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Therapy for Actors + Entertainment Industry Professionals
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.
So what do I mean by unique challenges?
You knew what you were getting into, right?
Well-meaning friends and family may say, "Well, you knew what you were getting into." Kick that unhelpful statement to the curb. Suffering doesn’t have to be a rite of passage in this town.
Athletes train the mental and emotional game. Hey, entertainment industry professionals, so can we. My husband is a college coach. Did I mention that?
Nice to Meet You
I'm an actor and licensed therapist.
I have been in private practice for the past 15 years and specialize in working with actors, entertainment industry professionals, and their families.
Janelle, what do you know about acting? Great question. Just like you, I’m currently doing the dang thing. And I don’t know about you, but there have been times when my acting career has been brutal.
Want to hear more about my actor journey and getting cut from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part II just days before the premiere?
In my late 20s, I booked a supporting role in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part II. Off I went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for four months to film the final installment of the film franchise, and then back to Los Angeles for two years of publicity. It was an awesome experience. Until it wasn’t. A few days before the premiere, I was informed that my scene was the “last scene cut” from the final edit of the film. I was no longer in the movie. This thing that I had been waiting for was gone overnight. I was devastated. I was overcome with self-doubt. I had to pick up the pieces and as a result, start to think thoughtfully and intentionally about whether I even wanted to do this acting thing anymore. If getting cut from this huge franchise was just a hazard of the job, could I really hang with that? Was I able to pursue an acting career and still be emotionally okay?
Watch Janelle's video story
in which she opens up about getting cut from The Twilight Saga just days before the premiere.
This is where I'd like to switch over to my therapist hat.
I am in the trenches with you and actively integrating my training as a therapist with my observations of the current acting landscape and tough-to-navigate realities of pursuing an entertainment industry career.
You can build the foundation of your life in such a way that you are not thrown by the inevitable chaos and uncertainty in an entertainment industry career.
However, 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 do their careers in healthy ways.
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; narcissistic relationships (with Hollywood) and emotional abuse; mood pieces and grief; emotional regulation, self-soothing, and coping skills; cognitive errors; and addressing issues of chronic rejection, disappointment, and hits to self-esteem.
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.
Awareness
We bring awareness to the dynamics at play in the pursuit of an entertainment industry career. Check out a few examples:
1. We are in a relationship with Hollywood, for better or worse. 2. An entertainment industry career functions as THE NARCISSIST and actors, etc., often present with the same symptoms as survivors of narcissistic relationships. 3. Entertainment industry professionals often find themselves caught in the narcissistic abuse cycle, which is the primary source of actor pain.
Validation:
We validate your experiences in the entertainment industry. Check out a few examples:
1. The common experience of depression in the pursuit of an entertainment industry career. 2. The common experience of anxiety in the pursuit of an entertainment industry career. 3. The ways in which the five stages of grief show up in the pursuit of an entertainment industry career. 4. The ways in which events may be experienced as traumatic, especially if a desperation to escape our current lives by “booking” or "working" has created a trapped experience. 5. The experience of the BIG 3 chronic states: rejection, disappointment, and hits to self-esteem. 6. How codependency is the #1 WAY actors, screenwriters, etc. attempt to cope with the chaos of an acting career. 7. The other 12 primary ways professionals attempt to cope with the chaos and uncertainty of an entertainment industry career (and why it hasn’t worked). 8. Challenges actors face in the pursuit of healthy acting studios and communities. 9. GREEN LIGHT and RED LIGHT attributes to consider when choosing acting studios or communities. 10. Sources of feedback are well-meaning, but often subjective, one person’s opinion, and not data rich or specific.
To Do:
We explore what to do so that we can emotionally thrive in the pursuit of an entertainment industry career. Check out a few examples:
1. How do we build a resilient (instead of a vulnerable) pyramid? 2. How do we stabilize the other areas of our lives? How does structure help to put bumpers around the experience of swinging from one extreme to another in an entertainment industry career? 3. How does identifying “what matters more to us” help us to downgrade our entertainment industry career’s narcissistic influence in our lives? 4. How can we be incredibly happy in our lives WHILE we pursue entertainment industry careers? 5. What does it mean to be an emotional skills superhero? Do we perceive ourselves as capable or incapable when it comes to managing our internal, emotional world? 6. How do we HOLD TWO THINGS AT THE SAME TIME? Holding both the painful realities of our careers, while also changing the ways that we relate to our careers? 7. We will create a road map for emotional regulation and self-soothing. 8. We will talk about the ways entertainment industry professionals often misplace their attachment needs on their careers (and other players, a-hem, your agent). 9. We will empower the development of meaningful relationships in our lives that are appropriately responsive to our needs. 10. We will discuss the RECOVERY OF SELF as the #1 WAY entertainment industry professionals heal from codependency. 11. We will discuss the ways in which family members are also in a relationship with your entertainment industry career, creating space for the "Us" to talk about how it's really going. 12. We will explore why entertainment industry professionals are tempted to avoid community, as well as why community is really, really important (especially on our bad days as actors). 13. We will create a game plan for “coping ahead” and outline the four major areas of emotional rehearsal. 14. We will discuss how to shift to more helpful ways of relating to rejection, as well as removing the threat from rejection. We can experience success and rejection at the same time. 15. We will identify the top cognitive errors for actors, as well as explore how helpful cognition emphasizes our capability and resiliency.
Oh my gosh, you’re still reading. AWESOME!
Here are some examples:
The Actor's Mental Health Playbook.
Check out The Actor's Mental Health Playbook IG for additional playbook videos.
A sneak peek inside an
actor's therapy session.
Okay, now that we’ve talked a little about what counseling is for, let’s talk a little bit about what you can expect.
1. 50 minutes devoted totally to you where you can talk about anything and everything going on in your life. 2. A safe place where there isn’t any judgment. 3. A confidential space. What you say in the room, stays in the room (outside issues regarding safety). 4. We can meet in person, online, or a combination of both options, whatever is the best fit for you. 5. We can meet once a week, every other week, as needed, etc., following your lead as far as frequency of appointments. As entertainment industry professionals, our schedules are frequently changing at the last minute. 6. If we meet for the first time and it doesn’t feel like a good fit, I totally get it. The most important part of counseling is that you find someone that you can open up to about anything and everything. If it’s not me, I will refer you to some of my rock star colleagues and help you get connected.
So what's the first step?
I am here to walk you through every step of the process. See below for a step-by-step guide.
Initial Phone Call
We will go over a few questions and make sure that this is the best fit for your unique counseling goals.
Schedule Appointment
We will schedule an initial appointment. Absolutely no pressure here. Think of it as a “trial run” in which you get a feel for the process.
Good fit?
After the initial appointment, take your time to think it through. Remember, you are in the driver’s seat. It is important that you decide whether it is the best fit of support.
Great job.
I look forward to meeting you. Wherever you find yourself on your entertainment industry journey, counseling can be a place where you don't have to do it alone.
Janelle Ault, LMFT
Check out the Teen Translation IG for mental health educational resources and videos.