As a psychotherapist, I often work with artists and creatives, many of whom have had long careers in the arts. I’d like to think my clinical skills and lived experience meet somewhere in the middle during treatment, as I worked in theater arts for 20 years with a master’s degree in scholarly application in acting. I recall an early college professor stating, “This is a hard career, and if you want to do anything else, you should do that instead” left my stomach in knots, noting years of voice, dance, and acting lessons and auditions for elite theater arts programs. When we tie this message to the infamous anecdote “the show must go on,” we are left with an impossible task: either follow your dreams or suffer for them. If the show must go on, then where do positive self-regard, mental health, boundaries, and realistic expectations come into play? For many, they don’t, leaving our theater kids crumbling from learned behaviors surrounding perfectionism and loose boundaries. They learn early on that there is a greater entity in their work than themselves, and they carry that into adulthood.

My client is sitting in his room, our telehealth........

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