Make your life in the entertainment industry the best that it can be!
Do not wait another day.
Contact Patricia for a brief, complimentary telephone consultation at (805) 241-6700.
Patricia specializes in helping individuals in the entertainment industry find happiness and success by offering concrete steps that can be implemented immediately. She helps individuals create a vision for their life that aligns with their dreams, passions, and life goals.
You’re Invited: An Online Townhall – Mental Health In Focus
To help people better understand the complexity of mental health, Healthline.com recently hosted a live townhall meeting. They say it is “a virtual event in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month. Our guests include artists, entertainers, journalists, and advocates, each of whom tells a personal story about their mental health journey via books, broadcasts or foundations that advance the public conversation.”
If you missed the original online meeting, the event has been recorded. Access the video at any time here.
Entertainment Professionals & Celebrities Speak Candidly
About Psychological Distress
- Bruce Willis was recently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. In response, his wife, Emma, has become a vocal advocate for education about the rare disease. Watch her here in this short video, where she also talks the effect any life-changing disease has on an entire family.
- In this blog post, “High-Functioning Depression and Suicide,” we discuss the tragic situation in which Stephen “tWitch” Boss (DJ for the Ellen DeGeneres Show) committed suicide. In a note left at the scene, police indicated that he referred to past challenges. Did he share these challenges with anyone? Or, more to the point, how could he possibly have hidden his struggle with such challenges?
- In this Podcast, RHONY star Bershan Shaw is interviewed about the effects on her mental health of dealing with Stage 4 cancer. Understanding Mental Responses To Physical Ailments.
- Duchess Meghan revealed that she had suicidal thoughts in her interview with Ophrah Winfrey.
- Attaining unimaginable fame by age 17, Justin Bieber was also on track to experience anxiety, depression and addiction. He reveals his experience in his YouTube docuseries Seasons. Read more about the implications and consequences of his early fame here.
- From Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to Brad Pitt, male entertainers acknowledge that depression can haunt them. Read the full story here.
- Seven female entertainers, from Catherine Zeta Jones to Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, speak out to #endthestigma of mental illness. Read their story here.
- Courage is speaking the truth about mental health. From rappers to princes, courage can be found in those brave enough to speak. Read about courage here.
- Combatting suicide and suicidal thoughts is possible, as Demi Lovato makes abundantly clear. Read about her efforts to fight depression and her consequent suicidal thoughts — and the song it inspired — here.
Why Are Creative People Susceptible To Psychological Stress?
People in the entertainment industry are both imaginative and emotionally vulnerable. Some research suggests that there may be a psychological cost for participants engaged in the creative arts since they have a greater vulnerability for psychological distress.
No one is immune from distress, as the variety of people who relate their stories in the videos below can well attest.
What does Prince Harry and company have to do with couple or family counseling? Actually, everything. His new book, Spare, is not only a revealing look at the royal family, it touches on grief over the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, and the tangled family relationships between father, step-mother, brother… the list goes on.
Forty-five years ago Anthony Hopkins had a wakeup call: he realized he was drinking himself to death. Virtually overnight, he gave up drinking and has been sober ever since. Read about Hopkins’ inspiring story of recovery, and watch him talk about his 45th anniversary of sobriety.
Clearly conveying what you’re thinking or feeling is hard enough under the best of circumstances. But what happens when you’re feeling something you can’t explain, or even identify? That’s a problem central to mental health, and artists and creative individuals in particular struggle with the issue.
At the same time, a person’s creativity also allows them to dig deeper into their feelings and often with tremendous insight. Take, for example, the song Colorblind, by Mokita. In it he describes what it’s like to deal with depression.
Read more about Mokita here, and listen to Mokita perform Colorblind in the video below.
When Oprah Winfrey interviewed Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, the Duchess admitted that she struggled with suicidal thoughts. See the relevant portion of the interview here.
Kristen Bell (if you’d like to go straight to her discussion about anxiety, scroll the video to about 5:30).
Dwayne Johnson
Brandon Marshall
Model, actress, and British It girl Cara Delevingne has opened up about mental illness, revealing that she’s been battling depression since the age of 15.
Now 23, Delevingne spoke candidly during an interview at London’s Women in the World Summit this week about the struggle to please her family and pushing herself too far.
“I really wanted to do well at school to please my parents, to please my family,” the model said. “I didn’t really care that much about school because I knew I was never going to be very good at it. I think I pushed myself so far, I got to the point where I had a bit of a mental breakdown.”
If you’re reading this and wondering how someone so beautiful, wealthy, and successful could be depressed, Delevingne addressed that too: “In our culture, we are told that if we are beautiful, if we are skinny, if we are successful, famous, if we fit in, if everyone loves us, that we’ll be happy. But that’s not entirely true,” she explained.
Recent stats show that depression is more common than you might think, affecting 14.8 million American adults, or about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older, in a given year. Women are also twice as likely as men to experience depression.
In Delevingne’s case, the illness reached a low point after she became a successful model, when she began having suicidal thoughts: “I was completely suicidal, didn’t want to live anymore. I thought that I was completely alone… I wanted the world to swallow me up, and nothing seemed better to me than death.”
She added that yoga, writing, and advice from Kate Moss helped her get back on track: “I eventually took a break, on the advice of Kate Moss, who picked me up off the floor at a very stressful time.”
Read more here.
Movie star Brad Pitt is another who openly discusses his thoughts about mental health issues. With a wry sense of humor, Pitt says “I used to deal with depression, but I don’t now, not this decade – maybe last decade. But that’s also figuring out who you are. I see it as a great education, as one of the seasons or a semester – ‘This semester I was majoring in depression’.”
People in the entertainment industry seek counseling for a variety of reasons, including:
- Anxiety And Depression – Mental Illness can cause shifts in energy, mood and activity level.
- Self-Image Issues – Self esteem may be fragile and contingent on continued fame.
- Body Image Issues – Anorexia, bulimia and an abusive relationship with food and exercise can create mood instability.
- Performance Anxiety And Stage Fright Issues – Negative thoughts, beliefs. images and predictions may hinder performing in public.
- Addiction Issues – Recreational drug and alcohol use can change the way the brain functions.
- Brain Chemical Imbalances – Certain medications may balance highs and lows that fuel creativity.
- Balancing Professional And Personal Life Issues – Problems with dividing time with a creative arts career and marriage and family commitments.
- Relationship Issues – Personal relationships are not providing a sense of fulfillment.
- Affairs and Infidelity – Temptation or betrayal has occurred.
- Financial Problems – Struggles with money management issues are unresolved.
- Confusion — Conflicted about whether to stay in or leave the entertainment industry.
You may wonder if your life in the entertainment industry can be improved.
It can! Individuals with a genuine interest in growth and change can find greater meaning and purpose in their lives.
Please call us today at (805) 241-6700 for a brief, complimentary consultation.
A Process Uniquely Developed For You:
Patricia utilizes a step-by-step approach to help individuals achieve goals that promote a healthy lifestyle in the entertainment industry. She collaborates with clients to teach them effective strategies to improve their lives. Patricia uses her clinical expertise and empathic understanding to help clients find beneficial ways to enhance their professional lives and enrich their personal lives.
Goals and objectives are uniquely set for each individual client:
- Individuals learn how to reduce overall frequency and intensity of anxiety, depression and mood instability so that their daily functioning is not impaired.
- Individuals learn about brain chemistry and the effects of psychotropic medications on brain function.
- Individuals learn how to accept the powerlessness and unmanageability over mood-altering substances and the value of addiction treatment programs.
- Individuals learn how to resolve the core conflict of low self-esteem and body image issues so that they may lead healthy lives.
- Individuals discover how to decrease thoughts that trigger performance anxiety and stage fright issues and learn how to utilize self-enhancing, positive self-talk.
- Individuals learn ways to reintegrate into their marriage and families following professional travel commitments.
- Individuals learn how to find a work-life balance so that they may build relationships which bolster togetherness in a marriage and a sense of belonging in a family.
- Couples learn how to talk about an affair by exploring the potential contributing factors to vulnerabilities to an affair, potential contributing factors from the couple’s relationship, potential contributing factors from outside the couple’s relationship and factors to consider in reaching a decision about the relationship after the affair.
- Individuals explore financial issues and the role money plays in their decision to stay in or leave the entertainment industry.
Call Patricia today at (805) 241-6700 to begin the process of healing, growth, and transformation. She will provide a brief phone consultation to answer your questions and address your concerns.
Patricia McTague-Loft, Marriage And Family Therapist – Credentials Count!
Patricia’s educational background includes a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Marital and Family Therapy from California Lutheran University and a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership from Biola University. In addition to holding memberships in several honor societies and professional organizations, Patricia obtains ongoing psychological training, specializations and certifications.
California Psychotherapeutic Resources, Inc. is a Merchant Debit and Merchant Credit Card Provider.
California Psychotherapeutic Resources, Inc.
5655 Lindero Canyon Road, Suite 621, Westlake Village CA 91362
Satellite Office: 301 Science Drive, Suite 235, Moorpark CA 93021
Photo Cara Delevingne: Gage Skidmore
Photo Brad Pitt: © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com
Disclaimer: The screening tests and videos that are linked on this web site are not designed to provide diagnoses for the various clinical issues. They are intended solely for the purpose of identifying the symptoms of the issues and to help you make a more informed decision about seeking help. An accurate diagnosis for these clinical issues and other psychiatric disorders can only be made by a physician or qualified mental health professional after a complete evaluation. If you have scores that indicate that you meet criteria for these issues or think that you may be at risk, please contact a mental health professional or your physician.