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10 Years of Geek Therapy

2011

Video games? No

As a mental health counseling intern, on June 24th, 2011, Josué Cardona found a Nintendo Wii at the clinic he worked at and asked if he could use it with his clients. His supervisor said no, so Josué went home that night and created a website to collect research and stories of people using Geek culture to help others. The tagline was: Can geeky, nerdy, and techie things help save the world? Absolutely.

2011

2012

Let’s start a Podcast

As Josué kept developing Geek Therapy as a model, he began to reach out to people who did similar work. One of his favorite articles on the Geek Therapy website was about a clinical psychologist named Dr. Patrick O’Connor who developed a model for using comics books in therapy called Comicspedia. Josué met with Patrick and he would eventually be the first guest on the Geek Therapy Podcast. The podcast launched in July 2012 and is still in production today as GT Radio: The Geek Therapy Podcast.

2012

2013

San Diego Comic-Con

Josué and Patrick agreed to talk about their work at conferences and their first proposal was accepted: Comic-Con International in San Diego. They invited two colleagues and two students to join them on the panel and on July 18, 2013, presented Geek Therapy: How Superheroes Empower All of Us to a packed room.

2013

2014

International

In 2014, Josué was invited to present on Geek Therapy in Bogotá, Colombia alongside Patrick O’Connor. Together they presented their models for using comic books in therapy to psychologists from around Colombia. An occupational therapist in the audience named Diana Sepúlveda inspired the application of Geek Therapy in fields beyond mentalh health. Geek Therapy also shared a booth at New York Comic-Con thanks to Dr. Stephen Kuniak who was presenting his work there. We hijacked the booth with a ten-foot banner which was a great conversation starter. Josué was also invited to present Geek Therapy at the Middle East Film and Comic Con in Dubai, and although we tried, we ultimately didn’t have the resources to make it happen.
2014

2015

The GT Network

A few months after recording an episode of the Geek Therapy Podcast with Dr. Kelli Dunlap, Josué and Kelli created a new podcast called PsychTech: The Psychology and Technology Podcast. PsychTech would itself spinoff into Headshots: The Psychology and Technology Podcast, solidifying the Geek Therapy Network as a new platform for informative, meaningful conversations about Geek Therapy and other forms of applied Geek and Gaming culture.
2015

2016

The GT Library

Inspired by Patrick O’Connor’s Comicspedia, Lara Taylor and Josué Cardona decided to create a database that included more mediums, including movies, video games, and music, that was also open-sourced and created by the community. The GT Library launched in 2016 and would go through various iterations. It currently resides within the GT Forum.

2016

2017

Cover Story

Geek Therapy was featured on the June 2017 cover story of Counseling Today Magazine in an article titled Cultured Counseling. This followed a cover story in the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology in 2016. Over the years Geek Therapy and Josué’s work have been covered many mainstream publications including Vice Games, The Mary Sue, TV Guide, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast, Forbes, and The Atlantic.
2017

2018

Resource-Building

The Geek Therapy Network found its stride in 2018 with its first call for proposals, introducing new voices from around the world, including our first Spanish-language blog, adding more than ten new projects. This year marked the creation of the GT Forum as a hub connecting all of our podcasts, blogs, and the GT Library, becoming a repository for all the resources we create.
2018

2019

Expansion

In 2019 Geek Therapy was listed as an affiliated institution in a research article on gamification in community a college setting published in the Journal of Education, marking our first entry into academic research programming. Geek Therapy Books, a publishing program built on a cooperative model that gives authors more ownership when part of a multi-author book, was formed for the launch of the Geek Therapy Playbook (published in early 2020). Geek Therapy’s community spaces saw significant increases in membership and activity, realizing the vision of collaboarative, inclusive online spaces where members of the GT community could support and learn from each other.

2019

2020

Organization

After years of consistent resource-building and education programming, Josué Cardona incorporated Geek Therapy as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 2020. The GT community had enough passionate and dedicated volunteers and content creators for an organization to be born.
2020

2021

Level Up

In collaboration with The Bodhana Group, Geek Therapy produced TAGGS, the first-ever professional conference dedicated exclusively to the applied use of Geek and Gaming culture, bringing together over 70 presenters from around the world, presenting over 80 hours of live presentations, workshops, and games. Geek Therapy is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary as it prepares for the next 10 years.
2021

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