Bat Therapy: Mental Health through the Lens of Comics and Film

How do you define ‘personality’? And how do you find ways to measure personality traits? We use the live-action movie portrayals of Bruce Wayne to talk about the Big Five: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Negative Emotionality / Neuroticism, and Open-Mindedness. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/big-5-personality-traits https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-stra...

We compare the live action film portrayals of Bruce Wayne. Which younger version of Bruce Wayne do we think led to Ben Affleck’s? Whose Bruce Wayne is more of a façade? What makes some Bruce Waynes more likely to quit being the Batman? We answer these questions and more!

It’s been a long day. You just want to enjoy dinner with the family, but Dash and Violet will not stop bickering. You may have superpowers, but they don’t include super-patience. You use mindfulness to cope with the chaos.

We use The Incredibles to explore ways that having the job of a first responder (EMS, firefighter, police, superheroes, etc.) can affect family life. Read More: “This is it…this is our normal” - the voices of family members and first responders experiencing duty-related trauma in Ireland - ScienceDirect

When a superhero is forced to retire, how can they still have meaning and purpose in life? With Elastigirl, we talk about how she puts her efforts into raising super-powered children. We compare Mr. Incredible’s struggle to the transition from being in the military or retiring as a professional athlete.

Time for a new season! Find out what we have planned, talking about alter egos and the everyday people behind the superhero masks.

Hello Bat Therapy Fans! While we prepare for Season 6, we cut some behind the scenes for you to listen to while you wait. This is from a conversation before we recorded episode 23: Fat Thor. Ironically, it's about Wonder Woman... not Thor... See you for Season 6, No Capes!

Hello Bat Therapy Fans! While we prepare for Season 6, we cut some behind the scenes for you to listen to while you wait. This is from a conversation before we recorded episode 10: Bruce Wayne. See you for Season 6, No Capes!

We talk about our season highlights from Season 5: Heroes in Training.

You have done your best on your own, but even superheroes need help sometimes. You finally decide to reach out for mental health treatment. Still, when you start to try and schedule the appointment it brings on some overwhelming thoughts and feelings. So you pause and use the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Grounding Technique to help you

We explore some big barriers to mental health treatment that superheroes are likely to experience, such as finding the time, confidentiality and building trust, and being willing to be vulnerable.

A lot of thoughts and feelings can happen when going into a therapy session. We practice being Batman while he waits in the waiting room before his first therapy session, using mindfulness to prepare for what comes next.

Even the most capable of superheroes need someone to talk to from time to time. We talk about what Batman might want to talk about during therapy and what theoretical orientations and therapeutic styles he would find most helpful in his therapist.

Rejection. And it’s from one of your oldest and dearest friends, granted, this friend is a hammer…but still. You have been trying to figure out who you are after people were brought back from “the snap”. You are Thor but you have decided not to be a ruler, so who are you? When you see Mjølnir in battle, you feel relief. Until Mjølnir is almost within reach and Mighty Thor calls the hammer back.

You’re a warrior god over 1,500 years old, but when the losses start, they don’t seem to stop. You retreat into yourself, drinking and playing videogames to escape any chance of losing something or someone else. Some people reach out to support you, but most make jokes and fat shame you, not seeing the depression. In honor of mental health awareness month, we talk about Thor’s struggles and what m...

Batman, superheroes, comics, nerd content… and mental health? After two years of Bat Therapy, we talk about how the podcast got started and why we love doing this thing. (We also couldn’t resist talking about why we love Batman so much.)

You’re Scott Summers, teenage mutant with uncontrollable energy beams that shoot out of your eyes – life is bound to get complicated. Here you are, at school, surrounded by a bunch of non-mutants, and your protective glasses have fallen off. You aren’t sure what you hit with your energy beams and you don’t know what anyone saw, because you have closed your eyes to avoid doing further damage. As yo...

This show has major nostalgia for us. We talk about how the X-Men going to high school with people who do not have the x-gene could have similar benefits to the concept of community inclusion. And listen in as Emilia and Keeden decide if Professor Xavier is a bit too much like Dumbledore in his approach to supporting teenage mutants.

It is finally time to make this real. You have the right outfit, the right equipment. You open the box and see your new combat boots. They are perfect. You take your time, enjoying the feelings of excitement, power, and (a tiny bit of) fear that they bring you.

We love how Babs comes onto the scene – she is unapologetically herself, just looking for a way to help the city she loves without caring what Batman or her father, Commissioner Gordon, has to say about it. Emilia ends up connecting with Batgirl more than she expected. We also talk about how this comic, much like Cognitive Processing Therapy, explores the complexities of trusting someone.

Finally. You have left the sewer, and the people of New York City can learn to love you and your teenage mutant ninja turtle brothers. And the timing is perfect because you are protecting them from Super Fly! But then you find out that they think you are a monster, attacking the city with Super Fly. There is a lot you are feeling in this moment – it is the perfect time for some mindfulness.

When you’re a teenager, it is only natural to care about what other people think – you want to fit in and find your people. This is especially true if you happen to be a mutant ninja turtle going through puberty. But what do you do when you care so much about being liked that you end up getting in your own way?

You are Cassandra Cain and, after escaping your father, you are living in a Gotham library. You never learned to speak, so you communicate with people through their body language. It speaks to you. You take a moment away from worrying about your father’s assassins to sit and watch the people in the library so that you can connect with them through their body language, their facial expressions, and...

Cassandra Cain doesn’t have many storylines of her own, but she is a very compelling character in the Bat Family. Raised to kill instead of to speak, she has a quirky way to life that you can’t help but love and respect. We talk about Cassandra’s unique communication style and how, like Barbara Gordon, a therapist would try to adjust their approach in order to meet Cassandra where she is at.

Remus Lupin misses the simpler times before he was a werewolf and when all the Marauders were alive. He uses the Memory Extraction spell to immerse himself in a memory from being in school with his friends. He looks into the Pensieve and allows himself to fully experience what that time was like, noticing how it feels to cherish and to mourn those memories.