What's My Approach to Therapy?
Pursuing a career in the entertainment industry may be accompanied by victories, but also unique challenges. Whether you’re an actor, screenwriter, director, producer, production assistant, musician, or pursuing any of the other meaningful careers in the entertainment industry, I’m so glad you’ve found your way here.
I have been in private practice for the past 15 years and specialize in working with actors, entertainment industry professionals, and their families.
It can feel overwhelming to try to explain to a therapist how the entertainment industry works, or why it sometimes feels like an emotional rollercoaster. As a therapist, I pull from an intimate knowledge not only of the business but from lived experience and knowing exactly what it is like to courageously pursue your acting hopes and dreams, with all of the highs and lows that accompany such a pursuit.
I also specialize in counseling entertainment industry teens, providing support for balancing school and set life, the in-between, and pursuing the next booking, as well as navigating on-set life. Additionally, it is crucial to establish positive self-esteem and identity, as the pursuit of a teen acting career often collides with the adolescent developmental stage of identity formation.
My Practice & Services
Does supporting our emotional and mental approach improve performance?
Athletes train with sports psychologists for a reason, as they know that mental stamina and resiliency training are crucial for practice and performance.
For actors, their industry is just as competitive. And yet, actors rarely stop to consider the ways that the mental approach can improve the craft and management of their careers.
I am in the trenches with you and actively integrating my training as a therapist with my observations of the current acting landscape.
I have observed that there is a huge void when it comes to equipping entertainment industry professionals with the mental and emotional skills they need to enhance their skills and careers.
A psychological and counseling framework allows us to provide support for the ways our personal histories collide with the entertainment industry; issues of identity; underlying systems dynamics; mood pieces and grief; emotional regulation, self-soothing, and coping skills; addressing issues of chronic rejection, disappointment, and hits to self-esteem; developing positive self-esteem and identity; and enhancing performance.
So what does counseling for entertainment industry professionals look like?
It is traditional "talk therapy," but with a psychoeducational emphasis that equips actors, screenwriters, producers, musicians, and so many other professionals with the tools and coping skills needed to thrive in the pursuit of entertainment industry careers.
1. We bring awareness to the dynamics at play in the pursuit of an entertainment industry career.
2. We validate your experiences in the entertainment industry. Yes, what you are feeling makes total sense!
3. We explore what to do so that we can emotionally thrive in the pursuit of an entertainment industry career.
Yes, it is possible to pursue a career in the entertainment industry and be so okay.
Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With
Did you know that productions often hire on set therapists? In fact, scripted and reality productions hire therapists to provide crucial mental health services, whether that is managing emotional reactivity in daily performance or equipping reality television performers with exit counseling as they transition back to reality and process not only the new societal pressures, but how to adjust to daily life post the high of the reality television experience.
Here are a few ways supportive services for film and television production may be helpful:
1. Sensitive Content. Many times, scripts revolve around sensitive or graphic content such as eating disorders, violence, sexual assault, emotional manipulation, personality disorders, and a host of other narrative subjects that are fascinating for the viewer, but emotionally taxing to portray as a performer.
2. Preventative Action. On set counseling services prevent emotionally activating material from encoding traumatically for the performer. Just as we can be secondarily traumatized by watching the news, we can also experience secondary trauma via taking on the role of these traumatized scripted characters.
3. Maintaining the Boundary Between Reality and Fantasy. In the preparation and performance of the role, many actors may struggle to turn off the performance or embodiment of the character, creating a vulnerability to developing mood symptoms, distorted cognition, and a weak boundary between the healthy self and the scripted, struggling character.
4. Emotional Regulation and Grounding. After taking on sensitive content for an entire filming day, actors may be in need of emotional regulation exercises to bring them back to their prefrontal cortex, grounded emotions, and calm state of their physical bodies. Imagine you're in a car that is going 100 miles per hour and then you slam on the breaks. What happens? It's a pretty bumpy stop, right? Similarly, we can assist actors in gradually transitioning back to their grounded state utilizing evidence-based mental health strategies, interventions, and physical and emotional regulation strategies.
5. Exit Counseling: For many reality television productions, exit counseling is a must. Why? As actors, we learn to expect the highs and lows of bouncing between being on set and going for months at a time without so much as an email or phone call. However, participants on reality television series are often unprepared for the extremes of navigating the entertainment industry. Exit counseling can be crucial as far as equipping these participants with strategies to manage new pressures that come with momentary fame, as well as the harsh drop of transitioning back to reality and engaging normal daily life outside of the "high" they have experienced for the past months on a Hollywood production. In fact, the months following participation in a reality television series can be a time of vulnerability for participants when it comes to mood and mental health issues.
6. Dynamics of Cast and Crew: Have you ever noticed that we can have harmonious on set experiences, but that we can also experience a great deal of friction and conflict? As licensed marriage and family therapists, we are trained to provide support to systems. This can be a family system, or for the sake of production, a film family system involving cast, crew, and production professionals. Rather than this role falling on the director or producer, it may be beneficial to pull in a systems expert (therapist) to address where the production is experiencing dysfunction, emotional reactivity, or chronic conflict.
7. Safe Processing Space. I can't tell you how many times I've heard an actor state that they wish they had someone to talk to on set, whether that is in preparation for the day's filming material or to process their emotional reactivity following a particularly difficult scene. In some cases, the actor needs to process events in their daily life in order to be fully present for the day's work. Many times, an actor will approach a very busy producer, director, or production assistant, feeling defeated that they don't receive the attention or care that they desire (which is completely understandable for both parties). What if you had an on set therapist that you could send to the actor's trailer? Would that make a difference and actually enhance the efficiency of the production?
8. Navigating Issues of Adolescent Development. Although I could write an entire book on this subject, I'll keep it short and sweet. Any time you are working with teen actors on set, there are unique adolescent development pieces that need a little extra TLC. It is impossible to separate adolescent development from on set work and performance. An on set therapist can ensure that these young actors are provided with unique skill sets and tools to navigate not only performance, but the very adult world of a film set. Sometimes just having a safe buddy in this very adult environment can have enormous benefit and skyrocket teen actors' enjoyment of being on set.
9. On-Call Mental Health Consultation. Sometimes we find that we have a question about the script or performance on the day of filming. If a mental health question arises regarding believability or accuracy regarding the portrayal of mental health diagnoses or behavior, you've got an on set therapist on speed dial.
