Behind the scenes of PsychFlix Media
PsychFlix Media was born at the intersection of two parts of my identity: psychiatrist and storyteller. I’ve always found myself watching movies or TV shows not just for entertainment, but for the characters’ emotional worlds, the silence behind their words, and the unspoken trauma in their story arcs. Over time, I realized how much media actually teaches us about mental health, often before we ever speak to a therapist or walk into a clinic. And sometimes, it teaches us the wrong things.
As clinicians, we ask about support systems, stressors, and symptoms. But we rarely ask about what our patients are watching, relating to, or being shaped by. Media is where people connect. It is where they find characters who reflect parts of themselves, and where they absorb stigmas that make them afraid to open up. It can validate, distort, empower, or mislead. PsychFlix Media is my way of bridging that gap. It helps mental health professionals think more critically and compassionately about the media their patients consume, and it helps audiences better understand how stories shape our understanding of healing, identity, and illness. The hope is that by openly exploring mental health in the media we all share, we can chip away at stigma, make care more accessible, and maybe even understand each other a little better.
But PsychFlix Media isn’t just for clinicians. It is for anyone who has ever seen a character and thought, that’s me. It is for the people who wonder why a certain film hit so deep, or why they always return to the same show when they’re feeling low. It is for those curious about how storytelling influences mental health, and how our internal worlds influence what we love (or hate) on screen.
This is only the beginning. I envision PsychFlix Media growing into a platform not limited to deep-dive pieces, character explorations, interviews with directors, actors, and writers, a podcast series, and eventually, a production company dedicated to creating media that gets mental health right. One day, I hope PsychFlix Media will be a name recognized not just in Psychiatry, but in creative industries, film festivals, classrooms, and in the hearts of people who understand that storytelling is, and always has been, a form of therapy.
