this is interesting. haha. appeared in Guardian just a few hours ago

"Who'd be an actor? According to a recent study conducted by researchers at California State University, people who are both imaginative and emotionally vulnerable.


In the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, Paula Thomson and S Victoria Jaque wrote: "Our study adds to the body of research that suggests there is a psychological cost for participants engaged in the creative arts."


Having conducted interviews with 41 professional actors living in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Cape Town, South Africa, focusing on the relationship to loss and trauma, Thomson and Jaque compared results with a control group of non-actors, drawn from other artistic disciplines, athletes and art lovers.


They found that actors are more likely to struggle to discuss past traumas, suggesting that they find it harder to resolve emotional problems. "Even though there was no difference between the two groups for past traumatic events," the researchers wrote, "more actors were unable to maintain narrative coherence when discussing memories of past trauma and loss."


Thomson and Jaque go on to describe how, despite an increased ability to "remain engaged, regulated and coherent during the interview process," members of the actors group were more likely to display signs of confusion, prolonged silence or "unsuccessful failures to deny a traumatic or loss event". They argue that this suggests "a greater vulnerability for psychological distress". However, the study also suggests that the actors have higher than usual imaginative facilities than members of the control group.


Thomson and Jaque caution against thinking of an acting career in therapeutic terms: "Actors may have enhanced their imagination through the practice of acting or they may have entered a career that supports their heightened predisposition for fantasy.""

what about a counsellor who's also into acting? haha.