About me
the trippy therapist (Liana Maneese) is a Brazilian-born and Pittsburgh-raised artist, mother, and liberation psychotherapist whose work lives at the intersection of psychology, spirituality, history, and art.
She is the founder of Transitional Characters, a liberation psychology practice and community hub dedicated to healing through story, identity, and creative expression. She also created The TC Annex, a multidisciplinary healing space for somatic, artistic, and spiritual restoration.
Liana’s ongoing body of work — including Adopting Identity: The Exploration of Lies, Luck, and Legitimacy and her forthcoming artist’s book Inheritance — examines the intersections of adoption, belonging, and ancestral healing. Her art challenges Western ideas of identity and legitimacy while celebrating the power of Black diasporic creativity, community, and self-reclamation.
Her practice is rooted in Liberation Psychology, an approach that centers lived experience, the body, and the wisdom of ancestors. Through this lens, she helps people understand that healing is not an individual journey — it’s a collective, intergenerational act of resistance and remembrance.
“because creativity is the opposite of oppression - we must never stop making art” -liana
Hello!
What I Offer
I’m devoted to building worlds where liberation feels possible — where therapy is revolutionary, and joy is sacred rebellion.
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My art lives at the intersection of healing, identity, and liberation.
Through photography, social practice, installation, and storytelling, I explore the ways Black and adopted bodies hold memory — and how creativity becomes a tool for reclaiming truth.
Projects like Adopting Identity and Inheritance use ancestral research, ritual, and dialogue to imagine new languages of belonging. My work isn’t just about representation — it’s about transformation. -
I write and speak about liberation, psychology, anti-blackness, interracial relationships, identity, and motherhood with honesty and depth.
My talks invite audiences to think beyond binaries — to see healing as both personal and political. Whether in universities, conferences, or community spaces, I use story as medicine, weaving together research, art, and lived experience to help people question what they’ve been taught about self, history, and power.
Topics include liberation psychology, transracial adoption, the politics of healing, and building trauma-informed creative spaces. -
As a liberation psychotherapist and founder of Transitional Characters, I help people reconnect to their truth.
My therapeutic work centers identity, ancestral healing, and embodied liberation — offering a space for deep reflection, transformation, and repair.
Whether in one-on-one sessions, groups, or creative workshops, I guide clients through the process of unlearning oppressive narratives and rebuilding self-trust.
Healing isn’t linear — but it is possible, and it begins with remembering who you are.