Entertainment Industry Veteran Launches Mental Health Practice Tailored to Artists and Creatives

ArtistServices is psychotherapy tailored exclusively to the unique mental health needs of artists, creatives, and creative entertainment executives.

CULVER CITY, CA, UNITED STATES, May 3, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Entertainment exec-turned-therapist David Andreone has worked with artists and creatives his entire 30-year career. Laughing, he says, “Man, what a beautifully messed up bunch we are.”

When the pandemic first hit, Andreone saw his various music and tv projects comes to a screeching halt, putting more idle time on his hands than made him comfortable. After what he describes as a few insanely fidgety months, Andreone realized he could now finally do something he had wanted to do for decades but never previously had the time: become a psychotherapist. So he did — taking advantage of the pandemic-induced downtime, the fifty-something Andreone went back to school and soon graduated with a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology. He’s now an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, seeing clients out of a funky Culver City bungalow nearly across the street from Sony.

“Having worked exclusively with artists for more than 30 years, I saw a dire need for therapists who intimately knew the complexities and nuances inherent to the entertainment industry. Artists were dealing with serious stuff: rampant sexism and gender-based harassment, anxiety, depression, creative dry spells, imposter syndrome, rejection, loneliness, substance use, and — the most vexing of all — reconciling that vexing art versus commerce paradigm.”

But there weren’t therapists out there who truly understood the context in which most artists live. That’s how ArtistServices was born.

Andreone has never not worked with artists. Straight out of college in the late-80s, he founded an arts and literature magazine featuring the likes of Charles Bukowski, Hubert Selby, Jr. and Henry Rollins. He segued into music, where he signed platinum-selling songwriters and artists at Warner/Chappell and Columbia Records. Most recently, Andreone created and executive produced the critically acclaimed Rough Draft with Reza Aslan, a TV show that focused exclusively on (wait for it…) writers.

Andreone contends that the best artists and creatives have always had it rough. Beethoven was bipolar. Munch had horrible panic attacks. Michelangelo had Autism Spectrum Disorder. Plath, Van Gogh, Tchaikovsky — all suffered from depression. Fast forward to today, many artists are quite candid about their mental health: Phoebe Bridgers, Mike White, Kendrick Lamar, David Draiman, Mark Duplass, to name only a few.

It is well documented that across virtually all populations, rates of mental illness increased during and post-pandemic. Andreone says this increase was particularly steep among creatives and artists, and what’s worse, he is concerned that the landscape for artists might be even rockier in the near future. “AI is a credible source of anxiety, to be sure. When writers, composers, designers, artists, and singers are at risk of being made wholly obsolete by technologies that are infinitely faster and cheaper, it’s not an irrational existential fear for artists to wonder where they fit into the future landscape.”

Even with that, Andreone is optimistic about the future. The openness to talk about mental health publicly is a step in the right direction. So too are the newer interventions, including psychedelic-assisted therapy, psilocybin and MDMA. Says Andreone, “When Kaiser and UCLA have Ketamine clinics, it’s hardly a fringe treatment anymore. Where PTSD, depression and anxiety are concerned, it’s clear to see that these newer interventions will live alongside SSRIs and traditional talk therapy.”

“On so many levels, psychology is in a renaissance period. I’m eager to capitalize on the new openness to seeking treatment, and bring evidence-based interventions tailored to the unique challenges baked into the DNA of the entertainment industries. There’s a lot of healing to be had, and I plan on having an active hand in that.”

David Andreone
ArtistServices Therapy
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