hey from Liana 🙋🏾♀️
This newsletter is a new endeavor that we have been hard at work on for some time.
We’re super excited about Liana’s chapter, Interracial Relationships: How Antiblackness Informs Kinship and Therapist Responsibility, in a very necessary textbook by Norman Kim:
Liana Maneese, LPC
Founder and Clinical Director of TC
Table of Contents
First article about TC!! And you can vote TC in Best Health Advocacy Group
Our First Feature AND First Nomination: Pittsburgh City Paper ✨
So this happened… 👀
We’re honored that Pittsburgh City Paper recently featured our practice, our team, and our community in a piece that really gets what we’re doing here — building a different kind of therapy practice.
One that feels less like an office and more like home. One where joy, grief, and healing can all sit on the same couch.
The article also gave us an opportunity to share what makes Transitional Characters different. We are proud to be the first liberation psychology group practice in Pittsburgh.
Read the article here!
We’re also officially nominated for Best Health Advocacy Group (in Business & Services) and — plot twist — our fearless founder, Liana Maneese, is nominated for Best BIPOC Entrepreneur (in People & Places).
Vote for TC here!
Vote for Liana here!
(also feel free to vote for Best Bar Bathroom since it’s the first topic on the page lol)
It’s wild to think we’re barely a year in and already showing up in these community conversations. If TC has meant something to you, or your people, please take a minute (or a few — you can vote more than once 👀) to get those votes in.
🗳️ Voting Ends August 22 @ 11:59 PM
We’re deeply grateful for every single nomination and share.
Y’all are the reason this work matters.
We Made the Front Page of Next Pittsburgh 💛
We don’t take it lightly when someone tells our story with care. And this week? TC landed on the front page of Next Pittsburgh thanks to none other than local legend Tony Norman (with photos by the brilliant Rob Larson).
Tony didn’t just write about us — he saw us. The visit was nourishing, affirming, and reminded us why we do this work: to create the kind of community that often gets overlooked in the mental health world.
Please take a moment to read, share, and sit with the piece:
And if you’ve been wondering what it feels like to work at a practice that centers liberation (not assimilation)… keep scrolling 👇🏾
also this is not the Liana show just bc of all the articles with my face lol it’s very uncomfortable… TC is what it is because OUR TEAM IS AMAZING!
So please:
Welcome Montia to TC!
Montia is a powerhouse of knowledge, compassion, and lived experience, dedicated to walking alongside people during some of life’s most transformative moments. She’s also an expert in pretty much every aspect of birth work
Her mission is clear: to provide accessible, affordable, and affirming care—especially to people who look like her and share her experiences.
That obviously resonates exactly with what we’re about at TC so we’re thrilled to officially have her as part of the team that provides the experience and guidance necessary for our clinicians.
We’re Hiring 💫
We’re hiring Pennsylvania licensed therapists and social workers!! Tell a therapy friend 💛
We’re currently building a team of licensed therapists (LPCs, LCSWs, LMFTs) and social workers across Pennsylvania.
What we’re not about: burnout culture, rigid Eurocentric models, checking boxes or buzzwords like “liberation focused therapy”.
What we are about:
Providing a thorough and empowering client experience as the first Liberation Psychology Therapy Practice in Pittsburgh.
Working with your ideal clients.
Making therapy accessible and real for our people.
Somatic healing and other complimentary modalities to talk therapy.
Building a team where showing up fully yourself isn’t just accepted — it’s required.
Competitive (like very competitive) compensation and benefits for all involved.
Remote roles are available (with limited in-person space in Pittsburgh).
If you’ve been waiting for a sign to bring your brilliance to a practice that gets it… this is it.
And now a subtle but necessary clarification:
Liberation Psychology vs. “Liberation-Focused Therapy”
You may start to notice other practices in Pittsburgh and beyond adopting language like “liberation-focused therapy.” We want to take a moment to clarify something important.
At Transitional Characters, we don’t just use the word “liberation” because it sounds powerful—we practice liberation psychology. This isn’t branding or a trendy phrase. It’s a discipline with deep roots, informed by decades of scholarship, lived experience, and the leadership of our founder, Liana Maneese, a published expert in the field.
Liberation psychology is not just a value we state—it’s how we work, how we hold space, and how we walk with our communities. That difference matters. Don’t expect to receive true liberation-centered care from a therapist or practice simply claiming “liberation-focused therapy” if it’s not rooted in study, practice, and lived embodiment.
We’re proud to be Pittsburgh’s first liberation psychology group practice and the community that grows out of it. Liberation is not a label—it’s a way of life.
Whether you’re reading about us in City Paper or Next Pittsburgh, voting, applying, or just vibing with us from afar — we see you. Thank you for helping us build something real in this city, and for reminding us that the work of liberation is always collective.
In gratitude,
💛 The TC Team
