Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Deanna Dellia. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Deanna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

There are many meaningful projects that have been close to my heart, but one of the most significant projects in my life is my most recent project, Speak Easy: The Therapy for Artists podcast. In this podcast, our listeners will be transported into a dark, smoky atmosphere where the bourbon and candid conversations are always flowing. I’ll be combining my clinical knowledge of being a psychotherapist by day with my emotional knowledge of being a tortured artist (and hot mess) by night, while my co-host, Jake Luttrell, will bring both his music production background and quick-witted humor. Together with our guests, we’ll be diving deep into the nitty gritty of what it truly means to be an artist. Each episode will feature a different creative who can share their experience of living with the blessing and the curse that is the artist’s mind. Our goal is to transport listeners to a 1920s underground artist’s utopia where the black sheep are valued, and free thinkers can let their freak flags fly.

The artist’s mind is a concept that has always fascinated me as much as it has tormented me. The artist’s mind is deep, abstract, existential, often dark, sometimes chaotic, and almost always misunderstood. The artist’s mind is a lonely place. It wants to fit in but rejects tradition. It yearns for validation but burns under the spotlight. It senses the pain of others with ease but hides in the shadows from its own. And, it dreams bigger than most minds can comprehend. The artist’s mind is not all bad though; people who are blessed and cursed by this are usually curious, interesting, empathetic creatures with a passion for something extraordinary. Those with artists’ minds think creatively and introspectively. They are innovative, vulnerable, ambitious, and they have the ability to create a world of meaning for themselves and others. At The Speak Easy podcast, we value the black sheep, those who go against the grain, and those who redefine the human experience. We hope to showcase the true beauty that is the artist’s mind.

Each episode, we’ll be “speaking’ easy” to our guests about their upcoming or past projects, influences, abstract concepts, and out of the box topics. We’ll cover it all from embarrassing moments to traumatic childhoods. Nothing is off the table. We will also discuss healing tips and strategies that the listeners can apply to themselves at home. I’m not sure if this is an art podcast from a mental health perspective, or a mental health podcast from an artistic perspective, but I do guarantee that there will be lots of laughs, tears, and strong spirits flowing.

Deanna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Like I said, I’m a psychotherapist by day and an artistic hot mess express by night. The second part has always been a constant. I grew up dancing ballet, singing opera, and performing Shakespeare. I ended up moving on to more modern art forms, but in my small, conservative town in New Jersey, I was quite the black sheep. I had horrible social anxiety and depression but an extreme need for validation that made me want to stand out in a crowd but hide in the bathroom at the same time. I was wildly sensitive and existential, which I think made me seem like a really dark and intense person. Maybe I was, maybe I am – the blessing and the curse of the artist’s mind. Anyway, I really could have used a therapist. I always admired therapists, and although I had always been a natural listener and peacekeeper, becoming a therapist never crossed my mind when I was young. I could blame it on focusing so much on my art, but truthfully, I didn’t believe I was capable of doing something that amazing. I should have known it was my destiny to be a therapist considering how obsessed I was with the movie Girl Interrupted, but I guess I always thought that if I ended up at a mental health institution, I’d be the one locked in the padded cell, not the doctor holding the key. After all, we are just the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

Skip to college, me writing dark screenplays in dorm room and taking whatever D-list acting/modeling gigs I could get, I decided I needed more meaning in my life. This translated to me somehow finding myself teaching middle school English full-time in the Bronx at 22-years-old with no master’s degree. It was the most stressed and the most happy I had ever been. I don’t know how good of a teacher I was, I’m pretty soft, but I knew that I was damn good at actively listening to and helping kids with their problems. It was at that job that I realized I needed to become a therapist. So, I went to grad school, interned at a private practice, and there I found myself sitting in the therapist’s chair, helping teens that were feeling all the feelings that I felt at their age, and now I was the one helping them heal. I can honestly say that there is no greater joy than becoming the person you needed growing up. I can also honestly say that there is no art like the art of connecting so deeply with another human and having the honor of being inviting into their beautiful mind.

I’m now working here in Nashville as a therapist, specializing in trauma, and experimenting with different types of art therapy. I acquired a following on TikTok for sharing abstract therapeutic interventions that I created, these are essentially self-help strategies that people can apply to themselves at home. My TikTok is TherapyForArtists. It’s not a replacement for real face to face therapy, but it’s my way of helping to make mental health care accessible to everyone, especially those who cannot or will not go to formal therapy. I’ve recently been giving presentations speaking on various mental health topics around Nashville. The long-term plan is to get my Ph.D., lead research projects, become a clinical psychologist, and expand my psychotherapeutic teachings world-wide.

I’m also a singer. I record covers with my better half and some musicians in our circle. We release the covers every Sunday on our YouTube channel, we call them Sunday sessions. I’m looking forward to recording some original music this year. I’m a writer, I have some poetry that has been published, and I’m currently writing a fiction book with a mental health element, so fingers crossed on that one! Really, I just love any type of art. I cook, I paint, I dance, and I love with all my heart.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When I was younger and wanted to be an actress in L.A., I used to tell people that my reasoning for wanting to pursue that career was because I wanted the opportunity to make people feel. That’s what the actors in our favorite shows and movies do, right? They make us laugh and they make us cry by showing us raw emotions that we can relate to. Well, turns out I don’t like L.A. or acting, but my main objective for pursuing the arts has remained the same, I want the opportunity to make people feel. It’s not easy for most of us to feel because the second we do feel something less than positive, we immediately judge and invalidate ourselves for it. There is a learned internalized belief instilled in us when we’re young that if we feel deeply and wholly in public, we are weak. We are told to just “think positive” as if no one has ever thought of that before. Instead of feeling our feelings and radically accepting where we are at, we are bombarded with toxic positivity and gratitude. We tell ourselves that we can’t feel sad about our situations because someone has it worse, as if that’s not the same thing as saying that we can’t be happy for ourselves because someone has it better. Someone will always have it better, and someone will always have it worse than you, it’s not relevant, yet we use this concept as just another way to invalidate ourselves. We are allowed to feel. You gotta feel in order to heal, and if there is strength in healing then there is strength in feeling. That is easily my favorite thing about art, that it makes us feel; it touches us deeply and inspires us madly. Art can help us express emotions like anger, sadness, loneliness, grief, and extricate it from our bodies so that we don’t spend decades living with pent up pain. Art can help us relate to one another and help us humanize each other in a way that makes us feel less alone. Most importantly, art makes us feel, which prompts us to deal, which helps us heal.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Something that I’ve had to unlearn is the notion that we all fit into certain boxes, and all of us have our one thing that we’re good at and we pursue. I’ve always had a lot of interests, and I was made to feel like that was wrong, like I should just pick one passion and stick to it. It’s a really 2-dimensional way of thinking, like we are all just archetypes of our chosen careers or hobbies. I personally think that it’s better to have many interests and be decent at all of those things rather than being absolutely amazing at one thing. One thing can almost always be taken away from you, and what are you left with? It’s like putting all of your eggs in one basket, it’s great until the Easter bunny gets wasted and runs off with it. I’m all about creating meaning in a lot of different places. Because I don’t believe life is about finding your one purpose and working to fulfill some amazing prophecy. I believe life is about meaning, what matters the most to you and what brings you the most joy.

It’s never easy to unlearn what you have been taught though. I still have to be mindful not to judge myself just because one day I feel more passionate about being a therapist, then the next day I feel more passionate about being a singer. It’s okay if your focus waivers sometimes, I think it’s just our minds and bodies telling us what will feed our souls that day.

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktr.ee/TherapyforArtists
• Instagram: Instagram.com/deannadellia
• Youtube: YouTube.com/jakeanddeanna
• Other: Instagram.com/TherapyforArtists TikTok.com/TherapyforArtists