Meet Dr. Regine Muradian – a licensed clinical psychologist, author, speaker, consultant and mental health advocate. In her clinical practice, Dr. Muradian works with children, adolescents, adults, and couples who present with a wide range of emotional, behavioral, and adjustment problems, such as depression, anxiety, relationship issues, Executive Functioning and ADHD. Dr. Muradian guides her clients to achieve inner peace first in order to discover where the conflict or stressor originates from.
In her consulting work, Dr. Muradian has spearheaded a variety of workshops on positive parenting, teen issues, and family conflict resolution, to name a few. Dr. Muradian has provided intensive supervision to doctoral interns as they acquire skills in clinical practice and psychological assessments. She also served on the medical staff at the Good Samaritan Hospital and was the Director of the Behavioral Health Division serving patients with various injuries, and helping the patient deal with their stressors in order to regain control of their life.
Her first self-published children’s book, Franky and the Worry Bees, has just been released. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, Dr. Muradian found how difficult it was to connect with patients over a screen, so she began to use a lot of illustrations and the idea for her book was born. The bees surrounding Franky in various situations represent the negative thoughts buzzing around in our minds. The reader (for ages seven to thirteen) can create a positive thought for each negative one.
She is now working on her next book in the Franky series.
Dr. Muradian grew up in the South of France, and also lived in Israel and Romania prior to moving to the U.S. at the age of eighteen. She is fluent in five languages and incorporates her multicultural background with her clients.
She received her undergraduate degree in International Relations and Business from the University of Southern California. She also received a Masters degree, followed by a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology. She completed her clinical training at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the Glen Roberts Child Study Center.
Dr. Muradian currently resides in Glendale, California, with her husband and three children ages ten, twelve and fifteen. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking for her family, exercising and diving into a new book.
The main message of Franky and The Worry Bees is to encourage children to talk about their worries and normalize negative thoughts. Children often feel that negative thoughts will never dissipate. Franky shows that when he communicates his feelings, he is able to shift his negative thoughts into positives.
What were the top three mistakes you made publishing your book? What did you learn from it?
There is no such thing as mistakes! I believe that everything that is meant to happen, happens for a reason, and I view it all as a learning experience.
What must happen for you to consider your book(s) a success? and when do you predict it will happen?
Writing and watching my book materialize was the most rewarding process. Now, looking at my book’s Amazon page is an amazing feeling. I feel grateful about the positive feedback I have received so far. If my book can help one child, that is success to me.
Speak to other authors in your genre to gain insight on the process. There are Facebook groups for authors you can connect with. Instagram is another good place to connect with other authors during your research phase. Have people you know give you feedback on your book. This helps gain another perspective and make your book solid. The most important aspect is to not give up and visualize your book completed.
What is the one thing you wished you knew before publishing your first book?
I wish I knew more about the designing process and how self-publishing works. However, it pushed me to self-learn and I am now on my second book and it’s more of a breeze. I feel grateful that I was able to learn through the research I made. From rewriting, editing, illustration approval, design and publishing it’s quite a process but all worth it.
Don’t underestimate the power of your personal network when you first start out. I had already established a rebost email list of friends, family, clients and professional contacts that I was able to reach out to and ask for reviews, testimonials and social media shares. This helped me boost my initial credibility and sales on Amazon.
In line with my personal network, I found LinkedIn to be a crucial platform on which I connected with like minded professionals that were eager to learn more about my book.
I also opted to host bi-monthly collaborative live Q&As with other children’s authors on my Instagram page. It is a lot of work, but the cross promotion and exposure to a large, new audience is invaluable.
Finally, I did hire a publicist. Together, we established my target customers/audiences and created a well thought out strategy to position myself as a thought leader in the mental health world. Though the pandemic threw a wrench in my plans to have an in-person book launch, I learned to adapt and realized that there were many online opportunities. I have been able to provide expert commentary for outlets such as Huffington Post, FabFitFub, Architectural Digest, and more.
I have appeared on a variety of talk shows and podcasts, and done live-streamed readings of my book on various social media platforms. My book has also been placed in a variety of gift-guides for the holidays. Through this, my exposure has increased tremendously, and new opportunities have come my way.
Here are some helpful books I would recommend anyone wanting to self publish to read:
- “Successful Self-Publishing” by Joanna Penn
- “The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing” by Marilyn Ross
- Reedsy.com has a breath of information for new authors.
If you only had $100 dollars to write, publish then promote a new book, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I would spend most of the money on cover design. The cover is what people see first and is very important. One can find affordable cover designers and interior layout specialists via Upwork and other platforms. You can also do it yourself using Adobe In Design. Ask people to help you will be amazed at the support you will receive. When your book is ready in PDF, upload on KDP and voila your book is available to the world.
How can we get in touch with you?
- Website: www.reginemuradian.com
- Instagram: dr._regine_muradian
- Twitter: @reginepsyd
- LinkedIn: Regine Muradian, PsyD
Dr. Regine Muradian – Book Here
