Wellbeing in the Arts founder and former West End performer Adam Bambrough discusses mental health in the industry and his own experience with audition anxiety and self-care.
We’re joined in the Spotlight Voiceover Booth by Adam Bambrough, founder of Wellbeing in the Arts, to talk about mental health in the creative industries.
Adam is a former West End and touring actor and director who, after struggling with his own mental health, changed his career path to focus on helping people working in the creative sector with mental health issues. He recognised the sometimes unique challenges facing those working in the creative industries and founded Wellbeing in the Arts as a place for people to go for mental health and wellbeing support.
Adam Bambrough
Earlier this year, Spotlight partnered with Wellbeing in the Arts to be the providers of our Member Assistance Programme, which is included as part of Spotlight membership for members who are 18+ and reside in the UK and Ireland.
Members can access a range of services for free, and in this podcast we talk more about what those are and how to access them. Adam also shares his own mental health journey, self-care and dealing with rejection.
Take a listen:
Get Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
We’ve partnered with Wellbeing in the Arts to offer Spotlight members who are 18+ and residing in the UK and Ireland free support. Services include:
- Access to a mental health and wellbeing support team via phone, WhatsApp, text and email
- Up to six free counselling or coaching sessions each year
- Financial, legal and practical advice
- Mental health and wellbeing workshops, talks and events
- Access to online resources
You can speak with Wellbeing in the Arts about any issue – whether it’s related to your personal or professional life. If you’d like to access their services, you just need to contact Wellbeing in the Arts and they’ll put you in touch with one of their specialists.
Episode Transcript
Edited for clarity
Welcome to The Spotlight Podcast, Adam. Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and about your background as an actor and director?
Adam Bambrough: I’m the founder and CEO of Wellbeing in the Arts. We provide mental health and wellbeing support to the creative industries. But before that, I was a predominantly theatre actor for about 15 years working here in London and touring, but I’m somebody who really struggled with my own mental health whilst working as an actor. I had really severe depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, and then had a late diagnosis of autism and ADHD, which has given me the lens to look back through my life slightly differently now. I had a long spell when I was acting and getting work never really seemed to be the problem, but my mental health was really challenging during that time.
Did you realise that you needed to get help?
Adam Bambrough: This was a different time, even though it’s not that long ago in terms of calendar years, but mental health wasn’t talked about as much. I came from a background where there was no talk of mental health in my household. A lot of the things I was struggling with I didn’t even know what the term was for them and I kept it all very much to myself. I made a concerted effort to keep it to myself. I was terrified of people in my family or people I was working with, casting directors, directors, producers finding out, so I kept it all very much to myself.
Kristyn Coutts: I’m sure that’s quite a common thread for a lot of people actually, is just to pretend everything’s fine and mask it all.
Adam Bambrough: Yes.
What was your journey, from being an actor, a director, and then deciding to found Wellbeing in the Arts to help other people?
Adam Bambrough: With the acting, I found being on stage was quite cathartic. Being somebody else, being able to escape my own self for a while. But when I would come off stage, it’d be a period of about half an hour of still feeling like I was somebody else, but then there would just be this crash back to the reality of my own mental health, my own life.
I now know as part of my neurodiversity, I would struggle to manage money, for example. So often I would fall behind on rent. I would be effectively kicked out of quite a lot of flats and the places I was staying and subletting. I would end up sleeping in the park, etc. I found auditioning really tricky as well. There were so many big auditions that I went for where I would just put my hand on the door and just couldn’t go in that room and I would literally run out of that space. I just felt all of this was really counterproductive to trying to balance my own mental health.
The last show I did was here in London. I remember being in the wings on opening night and I had quite a long run ahead of me, but every fibre of my being wanted just to get out of that building. So I made a promise to myself that this would be my last role. I got through the run, came out the other side, stuck to that promise, but wasn’t sure what to do next. Just by chance, I took a job running a very small theatre charity. I would travel around the UK meeting people who were struggling financially. Often, they couldn’t feed their children. They couldn’t pay their rent, and I would get to know them and get them some financial help. What was really interesting to me was how many of those people had underlying, often undiagnosed, mental health issues. People who were working in theatres, set painters, directors or producers.
As somebody who kept all my own stuff to myself I’d never seen things like this before, and their stories really resonated with my own. They would start to say similar things like, “I don’t want to speak to my employer about my mental health. I’m terrified of them finding out,” especially freelancers. They would talk about the NHS having huge waiting lists and not being able to get seen. Private counselling being really expensive. I felt a strong desire to do something to help.
I actually started by writing a book on mental health in the arts, the idea being to showcase people’s individual stories and celebrate those people who were keeping our industry ticking over while struggling with their mental health. Then I wanted to put a chapter in that book that would signpost people to where they could go for support.
I spent eight or nine months researching every organisation I could find to see what they did for mental health support and realised very quickly that was just next to nothing. The conclusion of the book was going to be highlighting the need for a standalone mental health organisation for our industry. I just had the thought one day, “Well, why don’t I just go and do that?”
Three years ago, I launched Wellbeing in the Arts. It’s built on the experiences that I’d had as an actor struggling with my mental health and also of the experiences of the people I’d met across the six or seven years that I was working at the charity.
What’s the scope of support that you offer at The Wellbeing in the Arts?
Adam Bambrough: We provide access to counselling, coaching, wellbeing, support, which is having people on TV and film sets in rehearsal rooms, providing on the ground in the moment support. We run workshops, mental health first aid training, artist supervision, etc.
We tend to work in four areas:
- We work as an EAP, which is an Employee Assistance Programme for organisations of all shapes and sizes, supporting staff or members.
- We support productions, TV, film, theatre.
- Individuals can self-refer to our service and cover the costs themselves.
- And then we have this whole spectrum of workshops and projects that we put together.
Kristyn Coutts: Does financial support come as part of that?
Adam Bambrough: Yeah. So financial support is part of the EAP work we do. Finance can be such a trigger for people’s mental health and comes up in so much of the support that people need.
Kristyn Coutts: I think more so in the current climate.
Adam Bambrough: That’s right. Yeah.
Would you be okay to share with us what about auditioning you found especially… Is triggering the right word?
Adam Bambrough: I think it certainly triggered something in me. I think it was the unknown, and I’ve learned through the diagnosis for autism that not being aware of what comes next is quite alarming for me. The idea of opening a door and stepping into a room, which I didn’t know how it looked, how it smelled, how it felt, who the people would be in there, was really quite consuming for me.
There were so many auditions where before I got there, I would know the sides inside out, but in that space, I’d be so overwhelmed by even just the light or the temperature that I just wasn’t able to perform to the best of my ability or I would literally run out of that space.
Kristyn Coutts: Out of interest, was self-taping a thing when this was happening?
Adam Bambrough: No.
Kristyn Coutts: Do you think self-taping would’ve helped or not?
Adam Bambrough: Potentially, I think it would’ve helped. I think having the skills to be aware of what was happening to me at the time, having an early diagnosis would’ve all have helped me more. Having a greater understanding of myself.
If I were to audition today, I think I’d feel much better about it because I would know, “Okay. This is going to be quite challenging for you. Stepping into the space is unknown,” but I’m aware of what that feeling would be. I could put some things in place to help me with that and I’d just be so much kinder to myself knowing that it was quite challenging to do that.
Kristyn Coutts: You’re right because if you don’t have a word for it and understand what’s happening, it could probably feel quite isolating.
Adam Bambrough: Yes. So I would run out of the space and I can remember coming to a halt down the street and just feeling so bad about myself, “What is wrong with you? What are you doing?” I would make this false promise to myself, “Okay. I’ll never do that again,” and I’ll obviously do it again next time round. It’s really tricky when you are feeling, you’re experiencing something, but you don’t have the understanding of what it is. How can you tackle it if you don’t really know what it is?
Kristyn Coutts: I feel like understanding of neurodiversity is getting better. It’s certainly more talked about at Spotlight. We are very conscious of that when we’re making decisions about people accessing the building, for example. I think that’s coming across in other companies as well. I guess there’s more work to be done.
Adam Bambrough: Yes, definitely. Whatever job we do as an employer or a colleague, we all want for the people in our team to have the conditions to do the best job they can. The casting director wants the actor to give the best version of themselves. So a world in which we can have some awareness of neurodiversity or whatever else it may be, and prepare the ground for people to do their best is where we need to get to.
Kristyn Coutts: Yep. I guess we have access riders and things now, and that needs to be more common. Thank you for being so candid.
Can you talk a little bit about your work supporting productions?
Adam Bambrough: We support productions of all shapes and sizes, and obviously every production is different, but the general rule of thumb is that we will work with the company to decide who would be the best practitioner to be in the space, depending on their gender, ethnicity, age range, etc.
Personalisation is a huge part of the work we do. So the practitioner will be in and around the space at least once or twice a week. The idea being that the company can get used to who they are, how they sound, how they look. The practitioner is there for anybody who wants to have a chat. It could be about anything related to the show, related to their personal lives. There’s no limits to it really.
Then the company can also access one-to-one online wellbeing sessions with the practitioner at any point. The practitioner is there from the first day of rehearsals all the way through till beyond the production is finished. I think it’s really important that people can exit a production safely as well.
Then some organisations will add the EAP element to the support we provide as well, which is where people can access six sessions of counselling or coaching, the financial, legal and general practical advice on top of that as well.
The idea with all the work we’ve put together is that it can apply to organisations from the very largest all the way down to the smallest.
Spotlight members who are 18+ and based in the UK or Ireland can access support from Wellbeing in the Arts. Can you talk a little bit about the partnership and what’s available if anyone needs support or just wants to make contact about any of the issues we’re speaking about today?
Adam Bambrough: It came about really through me being a former actor and a lot of actors using our self-referral service, meeting a lot of actors on shows, and really wanting to provide the support that I feel actors need. I got in touch with Spotlight, who from day one have been fantastic for us to work with, very receptive, very keen to put something together. The service means that, as you rightly said, any Spotlight member based in the UK [or Ireland] over the age of 18 is able to access our full employee assistance programme, which includes:
- Up to six sessions of counselling, coaching, artist supervision, free of charge.
- There’s financial, legal and practical advice.
- There’s going to be a whole series of workshops and events for Spotlight members as well.
- A whole range of online resources, newsletters, all that are coming down the path as well.
It’s just proved really popular from day one. I think on the first day of launch, I think we had over 100 people get in touch asking for support, and that number has just grown and grown.
I think it’s a really interesting insight into where the profession is at in terms of mental health and wellbeing. So many people are in need of support, but they just haven’t known where to go for it or been able to afford it. Having an organisation that is industry specific, so all of the practitioners that we work with all have a background in the creative industries themselves, they’ve been writers or directors or painters or musicians who’ve retrained as counsellors or coaches so they understand the world.
Kristyn Coutts: Which is really important.
Adam Bambrough: It’s really important. This is one of the real hot topics that came up when talking to people who I met through the charity who wanted to access support. They often felt that if they accessed the NHS, perhaps after a long wait, the counsellor wouldn’t understand the world they worked in and would often make judgmental comments about our industry.
Kristyn Coutts: And I guess maybe doesn’t really understand the pressure points there are.
Adam Bambrough: Absolutely. We’ve just seen a whole range of people get in touch from people who are working on long-running TV shows all the way through to people who perhaps haven’t worked for years. And a whole range of issues from what we would call ‘day-to-day’ issues people are struggling with, all the way through to people who have presented as suicidal, people who, as soon as we’ve picked up the phone, have burst into tears.
I think the key message is that if you’re struggling with your mental health, you are by no means alone. I would just urge anybody to reach out to us. You can do so by email, by telephone, by text, by WhatsApp.
As somebody who struggled with my own mental health, I still have weekly counselling, I still have ups and downs. I would just urge anybody who is really struggling to get in touch and access support, and that support can take many forms. I think that’s a huge part of mental health support. It doesn’t have to be in a structured way. It can be attending the coffee mornings we run. It can be doing some group counselling work. It could be just having a couple of sessions with a practitioner.
Kristyn Coutts: To be clear, it doesn’t just have to be anything you’re struggling about within the profession, right? It can be something you’re struggling with personally.
Adam Bambrough: It can be absolutely anything.
Can you talk a little bit about your practitioner’s qualifications?
Adam Bambrough: All of the counsellors that we work with are either BACP, which is the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, or UKCP, which is UK Counsellors and Psychotherapists registered, which are the two main governing bodies in the UK. They all have the necessary training. They have the accreditation through the two governing bodies.
These are practitioners who in their private practice are normally charging £90 – £110 pounds but they work with Wellbeing in the Arts because they have that affiliation with the industry, which is great. The quality of support that we provide is hugely important to me, and that it’s the best it possibly can be.
We always ask people who access support to give feedback on their journey, on the experience they’ve had as well to make sure we can maintain those maintenance levels. The pairing process is really important as well. It’s such a personal thing to access mental health support. So as part of our assessment of where somebody’s at, “Well, who would you like to work with in terms of gender, ethnicity, age range, sexuality?” Then we’ll pair them with a practitioner who meets those requirements. Sometimes the two people meet and it’s not quite the right match, which is absolutely fine, and we would just pair them with somebody else.
Kristyn Coutts: I think the personal approach is always a great thing. So that’s wonderful that you offer that. The support, I think, is mostly online, but face-to-face is available for those who need it?
Adam Bambrough: We tend to work mostly online. We found it’s easier in a couple of ways for people to access, so they don’t have to go through travel, etc, certainly people who’ve got busy lives. It opens a door to a much wider scope of practitioners. So you may have somebody in London who wants to work with a practitioner who’s got a very specialised set of skills, but they’re based in Bath or Newcastle, and we can make that pairing. But we also acknowledge that there are some people who can’t access online sessions and therefore on those occasions we can put together face-to-face support.
Kristyn Coutts: Great. So it’ll just be a case of reaching out and again, as part of the pairing, that’s where you’ll work it out.
Adam Bambrough: Personalisation is key from day one.
Can you give us a little taster about some of the workshops you’re going to be running?
Adam Bambrough: There’s some common themes that often come up that we hear about which relate to burnout, building resilience to stress. So there’s some work around those. Imposter syndrome is a very popular workshop that we’ve run previously, so that will feature as well. There’s a lot that we hear about people feeling quite lonely and isolated within our industry, and that’s something we really want to tackle as well, something I struggled with myself.
We like the idea of doing some group work and what we call wellbeing coffee mornings, where people can just come together. There can be a peer support element, but also a practitioner in the space who can offer advice on any mental health and well-being issues that come up as well. The group as a whole can direct what direction some of the topics that are discussed are.
Kristyn Coutts: I think the topic of isolation is important. We had a graduate mixer here at Spotlight recently where they hadn’t had the same drama school experience because of COVID, and then you come out of that and the industry changed. I think any opportunity for people to get amongst their peers and people who understand what they’re going through, to get a feel for what the industry’s doing, are great. So it’s good to hear there’s coffee mornings and things that people can attend if they want to. Are those online as well?
Adam Bambrough: Yeah, they’ll be online. I think there’s a plan at some point to make them regional as well because the work we do is across the UK. I think it’s really important. The organisation at its core is for everybody and anybody within our industry. So trying to make all the support we offer as accessible as possible is a huge part.
So yes, they’ll start online, but having them in person over time as well I think would be really good.
Kristyn Coutts: And as you say, it’s not just for performers, it’s for casting directors and agents, any creative industry professionals.
Can you explain what the difference is between coaching and counselling and what the process is for each of those if they differ?
Adam Bambrough: The process to access is almost identical in that when somebody gets in touch, we ask them just to complete an online assessment form, which gets that background about who they are, their circumstances, who they’d like to work with, and then from that information we’ll pair them with an appropriate practitioner.
Now, a counsellor will tend to deal with mental health issues. It could be anxiety, depression, all the way through to eating disorders and suicidal ideations, for example. A coach would tend to look at areas such as life coaching or financial management or wellbeing coaching, but there is often a crossover.
It may be that you present with burnout. Now, a counsellor might want to look into the reasons behind that burnout, what the psychological reasons are behind why you keep burning out. A coach would look at it from a different angle and work with you to see how they can help you prevent burnout from happening again. There’s a growing trend towards people who are both counsellors and coaches, which have proven really popular because you can get an element of both.
You mentioned that financial struggles can often lead to mental health issues. What kind of services do you offer from that perspective?
Adam Bambrough: Financial struggles, not knowing when your next paycheck is coming in, for example, can really impact on our mental health. It’s often at the root cause of a lot of people’s mental health issues, certainly when they have families, etc. Certainly if they’re based in London with it being so expensive and the cost of living being so high as well.
Some people will access counselling support because financial issues have had an impact on their mental health. Other people might want to get in touch and just say they’re struggling with a budget or they’re struggling with self-assessment and that’s where we have the team of advisors as part of the financial, legal and practical advice side of the EAP. They would have ad hoc sessions with an individual to walk them through whatever it is that they’re struggling with.
We’ve spoken a little bit about neurodiversity and about perhaps there being different access requirements. What support is available specifically for neurodiverse performers?
Adam Bambrough: We have a spectrum of counsellors who specialise in neurodiversity, and if somebody presents with a neurodiversity, we would often pair them with one of those counsellors. I think having an understanding of what it is to be neurodiverse can really help access a lot of the stuff that people are struggling with. Certainly a case for myself, my counsellor I work with specialises in neurodiversity because it is the lens through which I view so much of my life.
Are there any common themes that you see that performers struggle with that they come to you for support for?
Adam Bambrough: There’s a lot of common themes. Regardless of what profession and what we do within the profession, we are still human beings. There’s so many people who will struggle with what are effectively the ‘typical’ issues that we see, which are anxiety, depression and eating disorders present a lot in our line of work. There’s a lot of issues that come from identity, how much our identity as a performer or as an agent is attached to the work we do. It seems to be really prevalent in this line of work. Then who are we when we are not working? Again, something that really resonates with me as an individual.
When I had a job or with running Wellbeing in the Arts now, it gives me a purpose, it gives me a sense of myself. But when I was not in a play, a film or TV show, I really struggled with who I was away from that. So those are the very common issues that come up, but it goes really across the spectrum, even within those issues.
People can experience what they may call just ‘day-to-day’ sadness all the way through to people who just struggle to get out of bed, struggle to send an email, and how are they ever going to get work if they can’t even put themselves forward for work.
Kristyn Coutts: If any of this is sounding familiar to you listening, please do get in touch with Wellbeing in the Arts. We have their contact details on our website or you can go to wellbeinginthearts.org.uk. Please do reach out.
As part of the member assistance programme, Spotlight members have access to six sessions for free. What happens if someone needs more ongoing support?
Adam Bambrough: Which often happens. We work with two levels of counsellor. We work with student counsellors who have got four or five years training behind them. They’ve all been on placement with organisations like Mind, again with the background in the creative industry, and then we work with fully qualified, heavily experienced counsellors.
Once somebody has had their six sessions of counselling covered by their Spotlight membership, they can ask to continue to work with their counsellor for another six sessions. They can go all the way up to 24 sessions, but they would have to cover the costs themselves, and that’s where the two levels of counselling might come in. So to work with a student counsellor is much cheaper than to work with a fully qualified experienced counsellor.
Kristyn Coutts: I assume that at the end of the six sessions there’ll be some sort of discussion about that?
Adam Bambrough: Yeah. Towards the end of a block of sessions, the individual and the practitioner will have a discussion about whether there’s a need or a desire to continue. If the answer is yes, they would let me know and then I would present what the options are.
It’s challenging because some people just don’t have the resources available to cover the costs of another six sessions at the lowest rate, which is perfectly understandable. So what we’re trying to do is build partnerships with some other organisations such as theatre charities, who might be able to help individuals cover the cost of those extra sessions as well.
Kristyn Coutts: That’s really great to hear.
Can you talk about some of the other organisations that you work with?
Adam Bambrough: We work across the UK. We work in Europe and internationally as well now, which is really exciting. That ranges from the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera House, the Globe Theatre through to the National Theatre of Luxembourg. It’s all shapes and sizes.
Spotlight membership is 73,000 approximately all the way through to organisations who might have five members of staff. So we’ve tried to make it as scalable as possible and as accessible as possible. So whether you’re a huge organisation or a small one, our aim is to be able to provide you and your team with mental health and wellbeing support.
What would you say to anyone who maybe still doesn’t want to open up about their mental health struggles or to get support?
Adam Bambrough: Well, I would say I’ve been there. I still find it difficult to be open about it. Even just on this podcast mentioning autism for me always triggers a thought of, “Wow, do I want people to know that? Will they view me differently?” But I would also remind people that all the support we provide is 100% confidential, so nobody would know that you’ve been in touch with us. That could be via phone call. It could be via text message. It could be via an email, whatever communication method feels easier.
I think the benefits of accessing support are so great that once you start on that journey, you will look back and think, “Why didn’t I do that sooner?” I certainly did, but that’s not neglecting the fact that it can be really hard to open up. We still live in a society where for some, it’s seen as a weakness to open up about mental health. I think it’s getting better. I think the younger generations certainly are much more willing to talk about their mental health.
But I would just really encourage anybody who’s struggling, no matter how big or small the issue is to get in touch. I think talking about it just makes a huge load of difference. There’s so many people out there who are struggling, so you’re by no means alone.
In a recent webinar with Spotlight members, you spoke about boundaries and protecting yourself, can you expand on that?
Adam Bambrough: Boundaries mean different things to different people. So whilst at the charity I did my own counselling training and having now worked with counsellors for three years doing this work, a huge lesson I’ve learned from them is the importance of boundaries. For example, a lot of counsellors will take a period of time off across the summer, and that’s non-negotiable. That’s just for them to recover and make sure that when they come back to work, they’re the best version of themselves.
Now, it’s not always that easy to do when you’re working in our industry when work is quite sparse, but I still think the idea of boundaries really does apply.
I think boundaries is quite a wide term to use, but the idea of being able to protect ourselves a little bit, I think, is really huge. That can be from the criticism that we put on ourselves. It can be the criticism other people throw at us in a bad review. It could also be in the working conditions that we accept. We work in an industry where people do a lot more hours without pay than perhaps they should, and that can impact on our mental health and wellbeing.
It’s really difficult, when we’re worried about where our next job’s going to come from, to be able to put a boundary in place that says, “Actually, I’m not going to do that because of the impact it’s going to have on me.” It is really hard to do that. I completely understand. I’m learning this myself because I have been doing this work for three years and the workload has been so high. I’ve been working six days a week up until 2:00, 3:00 in the morning most days, just to try and keep up with it, and I could really start to feel it hitting my own mental health. So I’ve had to try and enforce boundaries as well.
I think it comes back down to the principle of if we don’t look after ourselves, who else is going to look after us? We work in a really difficult industry that would potentially chew us up and spit us back out. I think as long as we’re quite clear and upfront about what our boundaries are, that’s absolutely fine.
Kristyn Coutts: You need to advocate for yourself, but it’s difficult. I know that as a people pleaser myself, although it is something I’ve had to become better at.
Adam Bambrough: And the psychology behind people pleasing is quite interesting as well.
Kristyn Coutts: I’m sure!
Adam Bambrough: What does that say about the value we put on ourselves? We put somebody else’s well-being, somebody else’s opinion, somebody else’s thoughts above our own.
Do you have any advice on how to cope with knockbacks or rejection?
Adam Bambrough: I used to be really bad at this. I would almost obsess about a particular role, and when I was rejected for it, it’d feel like my whole world had collapsed. I think doing the work we do now and getting into a lot of rehearsal rooms and speaking to a lot of casting directors has been really interesting because the reasons why you might be rejected for a role, there’s just so many.
It could have nothing to do with performance at all. You could even be the best actor in that room that they’ve seen, but for some reason, they decided to go with somebody else. So I think the best way I would suggest to deal with rejection is almost to create a separation that the audition itself is the job. That’s the work. Did you do the process to the best of your ability? That’s the bit you can control. After that, it’s just a lottery, unfortunately.
It’s a cliche, but the idea of controlling the controllables is my process, what do I need it to be so I can be the best version of myself in that room? If I did that, if I gave the best performance I could then that in itself is a degree of success. What happens after that is effectively in the lap of the gods, because it could be something as, I mean, I’m very tall. “Oh, you’re too tall. Not that you couldn’t act, but you’re too tall.” They wouldn’t tell me about the height. I would internalise about, “Oh my goodness, I must’ve given the worst audition ever. They’ll never see me again.” Our minds just fill the blanks with negativity. Again, that’s where boundaries can come in.
I’m such a strong believer in positive self-talk. I think we should just try and really build ourselves up as much as possible.
Kristyn Coutts: Do you believe in things like mantras and do you do any of that?
Adam Bambrough: They can work for people, definitely. I think a lot of people buy into breathing exercises, etc, to calm anxiety. I used to have quotations or poetry that I would look at, and that would help be part of my process.
Kristyn Coutts: For me, it’s a little bit of a meditation.
Adam Bambrough: Meditation’s a good one. Yeah. I think whatever works for you, if you can find that process.
What safeguards would you like to see put in place around bullying and harassment? Are you aware of any support that’s available for people if they experience this in the workplace?
Adam Bambrough: It’s a huge topic. We often get people whistleblowing on shows or working companies about the bullying, the harassment that they’ve experienced, and often they don’t know what to do with it. They’re terrified of being the person who has to put their hand up and say, “It’s happening to me,” because we know from the past that often the person who raises their hand is the one who will find themselves removed from the production.
It takes a lot of bravery, I think, to put your hand up and say that you are the subject of bullying and harassment. Obviously, that’s where we can provide some support, I think just having an ally, having the opportunity to access some counselling or some coaching to help you process what has happened.
It’s been the case where some people have got in touch and they’ve said they’ve had a bad experience and they’ve asked us to advocate on their behalf with the production, with the employer, which is absolutely fine.
But also there are some organisations coming who are really interested in this work that we’ve started having conversations with as well. CIISA being the main one. So hopeful that what they do will see an improvement.
Unfortunately, we work in an industry where supply outstrips demand so often. Here to this day, people saying they were told, “Well, if you don’t like it, go get a job elsewhere,” and it’s so damaging.
I think there’s so much work that needs to be done about how we value each other, what we bring to productions, to organisations. I always come back to that if you invest in people and you look after people, you get the best from them. There’s no reason to treat anybody shabbily. We all want the same thing. We want the best products, whatever that is, be it a show, be it a company. I think it’s a really big issue. I’m hoping we’re starting to move in a better direction.
What do you think workplaces can do to better support the mental health and wellbeing of people?
Adam Bambrough: It’s tricky because I understand from their point of view as well that they’re often running on limited resources and you’ll find that one person’s doing the job of three people. So I understand that element too, and that’s why I’ve tried to make what we do as affordable or scalable as possible.
I think the idea of people having an organisation they can go to that’s one step removed from that employer is really helpful for everybody, not only those people who need help, but also the people who run organisations, who we often hear from them are struggling themselves and they’re often having to feel the wellbeing challenges that come up from people as well. So it can relieve some of that pressure.
I’d love to say, we need to pay people more, we need to work less, etc. but that’s just not realistic, unfortunately. I always believe in trying to invest in the people that we’re working with, listening to what people need on an individual basis. I’ll ask the people who work with myself at Wellbeing the Arts, “What can I do to create an environment that gets the best out of you?”
We’ll have people who perhaps have got neurodiversity and are terrified to tell the director or the producer because they’re worried they’ll be viewed differently. But the director is then working with them, not knowing that they have this neurodiversity, and you can see the relationship start to fracture sometimes, whereas if the director knew, they’d perhaps work with them slightly differently.
Openness and transparency is a huge part of this, and the more open and transparent we can be at both sides is really useful.
Do you have any overall self-care tips you can share?
Adam Bambrough: I’ve struggled with self-care, if I’m honest, for much of my life, and it’s something I’ve made a real conscious effort at since Christmas to improve. I think I got to Christmas last year and just felt myself completely burnt out. I’ve started to put boundaries in place around working hours for me.
I’ve started to try and be much kinder to myself, acknowledging that not everything is going to go perfectly, that we’re going to make mistakes. I’ve also tried to find time for things that I enjoy. I think that’s a huge part of it. Even just having five minutes of doing something that you enjoy, whatever it is, it could be to read, to meditate, to watch a bit of a TV show has been a big help for me.
I’ve also, I must admit, really benefited from putting my mobile phone down and not using it. I’ve taken off most of my apps, most of my social media. I just found it so disturbing. Yeah, that’s been a huge one for me.
Kristyn Coutts: That’s also something I do. We have a stand at home now and my husband and I have to put our phones on the stand so we don’t interrupt our time with our children. It’s so easy to just get distracted, and before I know it, I’m just scrolling and getting really annoyed about the world.
You mentioned in the book you’re writing that you wanted to celebrate performers who are working in the industry and perhaps struggling with their mental health. What could we be doing to help celebrate those people?
Adam Bambrough: I think the removal of judgement is huge. It’s so easy as humans to judge people based on their appearance, their accent, their class. I can remember working and hearing a director and producer talking about somebody who was struggling and effectively blackballing that actor because, “Well, don’t work with him because he’s struggling with depression,” or whatever word they used. So I think the removal of judgement is a really big one.
My last question is to ask if you can remind people how they can get in touch if they need support?
Adam Bambrough: You can get in touch via email at support@wellbeinginthearts.org.uk, by telephone, by text, by WhatsApp. All of the information is on the Spotlight and on our website as well.
Kristyn Coutts: Perfect. Adam, thank you so much for being with us today.
