Episode 271

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Published on:

4th Nov 2026

Episode 271: Geek Therapy: Healing Through Fandoms and Special Interests [featuring Ariel Landrum]

What changes in therapy when we take our clients' fandoms and special interests as seriously as the rest of their lived experiences?

Patrick Casale sits down with Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Art Therapist, and Geek Therapy educator Ariel Landrum to explore how fandoms, gaming, and special interests can create meaningful connections in therapy.

From Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones to challenging traditional ideas of professionalism, they discuss the importance of authenticity, cultural understanding, and meeting clients in the worlds that matter to them.

3 Key Takeaways:

  1. Special interests can open the door to deeper conversations. Fandoms, fictional characters, and shared interests can help people explore emotions, relationships, identity, and difficult experiences.
  2. Authenticity can make therapy more accessible. Rigid expectations of professionalism may create unnecessary barriers to trust, connection, and self-expression.
  3. Therapists need to understand what matters to their clients. Geek culture and other personal interests deserve the same curiosity, respect, and cultural humility as any other meaningful part of someone's identity.

More about Ariel:

Ariel Landrum is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Art Therapist, Geek Therapy Certified, and PsyD student based in Los Angeles. She is the founder and Clinical Director of Guidance Teletherapy, where she provides affirming, culturally humble telehealth services for adults, and she specializes in trauma-informed, creative, and geek-informed care. Ariel is also a speaker, educator, and board member with the nonprofit Geek Therapy and a co-lead of the Great Los Angeles Chapter of Therapin*y, a nonprofit directory and community space for Filipino healers.

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Mentioned in this episode:

NeuroPreneur Circle Community

NeuroPreneur Circle is an online community built by and for neurodivergent entrepreneurs who want a supportive space to build a business, a space where they can show up as themselves and in whatever way feels most comfortable. NeuroPreneur Circle exists because community built on masking isn't really community. And business advice built for neurotypical brains isn't actually useful to us, no matter how many times we try to make it fit. Whatever your neurotype, whatever you're building, there's a space here for you. You've been creating alone long enough. Visit: https://atppod.com/community

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About the Podcast

The Neurodivergent Entrepreneur
Honest conversations about building a business while Neurodivergent, the self-doubt, the chaos, and everything in between.
The Neurodivergent Entrepreneur is a podcast for ADHD, Autistic, and all other neurodivergent entrepreneurs who are building businesses, creative work, and lives that actually fit how their brains work. Hosted by Patrick Casale, LCMHC, this show is for people who
want to create meaningful work, create outside of the box, grow their impact, and build something sustainable without losing themselves in the process.

Being a neurodivergent entrepreneur can feel like holding a lot of contradictions at once. You may have big ideas, deep passion, creative energy, and a strong desire to do things differently. You may also be navigating burnout, masking, self-doubt, perfectionism, rejection sensitivity, executive dysfunction, inconsistent energy, and the pressure to keep showing up when your capacity is already stretched. This podcast speaks to that reality honestly, because building a business around your brain, your values, and your lived experience can be powerful, complicated, messy, and deeply personal.

Patrick Casale is a chronically ill, AuDHD, mental health therapist, entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, event host, group practice owner, and neurodivergent business owner who has built, grown, burned out, pivoted, and kept going. His work brings together clinical insight, lived experience, business perspective, and real conversation about what it actually takes to create something that feels values aligned. His conversations are direct, compassionate, unfiltered, and practical, with room for both the emotional reality of entrepreneurship and the concrete decisions that shape a sustainable business.

New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature honest conversations with neurodivergent entrepreneurs, creators, therapists, business owners, and leaders. Together, Patrick and his guests explore entrepreneurship, identity, mental health, chronic health,
creativity, leadership, systems, money mindset, visibility, community, sustainable growth, and the behind-the-scenes reality of creating work that matters.

Build your dream business. Protect your capacity. Work with your brain instead of against it.