As a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and a self-proclaimed queer geek with mental health struggles of my own, I give this book my whole-hearted recommendation. We as humans are wired for story; it's how we connect with ourselves, with each other, and with the world. And yet, for decades - if not centuries - stories have been derided as kid stuff, shunted to the side as we grew up, and play was derided as useless drivel. Yet, we know - as therapists, as helpers, as a people who can now see how stories are neurobiologically part of us - that we need stories. And this book is the perfect marriage of fandom (stories) and therapeutic ideas, packaged in the intersectional and difficult world we're living in.

While many therapists would shy away from the political, Mastin and Garski, both LMFTs, walk straight into it. We live in a political world, where race and gender and global pandemics and climate change ABSOLUTELY affect our mental health, and the health of our society. To disconnect that reality from the therapy space - both in self-help and in actual therapeutic offices - is disingenuous and harmful. This book gives you the tools you need to harness your own inner Luke Skywalker or Picard (or Thor or Black Panther or Hermione, or Frodo, or Link, or any number of other fandom favorites) to tackle life's challenges, from being in relationship (and setting boundaries) to trauma (and posttraumatic growth) to anxiety and depression to grief and loss and so much more. This is done with humor and in small sections, making it digestible and relatable. Each chapter breaks down big concepts and teaches useful tools, and includes a fanfiction of a therapy session to further illustrate those concepts.

What's more, the authors invite you to practice those skills in every chapter - with discussion questions, questions throughout the chapters they encourage you to reflect on, and a yoga or mindfulness/meditation exercise (which, with the purchase of the book, you can access videos of the exercises in addition to the lovely illustrations within the book). These exercises are fresh and fun, new takes on age-old practices, skillfully melding stories that resonate with us to the tools we've known for centuries.

This book is an amazing new look on narrative therapeutic practices, among others, and how to rewrite your life using your favorite characters as guides and inspirations. It encourages you to reconnect with play and creativity in whatever way makes sense for you. It is balanced with serious content and humor, and it doesn't shy away from hard conversations about the world we've inherited and what we can do about it. I already know I'll be using many of these tools in my practice as a mental health professional, and that I'll be encouraging this book to many people, and using the tools myself. Some of these meditations have already worked their way into weekly practices for me and I think they'll be relatable to any lover of stories who picks up this book.