Did you ever wish you could have superpowers like Superman, magical abilities like the characters in Harry Potter, or that you could be connected with the Force like the Jedi of Star Wars?

Me too.

My love for geeky things, such as fantasy books, movies, and TV shows, did a lot more than provide me entertainment—it helped me recover from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cope with loneliness during my adolescence. I was born and raised in Ukraine, and just a few months shy of my third birthday, my family and I were all exposed to Chernobyl radiation. As a result, my health seems to be forever affected in many different ways, including that I still get severe migraines that appear to be triggered by changes in the weather.

After moving to the United States at the age of 12, I struggled for years with symptoms of PTSD (I wasn’t formally diagnosed until I was 24) and believed myself to be weak and broken. I considered myself a freak. But these feelings changed when I saw the first X-Men movie. The character Storm especially caught my attention—she could control the weather. When I watched the X-Men, I saw some of myself on the screen. I felt an odd sense of belonging, and I reframed what I perceived as flaws or weaknesses as my own little superpowers. I began to feel like I wasn’t just a victim of my circumstances.

Obviously I didn’t connect all of these dots at such a young age. My family, and later my therapist, helped me understand this. But as I grew up I began to recognize just how much solace I found in connecting with fantasy characters and how they positively impacted my mental health. Fast forward 15 years later, and I became a clinical psychologist because I wanted to help people in the same way as the X-Men helped me.

I started incorporating superheroes and other pop culture characters and examples into evidence-based therapy to help my clients to become superheroes in real life.

This practice is called superhero therapy. The concept behind it isn't brand new, and I know of other clinical psychologists who incorporate superheroes or comics into counseling. But my practice involves using pop-culture elements—such as traditional superhero stories, or examples from Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Walking Dead, Doctor Who, and other fandoms—into evidence-based therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Superhero therapy seeks to help people like Bruce Wayne, only in real life—people who have experienced a devastating loss, or a traumatic experience, who struggle with debilitating depression or overwhelming anxiety to help define and understand their own origin stories. (In general, superhero therapy can be utilized for anyone ages 10 and up, although some professionals implement some of these techniques with younger children.)

A lot of people don’t have an easy time identifying their own thoughts and emotions, in part because they might be painful to face, or they’ve just never really taken the time to think about and process them. Another one of the main reasons this approach is helpful is because most of us tend to feel isolated when we are struggling with a loss or a physical or psychological illness.

Worse, we tend to criticize and shame ourselves for feeling bad. And when we are in greatest need of compassion and social support, we often alienate ourselves from others. As a result, we exacerbate our own sense of loneliness and depression and further draw out our suffering.