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.