The Characterist

Join Dr. Diana Naranjo and author Bianca Marais bringing Queenie of the Witches of Moonshyne Manor to therapy. As far back as Queenie can remember, she's felt like she's had to keep it all together for everyone's sake. But when her inability to ask for help or admit when she's been wrong threatens her coven's livelihood and home, she's forced to come to therapy and see if there is another way. This episode is for self-appointed control freaks everywhere...can you let go in order to let others in, and will that help you to experience real connection and love? Listen as Queenie grapples with these questions.

Bianca Marais is the author of the bestselling The Witches of Moonshyne Manor, as well as the beloved Hum If You Don't Know the Words and If You Want to Make God Laugh, and the Audible Original, The Prynne Viper. 

She taught at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies where she was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing. She’s the co-host of the popular podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers become published. 

Her forthcoming novel, A Most Puzzling Murder, will be out in April 2025.

and https://www.biancamarais.com/

Join Dr. Diana Naranjo and author Seema Yasmin who brings Laylah to therapy. In a not-too-distant America, abortions are prosecuted and the right to choose is no longer an option. But best friends Laylah and Noor want to change the world. After graduating high school, they’ll become an OBGYN and a journalist, but in the meantime, they’re working on an illegal guide to abortion in Texas. But all of that is put in jeopardy when Laylah finds herself in the same situation that she has been fighting to protect. Fearing judgment and worse, she hides her situation from everyone, including her best friend. In session, we try to help Laylah find self-compassion for her own mistakes, and in turn, hopefully help her to be an even more empathetic physician in the future.

Follow her on insta: drseemayasmin

https://seemayasmin.com/

Join Dr. Diana Naranjo and author Kirthana Ramisetti in bringing Dava and her intricate family drama to therapy with secret adoptions, affairs, and faked obituaries. We follow her youngest daughter and her struggles with the power dynamics within the family. Set six months after the novel Dava Shastri's Last Day, we unpack how our parent's expectations for themselves influence their expectations of their children and the weight of that. In therapy, we talk about how to reconcile this pain after the loss of a loved one, with so much left unsaid.

You can find her at:

Website: kirthanaramisetti.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kirthanaramisetti

Newsletter: freehappiness.substack.com

Join Dr. Diana Naranjo and author Helly Teller bringing Greta in for therapy. She's struggling with anxiety that manifests in various ways, but the one that is most pressing, is when her boyfriend is traveling for work (as a musician on the road) she is all consumed by a fear he will get into a car accident. Using Acceptance and Committment Therapy strategies, we bring her on a metaphorical bus, which is her life, and help her figure out where she's headed, while letting go of the tug-of-war with the pesky passengers (emotions/feelings) that are constantly trying to distract her.

Helly Teller is a lifelong artist and reader. She is currently seeking representation for her  upmarket romcom, The Twenty-Seven Club, which she started writing during her first Midwest winter. 
In her free time, she can be found serving as an extra couch cushion to her two spoiled dogs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
Helly is a member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association. She recently workshopped her manuscript at the Yale Writers' Workshop.

Instagram: @hellytellerwrites 

Tiktok: @hellytellerwrites

Substack: http://hellytellerwrites.substack.com 

Website: http://www.hellytellerwrites.com 

Join Dr. Diana Naranjo and author Jackie Jones Clowney bringing Harry, a trapeze artist in Paris in the 70s to therapy. He's a gay man who struggles with navigating trauma and loss through maladaptive coping strategies like drug abuse and isolating himself from everyone he loves. When life begins to mirror the tightrope walk, he knows he has a problem. Using Acceptance and Committment Therapy strategies, we take a look at the successful and unsuccessful ways he tries to cope.

Jackie Jones Clowney is 56 years old and lives with the ghost of her dead husband, her new boyfriend, and a rescue dog named Menphis in Santa Fe, NM. She was born and raised in the South and writes mainly Southern historical fiction. She has a B.A. in Medieval and Renaissance Literature from the University of Memphis, an M.A. in Liberal Arts/Philosophy from St. John’s College, and an M.F.A. In Creative Writing from the Mississippi University for Women where she served for three years as both a student and alumni editor for their literary journal, Ponder Review. She was selected to attend The New School’s Intensive Writing Program in Paris this summer. She is currently completing her first novel, Coldwater. 

Join Dr. Diana Naranjo and author Naomi Kanakia who brings her character Jhanvi to therapy. Years after fleeing San Francisco and getting sober, Jhanvi has made a life for herself working at a grocery co-op and saving for her surgeries. But when her friend (and sometimes more) Henry mentions that he and his techie festival-goer friends spent $100,000 to transform a warehouse basement into a sex dungeon, Jhanvi starts wondering if there’s a way to exploit these gullible idiots. She returns to San Francisco, hatching a plan to marry Henry for his company’s generous healthcare benefits.

Jhanvi enters a world of beautiful, decadent fire-eaters and their lavish sex parties. But as her pretensions to cynicism and control start to fade, she develops a Gatsbyesque attraction to these happy young people and their bold claims of unconditional love. But do any of her privileged new friends really like or accept her? Her financial needs expose the limits of a community built on limitless self-expression, and soon she has to choose between doing what’s right, and doing what’s right for her.

Follow Dr. Naranjo on insta @dnaranjo or

NAOMI KANAKIA is the author of three YA novels and a nonfic- tion book, What’s So Great about Great Books (forthcoming from Princeton University Press). Her stories, poetry, and essays have been published in American Short Fiction, Asimov’s, Gulf Coast, and others. She has an MFA from Johns Hopkins and was an Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow at Lambda Literary’s 2015 Writers Retreat. She lives in San Francisco with her wife and daughter. 

You can find her @NaomiKanakia on Instagram NaomiKanakia on Twitter, and her substack / main website is www.woman-of-letters.com

You can find The Default World here: https://www.amazon.com/Default-World-Naomi-Kanakia/dp/1558613161 or here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-default-world-naomi-kanakia/1143836271 or better yet, ask your local book store and library to order it.

Thanks to Aaron Walz for the jingle. For

Disclaimer: This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered medical or psychological advice.  While the therapy strategies and techniques are