It’s Not Therapy! with Liana Kerzner

Narcissism is a word that has broken containment; people mistakenly believe it's simply an inflated ego rather than a specific mental health disorder requiring diagnosis by a licensed medical health practitioner. In other words, it's often misunderstood. But what happens when narcissism is also misunderstood by some mental health practitioners? Mental health educator Ross Rosenberg M. Ed, of Selfl...

We all have tasks or projects that we know we need to do, even want to do, but we don't, we don't even get started. Is it fear of failure? Fear of success? Fear of change? A mixture of fears? And how do we get past our hesitations and get going? Good questions, and Liana's returning guest, Steven Puri of thesukha.co, has some answers!

Social media and cell phone bans for children under 16 are a common topic among many world governments, including Canada's. But what if the device isn't the problem, but a symptom masking the problem? Child mental health therapist Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge joins Liana to talk about the less-discussed social, emotional and mental health issues that may fuel a child's phone habits... and those of ad...

Recent studies have shown that the loneliness epidemic has been furthered by a lack of meeting spaces in the real world, notably low-pressure gatherings... and what's more low-pressure than a garage sale?? Liana talks with Danielle Cohen, organizer of the Georgina-Wide Garage Sale Day (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1584575116580127/), about the need to create opportunities for people to interact...

We talk about the journey of identity and self image, but that becomes an even bigger struggle when you’re a professional singer, touring with some of the biggest bands in the world, including Pink Floyd, Sting, Foreigner, and Pat Benatar! Japanese American singer and author Machan Taylor talks to Liana about these challenges and her new book Naked Out Loud: From Yokohama to Pink Floyd and Beyond

Many of us were told in childhood not to talk to strangers. Good advice at the time. But today, one of the foundations of the loneliness epidemic is people not knowing how to talk to strangers, or very afraid of trying. Liana lived with these experiences and so did her guest, Geoffrey Huck (courageous-communication.com), who shares how he 'flipped his extrovert switch' and turned his fear of speak...

Many of us have been in a relationship with someone who is wrong for us. This is especially true of people who are 'givers' that find themselves attracted to 'takers'...sometimes repeatedly. Ross Rosenberg (selfloverecovery.com) is an author and expert on codependency and trauma - such an expert that he believes the term 'codependency' is a misnomer and has instead coined the term Self-Love Defici...

Stigma involves applying negative stereotypes to people who are ill, have certain physical characteristics or other perceived 'deficiencies,' which leads to discrimination and exclusion, sometimes with harrowing results. Typically, these stigma are inflicted by the judgment of others - but some are also self-inflicted. Liana shares steps people can take to free themselves from the pain of their in...

For most people, being diagnosed with stage four colon cancer represents the end of their life's journey, but for Tim McDonald it was the beginning of a new path. Tim, a stage four colorectal cancer survivor and liver transplant recipient, talks to Liana about how he turned his struggle with his health crises into a renewed purpose as a patient advocate, speaker, host of the "Advocacy at Work"podc...

Where's the line between "bad people" and "good people who do bad things"? Using characters from the Amazon Prime series The Boys as examples, Kerzner examines how intent, mental health, and behavior intersect to define true "bad person" territory.

No, this episode isn't about politics, but the recent social media tirade from US President Trump threatening to militarily destroy Iran and its people, expressed in vulgar language, is a prime example of how behaviour once considered unfit for public display has now become normalized. Not only normalized, but held up as examples of strength, honesty and courage. Liana takes apart this troubling t...

"Disabled" works just fine for Todd Vaarwerk: Chief Policy Officer for West New York Independent Living, he's more interested in results. Todd uses a wheelchair due to the effects of cerebral palsy, so nobody is better at separating efforts which are useful support for disabled people from the 'well-meaning but useless' or counter-productive steps taken. And he does it with a rich sense of humour...

Duty of Care means ensuring that you take reasonable steps to provide a safe environment for others. It's a simple definition for a complex practice that takes on many different forms in different situations. Liana shares personal stories to reveal how that care can be applied - and misapplied -in ways that can make a situation less safe and supportive than you intend. Ultimately, a reasonable dut...

The unfortunate occurrence at the BAFTA Awards, where an attendee who has Tourette's Syndrome shouted racial epithets at two Black award presenters (and the way BAFTA chose to handle that), has given prominence to the question of 'reasonable accommodation' of people with disabilities. Liana speaks with LJ, a brilliant scientist whose disability has deterred potential employers, about what he sees...

Most of us try to be friendly, kind, supportive people. Yet all those things could be true and you still, inadvertently, say something that makes you look like a a*hole, and you don't even know why! Liana takes us through a journey of ways you may unintentionally be acting like an a*hole.

As a member of the Girls Gone Wild tour of the late 1990s Courtney Kocak had a front-row seat to the "good, clean fun" which that media was marketed as. Courtney also felt the impact of sexualized media, how it affected her self-image and sense of healthy femininity. Courtney, author of the forthcoming autobiography Girl Gone Wild, (https://www.courtneykocak.com/links) shares with Liana her experi...

Many people fear that A.I. represent the end of our world as we know it. Liana sees A.I. for what it is - a tool that can be used for good or ill - and she relates her experiments with A.I. as a means of bettering our lives. Helping with "adulting"? Good. Helping to visualize emotions? Good. Replacing human connection with chatbots? Bad. While AI doesn't "think" or "feel," it can help take the ter...

A.I. Artificial Intelligence. It's definitely the former and not the latter. What's being called "intelligence" does not actually think and the information and advice it offers can be not just wrong, but dangerous. Liana deconstructs how "AI" operates, shares the red flags to be aware of and how to reclaim your thoughts that AI has polluted.

Confidence is about self-assuredness, self-acceptance and the strength to be flexible when facing challenges. What's being packaged as 'Confidence' in some quarters is the opposite - fear presented as bluster, extreme need for external validation and fragility projected as 'strength'. Liana lays out her personal journey for learning the difference between the two versions of confidence and how to...

While the overwhelming majority of mental health professionals listen closely to their patients and work diligently to provide the best in care, there are some whose attempts at healing lead to misdiagnosis with serious adverse effects. Liana talks to Benton Savage, author of the book "Wrong Side Out - Madness Misdiagnosed" about his experience with his mental illness being misdiagnosed, how such...

If there's one thing you can find an endless free supply of, it's advice. Sometimes, that's a good thing. Other times, not as much. But how can you tell the good advice from the bad? And how do you know if the advice you're giving will help or hurt? Liana takes you through her 9 types of bad advice, in her first list of 2026!

Gossip can be Educational! What can a gossipy celebrity moms' feud teach us all about the danger of throwing shade, the real pain of ostracism, toxic group dynamics and why husbands shouldn't immediately jump to publicly defend their wife? Liana ties the Ashley Tisdale/Hillary Duff/Mr. Hillary Duff/Mandy Moore blow-up to some darkly funny personal family experiences to illustrate all the above, an...

Resentment is the feeling of having been wronged — by a person, a group, or a situation — and it often spins off into anger, bitterness, and indignation. Those emotions can quietly weigh us down, draining energy while doing nothing to heal what hurts. In this episode of It’s Not Therapy, Liana Kerzner opens up about her own personal history and struggles with resentment. With her signature blend o...

In December 2016, Soleiman “Soli” Faqiri, a young man with schizoaffective disorder, was killed by jail guards in an Ontario correctional facility, despite a judge’s order for his transfer to a proper hospital. Bound, restrained with a spit hood, and suffering over 50 injuries, Soli’s death was ruled a homicide. A government inquiry later revealed serious procedural violations and issued recommend...

Meep Meep. Run. What can Wile E. Coyote's nemesis the Road Runner tell us about gaining greater control over our lives? A lot! And so can Steven Puri of thesukha.co, an expert in helping people create order from the chaos of daily living. What's your chronotype? Why are you tying yourself in knots to meet the expectations of others? Liana talks to Steven about all of this and more, with simple ste...