In the film “Towelhead,” Summer Bishil plays 13-year-old Jasira, a Lebanese-American girl navigating through her adolescence, including challenges with identity, sexual awakening and self-esteem.

In our interview, Summer, who made the film at age 18, and is now 20, talks about a number of her perspectives on her work.

“Acting is a way for me to just kind of work through whatever I’m going through,” she commented. “You do it in front of a camera, and it’s an art, so it’s constructive. But it’s also therapeutic.”

“One thing I’ve learned is to not make acting impersonal, not make the character impersonal, but to stay within the walls of their psyche. I don’t like to bring my own psyche into the character. I think that can get really confusing for the person, and the work.”

[Follow image link for print and Kindle editions of the book, and video trailer for the movie.]

Summer Bishil imdb profile

Related post on The Inner Actor: Summer Bishil on the emotional toll of “Towelhead”

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Melora Hardin has wide-ranging passions as an artist, including acting, directing, dancing, writing and singing. She plays “Jan” on the tv series “The Office” and has roles in a number of film and tv projects. At 13, she won a scholarship to study with the Joffrey Ballet Company in New York.

She sang as Fantine in “Les Miserables” at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this month; made her feature film directorial debut in 2007 with the movie “You,” and has produced two albums of her writing and singing.

She says of her multiple talents: “I’m always very very keen to keep my eyes and heart and ears open to opportunities to be creative. That’s really my reason for being on this Earth, is to find more and more opportunities to be creative, and as long as I’m looking for those, and walking through those doors, and receiving those, and participating in those, I’m going to be fine.”

Melora’s CDs are available at her site: Melora.com

and at Amazon (where you can hear clips): The Meloradrama, and Purr.

Also read our earlier interview article.

Article mentioned in podcast: Alanis and Her Anger.

My article with quotes by Sting etc: Pain and suffering and the artist.

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Jenna Forrest has been a committed student of higher consciousness since 2004. She published her memoir Help Is On Its Way to introduce the topic of high sensitivity to mainstream audiences. Today, she runs her own business as a writer and consultant.

From her office in Durham, NC, Jenna represents companies, businesses and personal brands as they grow toward enterprising goals, keeping their image and communications credible, earnest, alive and relevant.

She also does interviews and writes articles to help people who want to empower and transcend their high sensitivity. In the interview, she talks about a number of perspectives and strategies she uses in helping her clients, and suggests books and programs.

Related material:

Transcript of interview

Jenna Forrest’s site

Jenna Forrest’s blog: Empowerment Tips for Body, Mind, Spirit, Money, and Relationships

Books:

Help Is On Its Way: A True Story, by Jenna Forrest

Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, by David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D.

Article about Steve Pavlina using Paraliminals: Caffeine, anxiety, productivity.

Paraliminal CDs used by Jenna: Positive Relationships, and Prosperity.

Articles on Emotional Freedom Techniques.

Articles by Eckhart Tolle

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Dr. Stephen A. Diamond is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist in private practice, and a member of the Approved Panel of Psychiatrists and Psychologists for the criminal division of the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

A former pupil and protege of Dr. Rollo May, Dr. Diamond sees many creative individuals, including members of the Writer’s Guild, and the Screen Actors Guild.

He is the author of the book Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity, and contributed chapters to the best-selling anthology Meeting the Shadow, as well as the books Spirituality and Psychological Health, Forensic Psychiatry: Influences of Evil, and the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion.

Dr. Diamond teaches psychology at two local graduate schools, and currently writes a weekly blog for Psychology Today. He is working on a new book tentatively titled Secrets of Psychotherapy: Restoring the Soul.

In the interview, Dr. Diamond talks about actors who have shown a dark and violent side, including Christian Bale (”Batman”), and how therapy helps people navigate the ‘benevolent possession’ of creativity and the challenges of being closer to its source in the daimonic side of our psyche. He also briefly addresses keeping a balance between introversion and extroversion, and dealing safely with anger and rage, whether we are an artist or not.

Transcript of interview

Dr. Diamond’s Psychology Today blog: Evil Deeds - A Forensic Psychologist on Anger, Madness and Destructive Behavior

Dr. Diamond’s website

Article: In Praise of Perfectionism, by Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D.

Our earlier interview (text): The Psychology of Creativity: redeeming our inner demons

Books:

Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity, by Stephen A. Diamond.

Spirituality and Psychological Health, by Richard H. Cox et al.

The Courage to Create, by Rollo May.

Meeting the Shadow, by Connie Zweig, Jeremiah Abrams.

Related Talent Development Resources pages:
Anger
The Shadow Self

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Susan Kirkland is a graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design and author of the book Start and Run a Creative Services Business. She is a seasoned professional designer with experience in both ad agencies and corporate in-house departments.

In the interview, she talks about a number of topics and experiences as an artist, writer and graphic designer, including sexism in art school and the commercial art field; how politics affects her work and interactions; how her art sometimes springs from traumatic circumstances; attitudes of others toward talented women; and what makes the field and being a freelancer exciting and challenging for her.

Her book is Start & Run A Creative Services Business.

Her site: sdkirkland.com

Her blog: blogs.graphicdesignforum.com/skirkland/

Susan refers to this interview with Paul Pearsall, and this post on solitude and creative work.

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Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., is author of Loving In Flow; the Los Angeles Times Bestseller Writing In Flow; and four other nonfiction books, at least 700 articles and essays, and a novel.  She is also a social psychologist with expertise in relationships, and is a writing consultant and online instructor.

In our interview, she talks about the ‘busy mind’ and being distractible, and how that may be different in writing fiction, compared with nonfiction. Also, about how fear impacts writing, and helpful attitudes to have about ourselves when creating.

Learn more about Susan and her husband, poet Stephen Perry, at www.bunnyape.com

Also see our earlier interview article.

One of her books:  Writing in Flow — “Creative individuals - painters, sculptors, physicists, musicians … have left many accounts of what goes on in consciousness during the creative process. But writers have the advantage of being able to describe this process in their own medium, in words. This brings their accounts to reflect much closer the actual mental process, so that in reading some of the excerpts Perry quotes one can almost imagine oneself being in the place of the person writing.”

[From the Foreword by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.]

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