Petra Martin

In her late twenties, Petra traveled behind the Iron Curtain and had the great fortune to spent time at the kitchen table of her "enemies." There, she discovered that they experienced joy, grief, and fear just like she does. She realized that no matter where people live or what language they speak, what they feel is exactly the same, and a Berlin Wall in her own mind came tumbling down.

Several years later, while working to overcome clinical depression, a therapist asked Petra, "How do you feel?" She found herself unable to answer--which surprised her, given the fact that she was a professional wordsmith. Petra needed a tool to help put her feelings into words, but found none.

The insights Petra gained in East Germany, her struggle with depression, and her experience in making technical subjects comprehensible to laypeople led her to create the Mixed Emotions card deck, which helps people put their feelings into words.

Petra is a publisher, writer, editor (Stupid Things Papa Did When He Was Younger by Tom Roush), book coach (Chillpreneur by Denise Duffield Thomas), and ghostwriter (How to Want Sex Again by Alina Frank).