Behind the Glitz: The Crucial Role of Mental Health in the Entertainment Industry
Wit & Reason with Dr. Alexis Moreno
In this engaging podcast episode, join host Dr. Alexis as she engages in a heartfelt conversation with her business and life partner, Alex Honigman, LICSW. Together, they delve into the essential role of mental health support in navigating the intense pressures of the entertainment industry.
Tune in as Dr. Alexis shares their unique journey and offers compelling stories about working closely with actors, musicians, and other entertainment professionals. Discover how their deep commitment to mental wellness has driven them to create personalized support systems that empower creatives to flourish both on and off the stage. Through moving anecdotes, Alex Honigman highlights how integrating mental health practices has profoundly transformed lives and careers, revealing the often hidden challenges faced by those in the spotlight.
Don't miss this episode if you’re eager to learn how mental health coordination is forging a path toward a more balanced and sustainable entertainment industry.
Guest
Alex Honigman,LICSW, MA Clinical Director
Alex Honigman, LICSW, MA
CLINICAL DIRECTOR, SPEAKER, THERAPIST, & EXECUTIVE COACH
Alex (he/him) enjoys the relationship between the psyche and society. Having never wanted to pick a side in the nature versus nurture debate he pursued degrees in both Psychology and Sociology and finally a Masters of Social Work with an emphasis on clinical interventions. He has worked as an educator for non-profits and lecturer for Universities. Starting as a therapist for survivors of trauma, moving on to perpetrators and spent significant time as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at a Forensic State Hospital. Alex continues to emphasize culture as a key component to effective therapy and the changing of systems (organizations and businesses). Whether this be through; music, film, tv, art, comics, games, memes or other aspects of popular (or sometimes unpopular) culture. Utilizing an individuals cultural values to make for a more meaningful individualized therapeutic intervention.
Host
Dr. Alexis Moreno - Wit & Reason
ALEXIS MORENO, PSYD, MA, MS - SHE/HER
PSYCHOLOGIST, HEALTH CORRESPONDENT, Speaker, & Founder
Dr. Alexis (she/her) utilizes the powerful impact awareness, education, & opportunity have on mental health. She mindfully creates fun & supportive experiences for her speaking and media audience and private clients to safely explore their true values, learn new healthy practices, & take action steps toward living authentically.
She has a Doctorate in Clinical Community Psychology, a Master of Arts in Marriage & Family Therapy, & a Bachelor of Science in both Television Broadcasting & Psychology. With over 16 years of experience in media & psychology, she aims to make mental health relatable & accessible for all through her coaching, consultation, & media outreach.
Dr. Alexis provides media, speaking, & mental health consultation services. Book a complimentary consult with Dr. Alexis to arrange services today!
Resources from the Show
Get Production Mental Health First Aid Certification Training
Learn More about what Mental Health Professional do for Film & TV Productions
Access Production Trainings to keep Cast & Crew Mentally and Physically Safe
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Episode Transcription
Dr. Alexis: [00:00:00] Welcome to DC Radio. On today's show, we have my business and life partner, Alex Honigman joining us. And we're going to be talking about the need for mental health coordination in the entertainment industry. Yeah, we're going to nerd out about both of our specialties.
Alex: Yes.
Dr. Alexis: Mental health psychology and
Alex: film and television.
Dr. Alexis: Hell. Yeah.
So people always associate or tend to associate the entertainment industry, film, television. With glitz and glamor red carpets award shows after parties. Multimillion dollar budgets and a whole lot more profits.
Alex: Yeah. It's glorified.
Dr. Alexis: Yes. It's absolutely glorified and that's, you know, the industry just kind of does that, right?
Yeah. They kind of do that. For themselves.
Alex: Because it has, it's gotta be a marketing machine, right. You're going to build that up.
Dr. Alexis: Yep. That's the brand of the industry, right? [00:01:00] Glitz and glamor the thing is, is that a lot of people overlook the fact that there are for big projects, hundreds of people working. Obviously not just on camera but behind the scenes. Toiling and sacrificing for this craft.
Alex: So these deadlines for this intense. And an immense amount of pressure.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah.
Alex: And for something that will then be scrutinized by people, pretty brutally.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: I mean, if you think about it, To, to the rest of us. We're just bingeing another show.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: And it's like, come on, hurry up, get us on our next episode.
Alex: But there's so much involved
Dr. Alexis: and we kind of forget.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: You know how much is involved? I mean, how many of you sit through the credits. Oh, yeah.
That's. And not just sit through that. But read every single [00:02:00] name and title and even the little, the credits, the credentials behind their name and what it took to get those letters behind their name. Like I don't. Aye. We have some masters and, and I got a PSYD over here. We, the general population has somewhat of an understanding of what it takes for us to be able to do what we do. I don't really think a whole lot of people are very educated
Alex: as to like all the different,
Dr. Alexis: what it takes to actually work with. And
Alex: all the other things there.
So yeah, I think it goes. And we take it for granted and we kind of miss out on some of those things. I mean, it used to be that. Uh, credits were shorter. So they were actually start a films and. That stopped over time because people. Didn't like it to sit there that long for the credits. I mean,
Dr. Alexis: that goes to tell you, like, That's how much work it takes.
Alex: Yes. And, you
Dr. Alexis: know, like that, that's how many people it takes to create what you're bingeing. Or what you're staring at your phone. Yeah. Well streaming. Um, and we're here today to talk about the human side. [00:03:00] The very real human aspect of the entertainment industry. Yeah.
Alex: And I was thinking about this cause I was watching I've been binging a ton of different horror genre films. A bunch of great stuff out there.
Great content out there. Wonderful stuff. And I will go through tons of it. I think the thing is that I think of is like how. In doing all of this stuff, dealing with something that's intense and gripping and mortified, and sometimes like very superstitious because people bring their superstitions or things.
Like there's a lot of ways in which you're dealing with this content. That's not even easy to process. Yeah. And you're sitting there like as an actor. Yes. That's your job, but you're like an actor or like a crew member. Like how do you watch that stuff occur over and over again, like a brutal scene or murders and things like that. And not come away, feeling a little something about it.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah.
Alex: And then, you know, it kind of went into live for me, like how high pressure of an environment they're in to produce this stuff.
Dr. Alexis: Oh, yeah. So when you think about. Mental health in the entertainment industry, there's so many aspects to that. It's [00:04:00] very complex because sure you could look at the actors who are getting in the right mindset to play very challenging personas or characters.
That's one piece of the psychology involved in the mental health impact involved. Then you have the crew you know, the cast and crew who are working within really tight deadlines and really long, exhausting, repetitive days.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: And. That in of itself
Alex: there's a lot
Dr. Alexis: it's very, can be very distressing.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: And then you're talking about even just, if you want to get like industrial organizational psychology iOS psych about it. Even just the efficiencies or lack of it efficiencies in what it takes to produce. Uh, film or yeah. Uh, a television episode, or even if you bring in like reality or like talk shows. Um, or if you're working with current events, you. [00:05:00] Then you got to be able to pick up and switch and adapt.
Yeah. Yeah immediately so there are a lot of different types of challenges involved in the entertainment industry. And that's why my entire career I just didn't boggled. Why aren't you using psychologist?
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: Or therapist, you know, like trained professionals, like this is what we do. This is like, This
Alex: is, I mean, you know,
Dr. Alexis: we help with all of these different apps. So I
Alex: love that. As a thing that's happening is that mental health coordination is happening.
It's showing up. I mean, you can see it in intimacy coordination. So those who don't know what intimacy coordination is during sex or intimate scenes doesn't have recites, but something that inner an intimacy or a nudity. There are people who come in and kind of staged the scene and get things set to make sure that the talent feels safe and sound the crew feel that they're appropriately ready for those things that they don't have to do nudity that isn't necessary.
Like it makes it comfortable and safe. Like you would at work, like, you [00:06:00] know, like, like any other workplace. And so you make the place safe. And so intimacy coordination has a place in space because it has a specific thing in which people go, oh yeah, that does something to people.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. That's a little. In some cases it's a little more obvious.
Yeah. And intimacy coordinator will review a script and still find intimate scenes that have been overlooked. And need to be addressed. But, but just now they're starting to bring in mental health.
Alex: So mental health coordination is a really great process and great thing to hear and analyzing the idea of what does it look to them? Have these people process. And go through and feel better. Better before, during and after as a process, like, could you imagine, like at work, somebody going, Hey, this is how things are going to go.
Here's what to expect. What are your stressors? Like? What does this like go through with you? Like any good manager should or any boss would, and then afterward, how do you feel about what you just did? And then. Move on with work. At work. That makes sense. Why aren't we doing this with. You know, it's an entertainment, history, mental health coordination
it makes a lot of [00:07:00] sense.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. And so, as I went in reason, this is something that, that we've been pushing for. Advocating for. Networking with people about like, Hey, we're here. We're all about it. Um, we're a dedicated tap us in coach, you know? And so we've been fortunate enough to have some opportunities to to be involved in productions, you know, to be onset. Um, and even to help with post-production too, just kind of like reviewing, but either, either whether that's like debriefing or even just kind of reviewing what was done and making sure things. Even if we're talking about mental health or human human issues, making sure that it's represented. In as healthy and accurate. And fairway as possible, too. I mean, so there's a lot, there's a lot that we get to do.
Alex: Yeah.
And I think like one of the things about, I always considered the entertainment history, we always hear about the tragedies after we hear about the people who dive overdoses, we'd hear about the people who took [00:08:00] on a role. I mean, I always think of Heath Ledger when he did the dark night and afterwards he was pretty messed up by playing the joker and he was not okay.
And then he was, had he apparently had a call and then overdosed on a bunch of meds and just die.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah.
Alex: And so, and it was like cold meds and some other things there and it just die
Dr. Alexis: yeah.
Alex: And brilliant actor did brilliant things and like yet, Like the role and the other things kind of mixed together to take a toll on people.
And I got to see you always kind of think about the way in which we process this. And. I think there's a lot of room to grow when we look at these things and room to kind of go, Hey, look, this is. Afterwards, like let's not talk about, let's not get into like the tragic parts of it. Let's let's talk about it now.
So we're, we're yeah. Seeing the effects of it. So I think of the environment, I think of the timely spend onset doing those things, like the amount, the grueling amount of things there. And the other thing that we think about more recently, Is the amount of backlash people get via social media. I like the constant barrage, like God forbid, you're [00:09:00] like on a project that people love, like Star Wars or Star Trek or something.
Yeah.
Oh, my God. Can you imagine the pressure? Yes.
Dr. Alexis: Yes, I can.
Alex: Fair fair. Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: It's a lot,
all right, so let's go ahead and, and just like list out the various reasons why mental health coordination. Reasons. What are the things on site that are problematic? Yeah. Or, or in the entertainment industry as a whole, doesn't sure. We were talking pre-production production onset. Post-production. It's a good point.
Alex: That's a good point. The whole, the whole deal, the whole shebang. Okay.
Dr. Alexis: So we alluded to the reality that the entertainment industry tends to be a pretty high pressure workplace environment yeah, lots of pressure and that's not only just because you have lots of money on the line. Even for indie films, even with a tight budget that's still you're working within really restricted [00:10:00] funds.
So whether you have multimillion dollar budget or just some thousands, it's still hard to work with. And it's for different reasons even more pressured because like you got to work with what you got and that's hard because, I mean, these are budding filmmakers who could be the next big, huge, amazing person.
Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, so the high pressure environment. Money's involved. Yeah. Right. Then you have a big team of people together for the small ones. You have a group of people trying to work together. Remember those group projects in school? How fun was that? Who loves group. And Hey, we're in the entertainment industry.
Maybe we got some egos it's of Corky personnel. It is one of the only places, only work places on earth where you do not have like things like background checks or like mental health, or like. References and interviews, resumes. You auditions audition. But like you being able to do the work does not mean you're [00:11:00] okay.
Yeah. Or even, even behind the scenes, like you. Maybe you work for a production company, you know, or you have a friend of a friend and it's just all networking. Yeah. You know, so like sitting down for an interview, even as like a producer Rarely happens. It's just like, Hey, we have this film we need to produce. Yeah. Um, High pressure environments could also be like where you're working as well.
So we talked about like being on set or being on location, which isn't necessarily always comfortable. Yeah. And you might be pulled away from your family or, you know, your people, your community. And you're just kind of like in lockdown, especially during quarantine. Um, And. And in addition, if you just think about the high pressure that comes from performing.
Alex: Yeah. You know, There's obvious. And we kind of talked about this. How actors need to perform how they need to take on a role in how they have to be that person yeah. [00:12:00] Repeatedly until everything aligns the lighting, the sound, you know, the set. Yeah, your performance. You got to keep on. Working it delivering and with a certain thing that only director I would have in mind. Because the director is holding this vision and you're trying to meet their vision, but they can't always express exactly what that is. They're just looking for something, a feeling and needing this particular type of thing.
And so that's really. And hopefully you have a director who could communicate. Effectively communicate their internal vision. Yeah to you. Because if I say. I just want you to sparkle. With this at Parkwood. At me, like definitely more. Tell me exactly what you need me to. We're smiling more T more eyes. Yeah. Tone of voice.
So I appreciate that.
I appreciate the pressure, but I mean, think about even like the boom Mike Guy is sitting there holding this thing. And if a bee lands on his face or [00:13:00] their phase, like they better hold still because it ruins a million dollar shot. Yeah. Uh, there's just so much pressure. It's the performance anxiety. An explosion. Performance exams. Every stuff. Everywhere.
Dr. Alexis: Okay. Yes. So when we're talking about performance, we're not just talking about the actors, we're talking about every single soul on that set. Yeah. I mean, even to perform those words, performance, anxiety, or performance. Uh, fatigue actually apply to anywhere within work, anywhere within like where you're asked to complete a task.
Yeah. So even if we go outside the entertainment industry, We could do a whole other show just on performance fatigue. Performance anxiety and really dive into that because whether you're a nurse, surgeon, therapist. You know, I mean, people typically apply that performance, executive, that bedroom to. Yep.
Intimacy. Yeah, wherever you have to perform you know, putting masking up and going to family dinners and trying to hold your tongue. We got to do a whole episode [00:14:00] on just performance for people. Yes. Yes. We'll do that. So if we think about the entertainment industry and everything, that's on the line and, and the excellence that's required for everyone to perform regardless of what their duty is
yeah. And the lack of patience or tolerance
for poor performance on for limited or lacking performance yeah fulfilling sick or ill or yep. Well, that's a lot. Which says starts with that. Moving on to like number two, think of is the irregular work schedules, right? So like number one is the pressure and the performance, the other two, the others irregular work schedules.
Alex: And like you're supposed to be doing this at like 3:00 AM or 6:00 AM or. APM after a full day of whatever, and you're still supposed to give the exact same. As you did earlier yeah. We're talking 12 hour days. Yeah, at least. And so. Excellent performance so you have that you. The irregular work schedules.
Dr. Alexis: And then do you know if you're traveling to time zones. Yeah. Yep. And then adjusting so irregular work schedules [00:15:00] really impact a person's mental health and psychological wellbeing. Um, Next up, we talked about this public scrutiny. Yup. And the beautiful invention of social media. Yeah. Wonderful. So social media back in the day, you know, we watch. We go to the theater, you know, blockbuster, we watch our films privately, and then we discuss it privately. And, you know, we may be. Film critic that tears you apart, but like, yeah. And the newspapers. Or magazine. As limited, it would be like which newspaper?
Alex: Well, maybe you don't get it. So it doesn't really matter. Only people who are like, you know, really invested. Yeah. But now you have the whole world. And so everyone scrutinizing this thing and then, then there's, there's so much fandom around various things so like, I think of like anyone who works with the Marvel universe, or like I said, star wars or star Trek or anything that has like a fan base, lower, like. Any nurse, especially any nerds, fellow nerds out there that got. Be kind, be kind. [00:16:00] Um, but the, you know, when you think about like, even this, um, uh, Daisy Ridley had like, had discussed, uh, she was the person in star wars.
If you hadn't seen it, who plays a main character named Ray and. The amount of weight on their shoulders to then perform. I mean. They reported having stomach issues and holes in this.
Yeah. Following, working on that production. Yeah. Performing for you all. Yeah. Right. Yeah, so there there's a lot that goes into it. Um, so you also have the public scrutiny and social and social media. And even working with performers, some, some actors do such a good job at performing the villain. When they're out there in the, in the real world. And they're being publicly in person, real life being scrutinized and trolled and social media. Or like, We did a good job. Performing and everyone believed. Now they hate them. I just think of the daytime television people, like are the [00:17:00] soaps and yeah. The soap. Community is so wonderful, but they get so invested that they go up, they slap the person for sleeping. What are you doing? It's true. Exactly. Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: So, I mean, yeah. public scrutiny yes. And that's a very real thing that people then have to have to work through.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: Like, I am not used to being hated and that's not even me. I was just performing. So that's another thing that people need to be able to process after. Um, something that is discussed more in the news are issues around substance abuse.
Yeah. As well in the entertainment industry.
Alex: With the overdoses and other pressures that lead to the, you know, there's pressures that lead to these things, or you actually don't even know, could they have these underlying substance abuse problems beforehand or after, or during, or whatever. Like it
Dr. Alexis: was this happening beforehand or, you know, was this developed as a coping mechanism to get through all of these pressures
Alex: and there's so many people [00:18:00] affected by those things.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. Um, so that's another area where mental health professionals are properly trained to help people work through those types of challenges. Another thing that people don't realize while working the entertainment industry in front of the scene or behind is the isolation and loneliness. That's a part of, of this field of work. Now we talk about yes, they're big group projects. That's not necessarily your friends and family.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: You know, you can't necessarily feel comfortable enough to be your true best self. Um, you might have to be masking the entire time.
Alex: Yeah. And I always think of like all the regardless of where you, I mean, a lot of times you can't talk about what you're doing with your friends and family anyway. NDA's and everything else.
I mean, DC, you know all about this. There's a amount of isolation in what you do and you find comradery around the people that you [00:19:00] can, but you also can't always trust it because you're also working with them in a certain capacity.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah.
Alex: So there is this weird, like version of like how much self-disclosure, how much can you talk about yourself versus not because you may be working with these people later. I mean, I think that's one of the things that when I think of like, since being in DC, coming from LA, this is one of the correlators I've seen between the two that are very obvious to me.
Yeah. Like it's a small world and everyone knows each other and you have to like, so it feels a little isolated. Yeah,
Dr. Alexis: absolutely. And it. Especially, if you have some kind of
crisis yeah or trauma or assault. Well, you don't know who you unfortunately still at this point, a lot of people don't know who they could talk to and trust when, when reporting that kind of stuff. And that in it of itself can be very isolating.
Alex: True, which kind of leads us to. Uh, next I did like the stigma. And around mental health in general
right? So. People are typically not open about mental health, stigma period in their lives. Anyway. And then if you're performing. Uh, [00:20:00] 10 to 12 hour day. I remember. Catherine Zeta Jones came out about being bipolar. I believe. I want to say bipolar. But they came out and they were very open about this. And it was very hard to disclose this because then people judged how she would then perform on set.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah.
Alex: From there on out, which doesn't make any sense. Well, people will start
Dr. Alexis: thinking you know, money signs, like is this.
Alex: The liability.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. And even when we, you know, even for us, when we're, when we're pitching let's bring mental health. It's brings psychologists, you know, in, in, into this industry, into your production. We get some pushback.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: Some of it's like, well, if we ask too many questions That could be a liability for us. So we have to still work through that type of stigma mindset.
Alex: Yeah. And I mean, the thing is the liability is how you're working. People are not a liability. Just because somebody has something going on with them. If you just create a safe, a safer space for it, you have almost no lie
almost no lie about you've minimized the risk. Yeah. They don't see these things because it's [00:21:00] reactive, not proactive. So when it comes to mental health and all facets and all parts of life, we need to move towards proactive, integrated mental health versus reactive. There's a problem. You're a problem there, you know, put them away, hide them away.
Not my back contracts. Cancel these things. Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: Let's start from scratch.
Alex: Yep. it's tough. And with that in mind, like, you know, then the next part is like, if you then disclose these things There's already amount of uncertainty in the industry. Yeah. And so like another big one is career uncertainty.
Yep. I think that, that, that for me terrifies me because, you know, if you, can you imagine not. Getting a paycheck, not having an X job. That somebody didn't like your performance, so you will not be hired for something else.
That's scary. Yeah. It's a very risky industry to try to work in. It's it's very unstable. Even when you hear a success story like this person got a big gig and they're working on a multimillion dollar film or they have a [00:22:00] series. That doesn't necessarily mean it lasts forever.
And then on top of that, you get people who end up being saved,
Dr. Alexis: that stuff.
Alex: Will you get people who get typecast or stuck in a role that they didn't want to be in for a really long period of time?
I think we recently lost Matthew Perry and who was really working on his after addiction and his. Mental health stuff. You know, like there's really, we're going to things. In fact, he, I think what they noticed was he had had ketamine in his system from doing ketamine assisted therapy, but his heart couldn't take it from all the previous drug use.
Right. And so you even think about this, like even trying to get healthy from all of the mistakes you've made from all the tolls that it took in all the different things there. Still takes a toll.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. So, and so all of that, obviously all of that uncertainty can exasperate depression and it can be tied to self-worth plus the very, you know, the very real financial burden.
Alex: Oh, yeah. You know, how
Dr. Alexis: am I going to pay my bills?
How am I going to live Yeah. Especially when we're talking about crew.
Alex: [00:23:00] Yep.
Dr. Alexis: And so that's why there's been a whole lot of strikes. Because it's a very, because the career uncertainty is already a very harsh reality. So if, and when you get a job, you want to make sure that you're being paid properly, given all of these other circumstances.
Yeah. Involved
Alex: and part of the transient nature of things. Like there's always new people trying to step up. There's always new things. And again, DC and LA have lot in common with each other because you have that same type of pattern where you watch like kind of people who have been around for a bit. Get phased out to other areas.
Hopefully they find meaningful, wonderful things with what they're doing. Yeah. But like, that's really tough. It's a really rough place to be when you're looking at that longevity and career and uncertainty around that. It's hard.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. And we totally get it. Um, coming, coming from LA and being raised up in, in, and Jason to the entertainment. And just tree. [00:24:00] And Hollywood, and that's why it's always been my passion. You know to be as involved in helping. This industry with all of its just. Just beautiful. Inspirational creativity. Be something that people can do. In, in a healthy way where they don't have to sacrifice themselves. And their wellbeing in order to create for us to, to entertain the world, to bring joy and intrigue.
Yeah.
So again, what does it look like in practice and mental health and practice onset or in production or anything else? What does it look like in practice? Well, you know, that. I didn't know the answer, but I'm asking you because I want you to do this. I know, but that's the important part. Yeah. When it comes to it, what do you do?
Alex: Cause therapy mental health is in the doing, it's not just around talking about it. Yeah. So I always think of this as like it's an active practice. So you show up on you show what's that people, you know, [00:25:00] therapists read through scripts, understand what content is triggering for different people. They have. Uh, debriefings, preproduction hair, buddy. How you feeling, how are you doing whatever else. It doesn't take a lot. Even looking at schedules, you. Like, okay.
Dr. Alexis: How is this schedule supposed to flow? Do we have enough wiggle room? Are there enough breaks? You know, can't is this doable? Yeah. Cause we're working with human beings here. Not robots. We need bathroom breaks. Like we need time to prepare we need time to transition. Well, then he goes through. Be realistic here. Then you go through shot lists and things like that.
Alex: Like, so what are you shooting at? What a given time, what does that look like? Are you doing super heavy content one after another, after another, do you can, can you break this lighter? Can you then account for things that need transition? Yeah. And then the idea is like, how do you then allow space to debrief and be like, man, that, that hurt or that hurt my brain or that hurt my soul.
Or that hurt me in some way, watching this thing happen on set. Yeah. Um, [00:26:00] or if there's even just flare ups of people's other personalities and how they're dealing with one another. Yeah. We also then mitigate personality onset.
Dr. Alexis: I've I entered out the Dr. Phil show and part of my job was the guest management and keeping guests away from one another
Alex: yep
Dr. Alexis: until they got in front of the camera, which is a whole other issue of exploitation.
But yeah.
Working through the personalities as well, and, you know, making sure that everyone feels safe,
Alex: seen heard. Understood. Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: So people find us mostly through word of mouth through good referrals.
Alex: Some actors request.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. So actors would make requests like, Hey, you know, Cheryl do this film, but part of the requirement is, you know, we want mental health onset.
Yeah. You know, we want this extra support. Um, executive producers help make those decisions as well and make sure that mental health [00:27:00] is part of the freakin budget.
Alex: Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: You know that that's a consideration upfront, not reactive.
Alex: You have a medic onset, you might as well have somebody else there for anything else.
You cannot see that takes a toll that maybe longer than just stubbing your toe or getting a cut. Right. We're spreading or breaking an arm even.
Dr. Alexis: And so that's another thing that we do is that not, we not only do we also provide mental health first aid onset, just like part of your safety team, just like your medic. Um, But I'm also certified to train people to become mental health first aid certified. Yep. And so we can't necessarily be everywhere all of the time. Um, but what we can do is we can also train other people that, and that could be anyone.
They don't have to be mental professionals. We're training producers. We're training you know,
Alex: production assistants. And other people. Yeah.
Dr. Alexis: We're training intimacy coordinators, like we're training, even the teachers onset.
Alex: Yup. [00:28:00]
Dr. Alexis: Um, as many people as we could get on the same page in, under, in assessing and understanding, like what is a mental health? Concern. Crisis.
How do I effectively intervene? How do I, how do we talk about this kind of stuff? Particularly in such a sensitive environment, like the entertainment industry, where there still is stigma and contracts and. Budgets and you know, all these other realities timeframes. Yeah. So it's been a lot of fun.
Alex: It's it's an amazing, it's an amazing thing.
It's so open to more possibility to changing the way we work. And it should, I mean, that's the thing. If we could do it there, you can do it anywhere.
Dr. Alexis: I mean, honestly, We are I might even feel comfortable enough to say like the only mental health practice that is pursuing media entertainment industry mental health. You have a few clinicians here and there that have kind of fallen into it.
Alex: Dabbled in. Yeah. [00:29:00]
Dr. Alexis: Um, just because they happen to know somebody who needed some help and they they've volunteered, but we're the only practice he's really pushing this
Alex: traveling to do it.
Dr. Alexis: And pioneering.
Alex: Hmm.
Dr. Alexis: Mental health. In the entertainment industry. And that comes with pros and constant challenges. Because we have to sell it.
Alex: Yep.
Dr. Alexis: So this concept that like, Hey prevention works.
We can all be healthier and help them. Hey, if we did a good
Alex: job, you won't know that we ever did anything. Except people may be happier.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah.
Alex: Like if you did a satisfaction rating.
Dr. Alexis: Yeah. That'd be great. No, no. So. Stay posted on witandreason.com. You can follow us on all of the social medias ever, except for Twitter slash X
we got off that one cause. Nonsense. Uh, @witandreason. I was very happy to cancel that account
um, and let's keep the conversation going.
Alex: Alright.