Bringing Psychology Into the Creative Process
Stories are ultimately about people: their relationships, choices, conflicts, fears, histories, and the experiences that shape who they become.
I bring over two decades of experience in healthcare and mental health into the creative world, working with writers, actors, filmmakers, production teams, journalists, and other media professionals who want to bring greater psychological depth and authenticity to their work. As a licensed clinical psychologist, published scientist, trauma specialist, and psychological consultant, I have spent my career studying and working directly with people. I have had the privilege of hearing their stories, understanding their relationships, exploring the experiences that shaped them, and seeing firsthand just how complex, contradictory, resilient, and beautifully human people can be.
That experience is what I bring to the creative process. I look at characters and stories through the same psychological lens I have developed over years of clinical practice, assessment, research, and consultation.
Psychological Consulting for Creatives
Psychology is already woven into your story, whether you realize it or not. It shows up in the characters you create, the relationships between them, the conflicts they find themselves in, the families they come from, the things they have survived, what they want, what they fear, and the choices they make along the way.
My role is to help you explore those layers more deeply. I work alongside you to bring psychological insight into your creative process while respecting that this is your story and your creative vision. I am not here to tell you what your character should do. I am here to help you understand what might be happening underneath the behavior so you can decide where the story goes from there.
Every project is different. You may need a single conversation to work through a character or storyline, a psychological review of your script, or someone to collaborate with throughout development and production. We can shape the consultation around your project, your process, and what you need to bring your characters and story to life.
Script Consultation
Psychology is at the heart of every story you tell. It is there in the characters you create, the relationships you build, the conflicts you introduce, and the experiences that shape how your characters see themselves and the world around them. It influences who they love, what they fear, what they avoid, what they fight for, and the choices they make when everything begins to fall apart.
That is where I come in.
I work with you to explore the psychology already living within your story and help you develop it in ways that feel natural, cohesive, and authentically human. I am not here to take over your creative process or tell you where your story should go. You know your characters and the world you are creating. My role is to bring another perspective to the room and help you understand the human behavior underneath what you have created.Sometimes you may just need someone to talk through a character who isn't quite coming together. You may want another set of eyes on a storyline involving trauma or mental health. You might be preparing for a role and want to better understand the person you are about to inhabit. Or you may want psychological consultation woven into the project from development through production.
Whatever brings us to the table, we'll start with your creative vision and build from there. My goal is to give you psychological insight that strengthens what you are already creating and helps the people within your story feel a little more like real people.
Character Development
Some of the most memorable characters are complicated, contradictory, and imperfect. But for those complications and contradictions to fall into place, there has to be a cohesive psychological foundation underneath them. The pieces have to make sense together before we can understand how, when, and why they might fall apart.
I help writers build that foundation by looking beyond what a character does and exploring the psychology that drives their behavior. Drawing from clinical psychology, personality theory, developmental psychology, trauma research, attachment, family systems, and years of direct clinical experience, I help create characters whose choices, relationships, conflicts, and emotional responses feel authentic to who they are and what they have experienced.
That psychological foundation can inform everything from dialogue and interpersonal dynamics to conflict, decision-making, and the larger character arc. It allows a character's contradictions to feel intentional rather than inconsistent and gives writers a clearer understanding of what might hold that person together, as well as what could ultimately cause them to unravel.
For actors, I bring that same psychological perspective to character preparation, helping them understand the internal experiences, motivations, patterns, and conflicts behind the person they are bringing to life.
On-Set Support & Aftercare
Some stories ask a lot from the people telling them. Working with material involving trauma, violence, grief, abuse, loss, mental illness, or other emotionally difficult experiences can affect cast and crew in ways that are not always anticipated.
I provide psychological support during production when projects involve sensitive or emotionally demanding material. My role is to be an available mental health resource for cast and crew while also understanding that a film set is a workplace, not a therapy room. Support can include individual check-ins, grounding and emotional regulation strategies, consultation around difficult scenes, psychoeducation, and helping production respond appropriately when someone is having a difficult time with the material.
After wole wraps, moving in and out of emotionally intense material can take time, particularly when the work touches something personal for a performer or member of the crew. I also provide post-production debriefing and aftercare to help people process the experience, transition out of the work, and identify when additional support may be helpful.
You should be able to tell difficult stories without ignoring the people who have to tell them.