Therapy for Screenwriters & Writers
Writing can be one of the most solitary professions in the entertainment industry.
Hours—or days—can be spent alone with an idea, a blank page and your own thoughts. There may be no cast, crew, bandmates or colleagues around you. And in that quiet, self-doubt can get very loud.
At ArtistServices Therapy, we understand how anxiety, depression, isolation, perfectionism, creative blocks, rejection and career uncertainty can affect both your emotional well-being and your ability to write.
The Particular Loneliness of Writing
Solitude can be essential to creativity. But solitude and isolation aren't the same thing.
Writers may spend enormous amounts of time working alone, often without knowing whether what they're creating will ever be produced, published, sold—or even read.
That uncertainty can create fertile ground for anxiety and self-doubt:
Is this any good? Am I wasting my time? Why can't I finish it? What if nobody wants it? What if the last thing I wrote was the best thing I'll ever write?
Those thoughts don't necessarily mean something is wrong with you. They're often understandable responses to a profession that asks you to create without knowing what the outcome will be.
Therapy can help prevent those thoughts from controlling the process.
When Writing and Mental Health Collide
The emotional challenges writers encounter aren't limited to writer's block.
They can include:
Anxiety and depression
Loneliness and isolation
Creative blocks
Perfectionism and procrastination
Imposter syndrome
Rejection sensitivity
Difficulty finishing projects
Fear of criticism
Career and financial uncertainty
Relationship difficulties
Substance use or unhealthy coping
Comparing yourself with other writers
Difficulty separating self-worth from professional success
Sometimes the problem isn't that you can't write.
It's that writing has become emotionally loaded with everything the work represents—ambition, identity, money, validation, rejection and fear of failure.
Writer's Block Isn't Always About Writing
Writer's block can have many causes.
Sometimes it's perfectionism: nothing feels good enough to put on the page.
Sometimes it's anxiety: you're so focused on whether the work will succeed that you've lost access to the part of yourself that creates it.
Sometimes it's avoidance. Sometimes it's exhaustion. Sometimes you've simply been staring at the same problem for too long.
And sometimes what's happening in your relationships, career or emotional life is showing up on the page—or preventing you from getting to the page at all.
Rather than treating writer's block as a failure of discipline, therapy can help identify what the block may actually be protecting you from or responding to.
The Creative Self and the Critical Self
Writers need an internal editor.
They just don't necessarily need that editor present for every sentence of the first draft.
When the critical voice becomes too powerful, writing can turn into an endless process of evaluating rather than creating:
That's terrible. That's derivative. Nobody will buy this. Someone else already did it better.
Learning when to create and when to evaluate can help restore some of the freedom that brought you to writing in the first place.
The goal isn't to eliminate your critical faculties. It's to stop them from shutting down the creative process before it has a chance to begin.
Rejection Is Part of the Business. It Doesn't Have to Define You.
Screenwriters operate in an industry where extraordinary amounts of work can disappear into silence.
A script may take a year to write and twenty minutes for someone to pass on.
A project can be optioned and never produced. A promising meeting can lead nowhere. A staffing opportunity can disappear. A project can spend years in development.
Understanding intellectually that rejection is part of the business doesn't necessarily make it painless.
Therapy can provide a place to process disappointment and uncertainty while developing a sense of identity and self-worth that isn't entirely dependent on the fate of the latest script.
Therapy That Understands Creative Careers
You shouldn't have to spend half of therapy explaining why an option expiring, a staffing decision, development notes or an unanswered submission can carry so much emotional weight.
David Andreone brings decades of entertainment-industry experience to his work as a therapist, including senior-level roles in the music industry and experience as a television creator and executive producer.
He understands the peculiar intersection of creativity, commerce, ambition and rejection that defines much of the entertainment business.
That experience informs the therapy—but doesn't replace it. Our work is grounded in evidence-based psychotherapy and tailored to you as an individual.
Therapy Isn't About Making You More Productive
The goal of therapy isn't to turn you into a writing machine.
It's to help you build a healthier relationship with your work—and with yourself.
Depending on what you're experiencing, our work may draw from CBT, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, mindfulness, positive psychology and other evidence-based approaches. We may address anxiety, depression, perfectionism, procrastination, relationships, boundaries, burnout, substance use, career transitions or the emotional patterns that interfere with your ability to create and live the way you want.
Sometimes better mental health leads to better creative work.
But your value isn't measured in pages.
A Confidential Space Outside the Industry
Managers, agents, producers, executives, writing partners and fellow writers may all be important parts of your professional life.
Therapy offers something different: a confidential space where nothing needs to be pitched, packaged or performed.
At ArtistServices Therapy, discretion and confidentiality are fundamental to the work.
Therapy for Screenwriters & Writers in Los Angeles
ArtistServices Therapy is located in Culver City, Los Angeles, near Sony Pictures and in the heart of one of the world's largest creative communities.
Sessions are available in person in Culver City and virtually throughout California.
If you're a screenwriter or writer struggling with anxiety, depression, loneliness, creative blocks, perfectionism, rejection, relationships, career uncertainty—or simply trying to find a healthier way to sustain a creative life—we'd be glad to hear from you.
Reach out to ArtistServices Therapy for a confidential consultation.
