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October 13, 2024

My name is Melissa Elena, I’m 38 years old, and I am a lifelong gamer. Games have had a profound impact on my life, which is why I started a YouTube gaming channel that also revolves around mental health, specifically living with schizophrenia. I’m a huge fan of the Final Fantasy, Nier, and Silent Hill—games series that have taught me important life lessons. My hope is to help those suffering feel like they’re not alone and there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, the way that games have been there for me. I’m not a professional or anyone from an “important” family, I’m just sharing my life and hoping to reach out to others who feel lost...

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October 13, 2024

Marc, a trilingual Jewish Licensed Mental Health Counselor based in Long Island, NY, combines his passion for geek culture with over a decade of counseling experience in various capacities. Through his private practice, Alchemy Counseling, Marc helps fellow geeks struggling with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. A longtime fan of Dungeons & Dragons, Marvel, DC, and Star Wars, Marc creates a welcoming space for nerds to explore their mental health. In addition to counseling, Marc is the author of The Alchemy Approach, a guide for clinicians to effectively intervene with patients experiencing suicidal ideation. He’s currently working on his second book, The Geek's Guide to Contentment, aimed at fellow nerds and geeks to find strategies for attaining and maintaining contentment as well as...

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October 13, 2024

Hi! I’m Ciera, a licensed therapist and the founder of Jasmine Dragon Counseling LLC. I specialize in geek therapy and expressive arts, helping people explore their inner worlds and navigate life’s challenges. Through telehealth, I work with adolescents and adults, using an eclectic approach that blends storytelling, creative process, gaming, parts work, and evidence-based practices like DBT, CBT, narrative therapy, and ACT. I support clients dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, executive functioning issues, and overall functioning difficulties. I’m passionate about merging pop culture, fandom, and mental health, offering a unique approach to therapy that emphasizes creativity and individuality. When I’m not working, you’ll often find me playing Magic the Gathering, crafting intricate tabletop role-playing games, or diving into arts and crafts...

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October 13, 2024

Joleen Blom (Ph.D.) is a university lecturer in the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at the Tampere University Game Research Lab. She researches the commercialization of game characters and their affective roles in games and transmedia monetization models, with a focus on Japanese popular culture. Currently, she is researching parasocial relationships with game characters and their monetization in East Asian gacha games. She is the author of Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling, which has been published by Amsterdam University Press in 2023. She has published in academic journals such as Mechademia, ToDiGRA, and Replaying Japan, and edited collections like Japanese Role-Playing Games (eds. Pelletier-Gagnon and Hutchison, 2022), Modes of Esports Engagement in Overwatch (eds. Ruotsalainen et al., 2022),...

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October 13, 2024

Boonie Sripom is an archetype enthusiast and artist who fell into psychology. She loves the transformational nature of storytelling and celebrating the unique strengths of fellow geeks and gamers. As an archetype lover, she knows how affirming labels of identity can be, but also the power it takes to break free of the limiting expectations these same labels may do to us. As a burnt-out gifted kid, she believes in education as a lifelong tool for growth. She knows how powerful it can be for that one teacher or mentor to say they believe in you. She also believes in acknowledging the highest responsibility it takes to care for and support vulnerable learners and communities. Boonie is a Personal Development Coach...

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October 13, 2024

Adam T. Miller is a PhD candidate in East Asian Studies at University of California, Irvine. His research centers on gender and sexuality in South Korean film, media, and literature. Tying together media, theory, and history, he interrogates the connection between queerness, spectatorship, and government power in modern and contemporary Korea. Other research interests include trauma and memory studies, war, and Korea’s connections to the former Soviet Union....

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October 13, 2024

Mei M. Nan is a PhD candidate in comparative literature at Harvard University. Her research focuses on transnational East Asian literature and media. She has published on Sinophone literature and music in Taiwan and Hong Kong, transnational media industry across the historical Japanese empire, contemporary K-drama, and so on. Her articles have appeared in journals and edited volumes such as Mechademia: Second Arc and Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images. Her research has been recognized by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Japan Foundation, etc....

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September 28, 2024

Sami Mosher is a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona majoring in medieval Japanese religion. Her current research interests are Japanese religious studies, history, and literature, focusing on the twelfth-century Hell Scrolls and the roles of oni (ogres; demons) in Buddhist hell cosmology. Her hobbies include imbibing copious amounts of caffeine, drawing, reading, playing online games with her spouse, and spending time with her three, needy cats. She first became interested in Japanese religion while studying abroad in Japan at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, taking classes in Buddhism and Shinto. Upon receiving her bachelor’s degree at Weber State University, she joined the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program and worked as an English teacher in Shimane Prefecture for two years....

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September 28, 2024

Randy is a Composer, Audio Engineer, Sound Designer, & Game Dev with over a decade in digital audio production working on games from AAA to indie, breathing life into the soundscapes of games you love. You can also hear his work in film, commercial, OSTs, & podcasts. When not writing, producing, composing, or teaching. Randy is an avid gamer, horror & sci-fi lover, music theory geek, & can often be found making epic pizzas or learning about sharks. Website: ScaryGood.Studio Twitter: @JustRandyGreer...

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September 28, 2024

Jef Leeson is a voice actor, audio engineer/producer and musician from Canada. On the heels of his stage experiences in musicals, comedies and dramas, he turned to a music career, traveling the globe and established a studio and boutique record label by his late 20s. Behind the board his work varied from album releases to audio dramas to TV post-production and promo for a wide range of artists. Since the mid twenty-teens he's broadened his clientele to include remote collaborators around the world, voicing roles in games (Spearhead 1944 - GER; the quirky 2D rogue-like Mongrel - NOR), animated films (Absolute Denial - GBR; Western Space Odyssey - USA), various podcasts, audio dramas and audio books. When not voicing one role or...

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