Does counseling, such as psychotherapy, help artists be more fully creative?
Heather Graham: “In some ways therapy helps more than acting class. You realize why you operate in certain ways.”
Claire Danes: “My therapist gives me permission to accept that I’m human.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal: “When I started going to therapy there wasn’t a specific, clear, rational thing that made me start, but as soon as I did, everything in my life changed, almost immediately.”
Tony Kushner: “Psychoanalysis is so much fun.”
Psychotherapist Mihaela Ivan Holtz: “Psychotherapy is a powerful transformative journey.”
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“Acting is telling a story, and you’re part of telling that story.
“In some ways therapy helps more than acting class. You realize why you operate in certain ways.”
Heather Graham expressed one of the most valuable and positive reasons for therapy or counseling for an actor: knowing your emotions and inner dynamics better, so you can portray being a human more authentically.
[Quotes are from our interview years ago.]
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Psychotherapist Mihaela Ivan Holtz helps creative people in TV/Film, performing and fine arts.
She writes about her work with creative clients:
Creating or performing is what makes you feel alive, fulfilled, and in touch with who you really are. It gives your life meaning and purpose.
You know from deep in your soul that you are talented and skilled.
Yet, you find yourself feeling unhappy and stuck in issues that are not allowing you to be the true creative or performer that you are.
Emotional issues, creative blocks, anxieties, depression, or unfulfilling relationships are taking over – leaving you wondering if you can continue navigating the arts and the entertainment world and still become the creative and the performer that you want to be.
You know what you want!
You want to have an impact on your audience.
You want to connect and be inspired by your audience.
You want to be seen, valued, and rewarded for the creative and the performer that you are.
Psychotherapy is a powerful transformative journey that can take you from feeling unhappy and stuck to living with emotional freedom as a fulfilled creative or performer.
See many articles on her site:
Creative Minds Psychotherapy.
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Psychotherapy and counseling on-set helps actors and crew members
Hosting a conversation for a Los Angeles Times Actresses Roundtable, writer Amy Kaufman asked about movie productions having an on-set therapist available for the cast and crew.
Three actors responded:
Laura Dern (“The Son”): Having a therapist was incredible, and in our case, used daily by crew and cast. …
In our case, the film addresses mental health crises among teenagers. And while we’re starting the film, the numbers are skyrocketing within this pandemic — and perhaps also the impact of social media. So raising children while also telling the story, I was just looking at what was around me every day.
I remember the first day, I did a scene with my son talking about not being able to handle the anxiety that he’s going through. [Meanwhile,] my daughter was online, in school, alone in her room. And I said, “Baby, is there anything about this that you can find joy or comfort in?”
And she said to me, “Well, Mom, I guess the only positive thing that’s sort of calming me is at least right now, I’m here in my room, I don’t have to be scared every day that I’m going to get shot at school.” And here I am, parenting a 16-year-old in crisis thinking, “This is a horrific epidemic of cultural anxiety.”
And that’s when the lines are blurred. You’re not searching for understanding. We’re all in it.
Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”): We had someone every day. I mean, crew would have emotional breakdowns — just moments of utter and complete crying.
And people would have to take moments to step away. It wouldn’t always even be a traumatic scene, it would just be literally conversation, and then the waterworks start.
So people would just step away and have a conversation with the therapist. It’s a simple, easy, beautiful thing. People can maintain some sense of wellness as we intentionally move through challenges together.
Emma Corrin (“Lady Chatterley’s Lover”) added: It’s so good to make that a conversation. It’s OK not to be OK and to seek help for it. Because sometimes on set, there’s this constant feeling of you have to go, go, go. You can’t stop, because —
Deadwyler: … You don’t want to stop the train.
Corrin: Yeah, because everyone’s relying on each other. So you feel like you’re letting down all these other people. But I feel like as soon as people start speaking up and saying, “I’m not feeling great,” or “I need to talk to someone,” then I think it’s good for everyone.
From article “Angela Bassett, Laura Dern talk nudity on set post-#MeToo, learning how to slow down” By Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times Dec. 8, 2022.
Related video: “Actresses Roundtable: Angela Bassett, Laura Dern, Janelle Monáe, Emma Corrin & More.”
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Exploring the unconscious as an actor or other artist.
In their conversation for a magazine article, playwright Tony Kushner and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal talked about the values of counseling and exploring the unconscious:
Tony Kushner : We forget that the unexpected has great entertainment value — that’s why psychoanalysis is so much fun.
We’ve talked about therapy before — we’ve both been patients.
Do you believe in the unconscious?
Maggie Gyllenhaal : Yes. When I started going to therapy there wasn’t a specific, clear, rational thing that made me start, but as soon as I did, everything in my life changed, almost immediately.
Even just calling the therapist started a wave going.
Maybe three weeks into it I had a dream where I was like, “I need to change a lot of things.”
Tony Kushner : Did you find that going changed the way you were dreaming?
Maggie Gyllenhaal : Yeah. And the way I was looking at my dreams.
I had an incredible experience when I was doing Casa de los Babys [directed by John Sayles, 2003].
On the last day of my working, it was a really intense scene, and I hadn’t mapped it out.
My call was at 8 A.M., and I had gone to sleep at 11, so I was rested, but I was tired.
I got to the set, and I had maybe an hour while they got the lights together, so I lay down and had an overwhelming dream — and I feel as if I needed to have it in order to play the scene.
There’s another part of me working that isn’t the intellectual side — the unconscious — and that was not awake most of my life.
Not actively. There were times when it would push through, but now I feel I’m really honoring it.
[Interview magazine, Feb, 2003]
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Therapy can also help with relationship problems, or painful life events, that can interfere with our self-esteem, confidence and energy to be creative.
Following the breakup of her marriage with Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston said, “I believe in therapy; I think it’s an incredible tool in educating the self on the self.”
Reese Witherspoon and her former husband Ryan Phillippe were open about counseling.
She has commented about therapy:
”It’s always struck me as odd that people grabbed onto that story and made it sound so negative.
“In what capacity is working on yourself or your marriage a bad thing?”
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Actors, musicians and other artists explore “messy” emotions in their work.
Actor William H. Macy once commented,
“Nobody became an actor because he had a good childhood.”
Psychologist Cheryl Arutt agrees that is both a funny and a provocative remark.
She thinks that actors and other artists who are willing, in their creative work, to delve into the really “messy” feelings of being human (shame, devastations, disappointments, betrayals, traumas and more), probably have a relationship with those feelings.
And, she notes,
“Creating art has always been a way to channel emotional intensity…
“If you are an artist, you are your instrument.
“The greater access you maintain to yourself, the richer and broader your array of creative tools.”
From article Creative People and Counseling for More Emotional Health and Creativity.
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Katy Selverstone addressed one of the concerns actors and other creative people may have [in the article Soul Workout by Laura Weinert, Backstage] –
“I’ve heard people say therapy destroys your spontaneity, that when you understand too much about yourself it messes with your imagination, and your work is going to become less interesting as a result.”
But she disagrees:
“I don’t think that’s true. My therapy was much more about not being neurotic than about being neurotic.
“Everybody is neurotic in some way, right? My experience has never been like, ‘You’re going to be like a blank slate, I’m going to strip you down, and you are going to be normal.’ There isn’t any such thing as normal; there’s just what is right for you.”
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Claire Danes made a wonderfully succinct summary of counseling:
“My therapist gives me permission to accept that I’m human.”
She also explained in an interview that, as a kid, she “was on this whole perfection trip. And that’s just totally boring. And arrogant!…
“I finally realized after years of therapy.. that you can encourage yourself to move further in a nurturing way.
“You don’t have to be abusive.” [Allure, Nov, 1997]
Related article Learning to Befriend Our Inner Demons.
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Jennifer Jason Leigh sums it up nicely:
“I’ve been going to therapy since I was twenty one.
“I think the more you know about your own psyche, the more you can know about other people’s, and can play them better.”
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Using Psychology in Creating Characters
In an issue of her column ‘The Craft’ on BackStage with the above title (Aug 10-16 2006), Jean Schiffman noted:
“But we don’t need a shrink to uncover the psyches of the characters we play; a working knowledge of psychology can help us understand who they are and why they do what they do.”
Some resources for actors
She refers to the book Tools and Techniques for Character Interpretation: A Handbook of Psychology for Actors, Writers, and Directors, by Robert Blumenfeld as a “historical overview of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and their uses in creating believable, deeply human theatrical characters.”
And she notes that Doug Warhit, an acting teacher and psychotherapist, “recommends that actors read the Desk Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria From DSM-IV-TR… it’s full of descriptions of the psychological traits that characterize every condition from obsessive-compulsive personality disorder to paranoia.”
While many actors point out they do not judge the characters they play, it may be very helpful to explore the emotionally complex inner depths of real people.
Jean Schiffman site www.jeanschiffman.com
book: The Working Actor’s Toolkit.
Doug Warhit site www.dougwarhit.com
book: Book the Job: 143 Things Actors Need to Know to Make It Happen.
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See related articles:
Online Therapy for Emotional Health and Personal Growth
Seeing a therapist in person can be the best choice for some people and some issues. But an alternative that can be helpful for many people is online therapy.
A CBS News article noted for people who “don’t have the time or money for traditional counseling or psychotherapy, a number of startups now offer a high-tech alternative.
“Sign up for one of these sites and you can reach out and communicate with a counselor via Internet, phone or text messages.”
The article notes “Several small studies have found the approach shows promise for certain patients.
“Research published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews… found that therapist-supported cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered over the Internet appears to be an effective treatment option for anxiety in adults.”
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Emotional Health for Creative, Gifted, Highly Sensitive People – Gifted, sensitive and creative people “can cope with their intense feelings, and transform their perceived deep defects into their greatest gifts which will enable them to make a unique, creative contribution to the world.” Psychotherapist Sharon M. Barnes.
Learning to befriend our demons.
Pain and suffering and developing creativity – One of many artists quoted: Colin Farrell said he was finding that he is more creative being sober and happy. “I was terrified that whatever my capacity was as an actor would disappear when I got sober,” he admitted. “I ascribed to the notion that to express yourself as an artist, you have to live in perpetual pain. And that’s nonsense.”
Emotional Health Resources
Programs, books, articles and sites to improve your emotional wellbeing.
Counselors – Therapists – Coaches
List of Counselors and Therapists specializing in gifted, high ability, creative people, plus Coaches for creative and highly sensitive individuals, plus additional related resources.
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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