Creatives Care Chairs First-Ever APA Session on Artist Mental Health
On May 17, 2025, Creatives Care chaired “Treating the Artist Patient,” a session at the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. It was the first APA session to focus specifically on the mental health needs of artists as a patient population.
Presenters
- Alana Mendelsohn, MD, PhD, Co-Founder and Clinical Lead
- Amy Rosenthal, LCSW, Clinical Director
- Lida Rubanava, LMSW, Artist Support Clinician
Artist panel
After the clinical presentation, a panel of professional artists spoke about their own experiences with creativity and mental health:
- Aaron Helgeson (composer), moderator
- Kellie Gillespie (sculptor)
- Dale Trumbore (composer)
- Olivia Cuartero-Briggs (writer)
- T. Tara Turk-Haynes (playwright)
Why this session mattered
Artists experience mental health challenges at higher rates than the general population, yet they have rarely been studied as a patient population with their own risk factors and needs. The session covered:
- the mental health challenges artists face and the research behind them
- risk factors specific to creative careers, such as financial instability, an identity closely tied to one’s work, public exposure, and irregular schedules
- how mental health treatment can support both an artist’s wellbeing and their creative work
The session was also covered in Psychiatric News, the APA’s official publication.
Update, October 2025
Alana Mendelsohn and Amy Rosenthal built on this work in October with the inaugural lecture of the Horowitz-Sondheim Fellowship at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.