COVID and committing to honesty became a turning point. They examine authenticity as both a personal and creative necessity, including Brown’s decision to write an unflinching memoir and his view that being oneself attracts the right people. Brown also explains his approach to writing through intentional pre-writing, theme, and structure, reads an excerpt about caregiving stress, and outlines a model of self-talk integrating higher power, action, and emotions, culminating in a manifestation framework focused on cultivating general aligned energy rather than specific outcomes.

David Alan Brown has been teaching personal empowerment, leadership, organizational development, self discovery and spirituality to audiences across the country for more than thirty years. He is the author of many books, including Answer the Call: What to do when Spirit arrives to transform your life! and The Self-Help Paradox. He frequently leads classes and services at progressive congregations, including more than a decade of service at New Thought Unity Center of Cincinnati and churches from Florida to Minnesota, Arizona to New York. He also facilitates and consults for corporations and nonprofit organizations, leading programs on leadership, culture, authenticity, presentation skills and staff development. David holds a BFA from New York University, is a fan of auto racing, writes and evaluates live theater, and coaches writers and storytellers. His most recent publication is an online course, Convergence, which teaches people how to recognize and regulate their inner voices to live intentionally each day and manifest their goals. He's here to talk with us about how this became his life's work, how he integrates it into his daily life and what makes it special.

His website: https://davidalanbrown.com/convergence/ 

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In this Stories and Stanza “Between the Lines” episode, host Abhra interviews writer Áine , an Irish immigrant living on the U.S. East Coast, about how journaling from age 14 evolved into publishing fiction and nonfiction. Áine describes feeling “immigrant shell shock,” finding courage through immigrant literature, and being accepted into a university fiction workshop that revealed how others perceive a writer’s narrative voice. She recounts the shock of her first short story and later nonfiction acceptance, and how her work began moving between Ireland, the U.K., and the U.S., including a first book published in Dublin and partnered with Simon & Schuster. She shares questions she asks before writing memoir, reads a piece from a hybrid poetry/essay collection, discusses inspiration versus discipline, and reflects on migration, identity, listening, and the challenge of writing in a world that values shorter, more entertaining content, ending with encouragement that everyone deserves time to write.

Please find her website here: https://www.ainegreaney.com/

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Host Abhra speaks with Melbourne-based counselor and media creator John of Your Listener Counseling about reframing failure and reducing mental health stigma. John argues that society overemphasizes success, causing people to mislabel learning experiences as crippling failures and to shame themselves, and he links stigma around mental illness to a broader stigma against “failing” to meet societal expectations. He critiques both shaming and denial-based “positivity,” using autism as an example of how calling challenges a “superpower” can avoid acknowledging real difficulties, and emphasizes accepting flaws, working on change when possible, and accommodating what cannot be changed. They discuss shallow mental-health messaging, emotional exploitation and misinformation in media, the need for critical thinking, and core self-care pillars such as introspection, deliberate decision-making, meaningful activity, and valuing human connections.

John Cuturilo is a counsellor, writer, and podcast host in Melbourne, Australia. He conducts therapy with a diverse range of clients and specialises in working with complex trauma and relational matters. His seeks to address shortcomings in common practice by being versatile, educative, empowering, and relatable, integrating humanity and lived experience with evidence-based methods. As a writer and host, he educates his audience about how psychology applies to their lives, encouraging them to be more critical, constructive thinkers. He eschews politics and popular rhetoric for a pursuit of objective reality and nuanced analysis.

Find him at: www.yourlistener.com.au

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In this intimate conversation on Stories and Stanza, Teri shares how lived experience with trauma — including surviving a 14-year emotionally abusive marriage — became the foundation for her most authentic and powerful creative writing. If you're a writer, a reader, or anyone who has ever wondered whether your hardest seasons have a purpose, this episode is for you. This episode explores the impact of a toxic relationship and the healing journey that can follow, emphasizing how true stories can fuel powerful writing.

Born in Athens, Greece as an Air Force brat and now calling the North Carolina coast home, Teri M Brown came into this world with an imagination full of stories to tell. In this intimate Between The Lines conversation on Stories and Stanza, Teri shares how lived experience — including surviving a 14-year emotionally abusive marriage — became the foundation for her most authentic and powerful creative writing. If you're a writer, a reader, or anyone who has ever wondered whether your hardest seasons have a purpose, this episode is for you.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How lived experience — even painful ones — fuels authentic character development and storytelling
  What "write what you know" really means: it's about emotions and internal truth, not just facts
  The creative process behind writing fiction, nonfiction, and children's books — and why each demands a different mindset
  How Teri rode a tandem bicycle 3,102 miles across the United States in 2020 — and what it taught her about resilience and self-belief
  Why you should never quit on a bad day — and when quitting is actually the right choice
  How to reframe failure as information, not identity
  Why everything you need to succeed is already inside you

About Teri M Brown:

Teri M Brown is a multi-award-winning author, podcast host, and public speaker based on the North Carolina coast. A UNC Greensboro graduate with degrees in Elementary Education and Psychology, she began her writing career creating content for small businesses while homeschooling her four children.

Her published works span an impressive range:

📚 Sunflowers Beneath the Snow (2022) — historical fiction set in Ukraine
📚 An Enemy Like Me (2023) — historical fiction set during WWII
📚 Daughters of Green Mountain Gap (2024) — a generational story about Appalachian healers
📚 The Youngest Lighthouse Keeper (2024) — featured in the anthology Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women
📚 10 Little Rules for a Double-Butted Adventure (Feb 2025) — memoir about life lessons from a cross-country tandem bicycle journey
📚 Little Lola and Her Big Dream (April 2025) — her debut children's book
Her nonfiction work has earned First Runner Up at the Eric Hoffman Book Awards, finalist recognition at the USA Best Books Awards, and an Honorable Mention at Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award. In 2017, after leaving an emotionally abusive marriage, she turned to fiction — and won the First Annual Anita Bloom Ornoff Award for Inspirational Short Story for a piece about her grandfather.

Beyond writing, Teri is a passionate mentor to women and young girls who are working to discover their own worth and potential.

🌐 Learn more: www.terimbrown.com

Episode Chapters:

0:00 – Writing After Survival
1:06 – About Stories and Stanza
1:31 – Meet Teri M Brown
6:17 – Write What You Know — On the Inside
10:35 – The Creative Process & Finding Flow
20:58 – The Tandem Bike Journey: 3,102 Miles of Healing
28:59 – Reframing Failure & Resilience
36:25 – "You're Already Enough"
56:11 – Closing

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About Stories and Stanza:

Stories and Stanza is a podcast exploring creativity, resilience, and the transformative power of human stories. Through two series — Between The Lines (intimate craft conversations with writers and creators) and Fail With Me (unfiltered mental health and wellness discussions) — we bring you authentic voices from around the world.

Follow Us on Social Media:  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/storiesandstanza/   
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/storiesandstanza/   
YouTube @storiesandstanza   
Join Our WhatsApp Channel  https://wa.openinapp.link/wjcwe   
X https://x.com/storiesnstanza

Follow Us on Audio Podcast:
Listen on Spotify https://spotify.openinapp.co/storiesandstanza 
Listen on Apple Podcast https://apple.openinapp.link/u3ui2
Read on Substack https://openinapp.link/ion0e
--------------------

Want to grow on YouTube? Try vidIQ: https://vidiq.com/storiesandstanza 
Want to edit your Podcasts in a breeze? try Descript: https://get.descript.com/stories-and-stanza 
Buy me a coffee https://ko-fi.com/storiesandstanza
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Marissa Germain, who lives in the DC area and whose family ties to Haiti shaped her work and writing. Germaine discusses her debut novel, It’s Always Mango Season, begun in early 2020 during COVID after leaving her job, and inspired by her time working in Haiti and her parents’ immigration story. She explores themes of who gets to claim Haitian identity, the frictions between those who leave and those who stay, and how places and people evolve over time, including diaspora perceptions after decades away. She describes writing a romance between Saskia, returning after career failure, and Paul, who stayed, and uses the Haiti earthquake to examine responsibility, grief, and connection. Germaine reads an excerpt and explains how writing short stories helped her build tension for the novel; she also previews a second book focusing more on Paul and post-disaster Haiti.

Biography:
Originally from Orlando, Florida, Marissa Germain spent her time reading and trying every after-school activity in the catalogue. She has always had a bit of a travel bug which led her into a career dedicated to addressing global poverty.

She’s traveled to Australia, France, England, Afghanistan, Turkey, Chile, Peru, Montserrat West Indies, Dominican Republic, and naturally, Haiti.

She is now growing her work as an independent author and lives in Northern Virginia with her dog.
 
Website: 
https://marissagermain.com/

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In this episode of Stories and Stanza (Fail With Me), the host Abhra speaks with Kendall, a mental health advocate, mom, and author, about reframing failure, the limits of self-help, and the importance of community support. Kendall describes how depression can look different than stereotypes, shares strategies for communicating needs to friends and caregivers (including asking for comfort vs solutions), and discusses diagnosis, stigma, and building person-centered support. She explains her children’s picture book, “Mom’s Cloud and the Beach Adventure,” which uses a cloud metaphor to help kids understand a parent’s depression and emphasizes that “clouds don’t last forever.” Kendall also shares experiences with miscarriage, pregnancy, postpartum challenges, and the need for more honest conversations among mothers, while the host reflects on caregiver support and generational shifts in mental health awareness.

Kendall’s greatest adventures began at home, as a mother. Her stories are inspired by the curiosity, humor, and boundless imagination of her children, who often help shape the characters and moments that appear on the page. Alongside her family, including her husband, Matt, and their dog, Kiaora, she fills her days with laughter, exploration, and just the right amount of playful weirdness. When she’s not creating stories, Kendall can usually be found where the wild things are.

Kendal's Website: https://cloudydaychronicles.org/books/ 

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