For my postdoctorate training I was fortunate enough to be working with active duty Marines with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These incredible, courageous men and women have seen and experienced the kind of atrocities I could never imagine. And most would feel a deep sense of shame about having developed PTSD. Many of them believed themselves to be "weak" and "broken" as a result of struggling with it. And most would tell me:

I wanted to be Superman. I failed.

It would break my heart every time I heard it. Not knowing how the session would go, I tried incorporating examples for pop culture into cognitive processing therapy (CPT). CPT is the gold standard treatment for PTSD, which teaches clients to change their unhelpful thoughts about the trauma and related events, and teaches the client to process the trauma in a more helpful way.
My first step was to try to understand my client's stuck points (thoughts that keep him or her stuck in the trauma). Most stuck points were, "It's my fault that this tragedy occurred." "I should have done something differently." "I am not a hero. I am a failure."
In order to address these stuck points, I would first try to get more information from my clients to try to understand what made them think this way. So, for those who stated that they wanted to be Superman but failed, I would ask,

Tell me about Superman. What is he like? Does he have any vulnerabilities?

From there, we would draw parallels between Superheroes, like Superman, Batman, the X-Men, as well as other fictional characters, such as the survivors from the "Walking Dead," "Star Wars," and "Harry Potter" and the clients' own lives. We specifically focused on changing the clients' thoughts to make them more adaptive. For example, "I lived through a number of traumas and I may be struggling but I can still be a hero to myself and to the people I care about."
And from that, Superhero Therapy was born. The goal of it is to teach clients to become their own versions of a superhero, whether it is by learning to manage our own anxiety, depression, trauma, or addiction. The goal is to learn that underneath the mask and cape, all superheroes are afraid, all superheroes struggle, and that all of these features only help them to be better heroes.


Just like you.


Most of my clients would tell me that Superman is an amazing Superhero with great powers but that he is vulnerable to Kryptonite.
The second step was then to challenge my client's thinking. So, I would ask,"

Does Superman being vulnerable to Kryptonite make him any less of a Superhero?

All of my clients would always say "No. Of course not."
And then I would see it. The lightbulb would come on and most would then smile, "I see what you're getting at, Doc."