The Character's Toolkit
The Character's Toolkit
Podcast Description
In every episode, therapist (and reader!) Marisa Gelfand chats with novelists and therapists to explore the mental health struggles of fictional characters.
Characters don’t have access to a therapist’s insights, but you do, and you walk away with the skills.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on mental health themes as they relate to fictional characters, with episodes covering topics like coercive relationships, mental filtering, and sports performance anxiety. For example, episodes dive into the nuances of controlling relationships with insights from experts, explore cognitive distortions, and examine the psychological challenges faced by athletes.

In every episode, therapist (and reader!) Marisa Gelfand chats with novelists and therapists to explore the mental health struggles of fictional characters.
Think, bibliotherapy: mental health with a literary twist.
Characters in books and literature don’t have access to a therapist’s insights, but you do, and you walk away with the skills.
Marisa chats with The Favorites author Layne Fargo and therapist Kaleigh Cornelison for a deep dive into adolescence, attachment, ambition, and identity. Together they explore what happens when young love becomes all-consuming, how trauma and attachment shape relationships, why growing up can feel so destabilizing, what it truly means to become your own person, inside and outside of love, and ways parents can help navigate this path.
Want more? Follow @TheCharactersToolkit on Instagram!
The Character’s Toolkit is a bibliotherapy-based mental health podcast where novels and fictional characters are used to explore therapy concepts and coping skills.

Disclaimer
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