I’ve worked freelance in the creative sector for over 20 years, in both the film and music industries and as a teacher and facilitator helping students to make their first steps towards a career in those sectors. As a result, I’ve been acutely aware of the mental, emotional and physical strains that this kind of work puts on people. Through my own journey of personal growth, I’ve explored a range of holistic wellbeing modalities and I now combine these areas of expertise in my coaching practice. In this article, I will be sharing some of the tools I’ve developed to help create and maintain good mental health and well-being.
In the UK, suicide is the leading cause of death for women under the age of 35 and men under the age of 55. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health and well-being have been pushed to the top of the agenda for many individuals and organisations in the creative sector.
In 2019 the charity Looking Glass conducted a research project into mental health in the Film & TV Industry. The conclusions reached from the research were sobering, to say the least, discovering what many working in the industry had long suspected- there is a “mental health crisis in the Film & TV sector”. The study identified the roots of this crisis in the 3 C’s of:
- Poor working CONDITIONS (including long hours).
- A CULTURE of bullying and stigma around mental health.
- A lack of CAPABILITIES in the industry to support mental health.
The research was followed up 2 years later, after the pandemic, and found that in many instances things had gotten worse. Some key takeaways from the 2021 research were:
- 90% of people working in the Film & TV Industry had experienced mental health problems, compared to 65% of the wider population.
- 55% of those interviewed said they had considered taking their own life.
- 78% say that work intensity has negatively affected their mental health, a rise from 63% in 2019.
- 57% said they had experienced bullying, sexual harassment, racial harassment or discrimination in the past year.
- 39% of Black, Asian and minority ethnic respondents had experienced racial harassment or discrimination which had caused 43% of them to consider leaving the industry completely.
- Conversely, only 10% of respondents agree that the industry is currently a mentally healthy place to work.
While these statistics present a pretty bleak outlook for the industry, it is not all doom and gloom and the research stated that “most of those interviewed for the research did believe that things would improve”.
The industry has certainly sat up and taken notice of the findings, with the Whole Picture Programme launching in 2020 to address these issues with support from a wide array of industry organisations. This programme has made some excellent steps towards improving the situation and providing support both on an organisational and an individual level.
This programme outlines a 10-year plan for the industry as a whole, with particular emphasis on the next 2-3 years for urgent action to tackle the immediate crisis.
- Support Line 2.0 growing the reach and expanding the support offered by the current Film and TV Support Line to include a bullying advisor, and new therapy options
- Peer support and self-help building an industry-wide community for support and self-help, likely to be based on digital solutions and augmented by in-person Connections
- Training+ a structured programme of mental health training for the industry, based on a needs assessment and review of current offerings.
- Behaviour change programme a long-term campaign to reduce stigma around mental health and promote open, healthy workplaces by addressing bullying and harassment and promoting our industry’s values.
- Collective accountability working collectively to address the bullying that is endemic in our sector, complementing and building on the important work led by the BFI, to develop industry-wide systems to prevent, monitor and report incidents of bullying and harassment
- Production protocols convening industry to develop its own set of best-practice guidelines for TV or film productions, creating workplaces that protect and support the mental health and well-being of production staff
- Leadership + innovation connecting the activities, sharing knowledge, fostering innovation, evaluating progress and moving the programme forward.
While this initiative represents an ambitious and comprehensive plan to radically overhaul conditions in the industry, the issue of mental health is very personal and it can be very difficult to tell if a person is having mental health problems unless they actually speak it out; The World Health Organisation estimates that two thirds of all mental health illnesses go untreated, with even more being undiagnosed at all. That’s why it’s essential to develop a culture of understanding around mental health that promotes individual self-analysis and accountability.
Much in the same way that people go to the gym to maintain their physical health, there are simple tools that can be implemented to create a strong foundation of mental health that will support individuals in being more resilient to the challenges that are inherent to life in the Film and TV sector.
On my website www.lucidmover.com I explore the relationship between creativity and wellbeing and I am very passionate about promoting both of these in society. When I work with coaching clients we go very deep into their personal stories and I help them overcome the obstacles (both internal and external) that are preventing them from achieving a life of happiness and fulfilment. Below I will share a few of the most important tools that I use in my coaching practice and in workshops.
The first two and most important practices I recommend are ‘bookending’ your day and journaling.
Bookending Your Day
Every single day we have two opportunities to “get back on the horse”. Morning and bedtime routines are essential components of well-being. Even if you slip up and miss one, you always have another opportunity to do so. A healthy bedtime routine should include self-care, meditation, reduced screentime and ample rest.
Journalling
The simple act of recording your thoughts in words has a surprising effect on understanding yourself, your circumstances and your responses to challenging situations. Journaling is an excellent way to process your thoughts and express your emotions. Studies have shown that video journaling is also equally effective. Find more journaling tools on my website.
Where are you at?
“Know thyself… The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates
In order to engage in a process of self-analysis it’s important to have a yardstick upon which to measure one’s progress. The model of assessment I use is based on the 7 Key Areas of Life:
- Mind: Happiness, mental health, learning, understanding self, and emotional regulation.
- Body: physical health, activity, movement
- Relationships: romantic, family, friends, work
- Community: group activities, sports teams, neighbourhood, clubs, associations
- Career: fulfilment through work, success, achievement
- Wealth: financial stability, abundance, wealth
- Faith: belief, spirituality, God, life, the Universe, etc.
Variations of these categories are used across the health and well-being sector as a barometer for happiness and fulfilment, which are arguably the most important goals in life. When I work with clients, I get them to score each of these areas of their life out of 10, using tangible examples to demonstrate the scope of where they are and where they would like to be. These factors tend to change regularly so it’s important to review them often, I recommend anything from weekly to monthly.
I’ve created a toolkit of well-being prompts to help support my clients with building and maintaining a strong foundation for positive mental health and well-being. I call them the 16 Keys and I developed them using a grid that combines the 4 pillars of wellbeing (mind, body, heart and soul) and the 4 elements of life (earth, wind, fire, water):
These are available as a free downloadable PDF workbook that you can access here.
These resources can be used as part of your morning and evening routine to encourage reflection and goal-setting for small, tangible steps to develop healthy practices in day-to-day life.
A typical example of a healthy routine might look something like:
- Boundaried screentime: no screens for the first and last hour of your day.
- A morning routine involving 20 minutes of meditation, 20 minutes of movement (stretching, yoga or callisthenics) and 20 mins of journaling.
- A bedtime routine involving 20 minutes of journaling, 20 minutes of meditation and 20 minutes of reading. Self-care practices such as a candle-lit salt bath, incense, soft lighting, relaxing music and incense to help cultivate a sense of inner peace and prepare the body for rest.
- Mindful consumption: carrying healthy snacks and a bottle of water, reducing caffeine & alcohol intake, avoiding doom-scrolling on social media etc.
Committing to all these practices can seem like a big step for many people but even implementing a few of these elements can have huge benefits. Even just the implementation of a 60-second mindful breathing practice can have dramatic effects, so use these as a starting point; try things out and see what works for you, then try to add more elements as you improve your routine.
Journaling with the 16 Keys will encourage a deeper level of contemplation that will begin to make an impact on other areas of life such as:
- Developing healthy boundaries with colleagues and loved ones
- Making use of breathing techniques to help manage stress
- Spending more time in nature
- Deepening connection with community
- Improving the quality of the spaces you inhabit
Overall these elements combine to support a process of prioritising one’s health and wellbeing, but the most important aspect of all is our own commitment to introspection and personal growth.
I share these tools with you in the hopes that they will provide an opportunity to begin or improve your own well-being practices and help you on your journey to develop a happy, healthy, productive and fulfilling life working in the Film and TV industry.
Additional Links & Resources:
https://filmtvcharity.org.uk/ – The Film & TV Charity provides support and resources for individuals and organisations in the Film & TV Industry to support mental health.
https://www.mind.org.uk/ – The Mind mental health charity works in partnership with the Film & TV Charity to implement the programme discussed in this article.
https://www.samaritans.org/ – Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide.
Tom Bibby is a screenwriter and career coach working with people in the creative sector to help them improve their productivity and well-being. A multifaceted creative with a passion for impacting positive change in the world, Tom combines over twenty years of experience working in music, film and digital marketing with over a decade of teaching young creatives. His own journey of personal development has led him to explore a range of holistic well-being modalities that he now uses to inform his coaching practice. You can find out more about Tom’s story and what he offers at his website www.lucidmover.com or follow him on Instagram and SubStack @lucidmover.
