- 3 months ago
Brandon Holman and Zack Borer, two experts at the intersection of music and wellness, will first discuss maintaining mental health and wellness and tour, before Holman leads attendees in a meditation session.
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00:00My name is Brandon Holman. I'm a music executive, mindfulness guide who's focused on the mental
00:06health and well-being for the music industry. And I'm really excited to be here this morning.
00:12When Billboard asked me to do a meditation, I really jumped at the opportunity to start a
00:19conference with a really grounding moment. But I didn't think it was right to just go into that.
00:24I wanted to bring an expert and clinician, someone who's on the ground floor, really has the pulse of
00:33what is the impact, the mental health impacts of touring, really. I think we all know that this
00:40industry can be really hard and brutal. We're all human. The climate and world right now is just
00:48beyond crazy. But there's something about this industry that can be really, really hard on us,
00:53especially in touring. So I'm here today with Zach Bohr from Amber Health. And Zach, I would love for
01:01you to introduce yourself and really speak on the role of Amber Health and the mission, why you're
01:07here. And we could start the slide as well. Well, thank you, Brandon. Thank you, everyone.
01:14My name is Zach Bohr. I am a licensed marriage and family therapist. I live in LA. I'm also the
01:23co-founder of Amber Health. Amber Health is a mental health organization that only works in the music
01:30industry. So we work with the entire system of the music industry, the label side, management side,
01:37the industry side, but also the touring side. We are on the ground clinical support, both in the office
01:46and on the road for the people who are out there creating the shows. So I was a former songwriter
01:56and suffered from immense levels of anxiety, depression, financial fear, relationship struggles.
02:06And when I looked around my musical communities at the time, I saw that there was no specialized help.
02:13And so I really went back to school and decided to become a therapist to work within this population.
02:18So Amber Health has been around for about four years, designing these programs and being boots on the ground
02:26for individuals. Anecdotally, we knew what was happening from the mental health challenges in the
02:35industry. I lived it. So many of us have seen those around us, or maybe we have ourselves who have
02:43struggled, or worked with artists or teams who have struggled with their mental health
02:49because of this industry. So we knew it anecdotally. Then I became a clinician, and we learned about it
02:58clinically. I saw people coming at my office and what they were struggling with. But we never really
03:03had a good snapshot of the data from the highest level on what was happening within the touring industry.
03:09So prior to Amber Health's launch, we conducted the largest ever research study of mental health
03:15among touring individuals. The top-line numbers are on the screen here.
03:21I'm curious, from a show of hands here, and this is a little bit of a, you know,
03:25Brandon's going to do a meditation, so there's already a little bit of vulnerability that we're
03:29asking you all to do. But who here has struggled with mental health issues? Anxiety, depression,
03:37maybe substance use, anything else? Or been around somebody in this industry who has, just from a
03:43show of hands?
03:46I think I see every hand up.
03:50So we know what's happening. And yet, this industry didn't really have any specialized care
03:58to take care of the humans who are working in it. So we wanted to know what was going on on the top,
04:03like sort of the highest level. So as you can see on the screen, we conducted a, it was a 1400
04:12participant survey, was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. And here's what we found.
04:2034% of people on tour suffer from clinical levels of depression. So it's not feeling blue,
04:26it's not having a bad day, is what we would call a DSM, diagnosable clinical depression.
04:35It can skew a little higher, depending on how we look at the numbers.
04:40Three quarters of people suffer from touring strains of their relationships. If anyone's ever
04:45been on the road, that's sort of a given. Almost half of the people on the road drink alcohol
04:51regularly, so that means daily. We do these talks a lot, and sometimes people raise their hand and
04:57they say, that doesn't feel so high to me. Like in the industry, like everybody's drinking.
05:03And here are the scariest numbers and why we exist. 58% of people on tour report having lost a tour
05:10colleague to suicide. Six out of 10 people know someone who has taken their own life.
05:15And then 26% of people on the road in the last year have been suffering from suicidal ideation
05:26or attempted to take their own life in the last year.
05:30So when you walk onto a tour bus, three out of those 12 people
05:36have either thought about it or attempted to take their own life. And then from a protective measure,
05:41only less than 20% of people are having therapy. Not that therapy is the end-all be-all solution,
05:49but it is a sort of a metric that we can gauge to see how people are taking care of themselves.
05:55So with this data, we launched Amber Health and have been working all throughout the industry to try
06:04to lower these numbers and provide a little bit more support. And I can tell you the tide is changing.
06:12We are seeing companies, tours, artists invest in the well-being of their people.
06:20So we did 19 tours this summer and are only growing. And we are here to support all of the
06:28people who make the amazing things in this industry happen.
06:32Well, thank you for being here and sharing all these stats with this room.
06:36We can go to the next slide. I'd love to ask you, Zach, really, how does this work from a tangible
06:43level when you go out on the road and are supporting a tour? Over your last four years
06:49and focusing on this work, you've worked with some of the biggest tours from stadiums, arenas,
06:55all the way down to the theater and club level. When you get the call, what does it really look like?
07:05So there's sort of two paths. One is we get the crisis call.
07:08Um, holy shit, we need you. There's something going on and we will intervene and be anywhere in the
07:17world within 24 hours to help make that happen or to help mitigate whatever the situation is.
07:22But in the best of circumstances, we want this to be a proactive, collaborative experience with an
07:30organization. Maybe it's a promoter or a tour. So the first thing we want to know is what's the
07:36appetite for services? What's the budget for services? Because this does cost money. We want to
07:44understand what the pressure points are. And we basically have three services that we deliver
07:51throughout the course of a tour. One will be that crisis management. For the, you know, 30 to 35 tours
07:57that we've done, every single one of them is at a crisis. Whether that be a death, substance use issues,
08:10we need to get somebody to, uh, treatment because of an intervention, a bus flipping over, domestic
08:15violence, sexual harassment, the list goes on and on and on. You put 30 to 300 people in a condensed
08:23area who are working a lot of hours, really high pressure jobs, things are going to happen. As we
08:29always say, humans are going to human. And then you put them in this pressure cooker of the industry
08:36and it's ripe for all of these things to explode. So we're there on the crisis level. Um, depending
08:42on the size of the tour, we will fly out to various stops along the routing and do sort of two day
08:49check-ins with people. Um, the longer we're on a tour, the more relationship we have with the tour.
08:56We often do meditations with band and dancers prior to walking on stage and we'll do one-on-one
09:04support, um, in the venue. Sort of a non-traditional therapeutic approach, but it works within this
09:10population. And then when we're not off the road, we are available virtually 24-7. So anybody on the
09:17road who needs our support can book a session usually within 24 hours and be seen. Um,
09:23being a clinician and a therapist is not built for this industry. So there's a lot of red tape that we
09:32have to jump through in order to provide, uh, adequate and culturally competent services. But we have built
09:41now a model that works within this industry and it is really exciting to see and it is working.
09:52So we are, you know, humbled to have worked with some of the biggest artists in the world on some of
09:58the biggest tours and, uh, yeah, lucky to be here talking about it. You, you mentioned the word, um,
10:05culturally competent, uh, why is that so important when you're delivering care to a crew member on
10:13tour or a dancer on tour? What's the difference in getting that culturally competent care than them
10:20just calling their therapist back at home?
10:28This is a unique environment. It draws unique people into it. The way that music industry professionals
10:38work is different. The rules are different within the corporate structure. They're a hell of a lot
10:45different on the road. If anybody here is, uh, you know, travels on the road, we only bring people
10:52who understand the industry. So again, I was a former songwriter, became a therapist. My co-founder
10:59worked in the festival space, then became a clinical psychologist, PhD researcher. So we have a team of
11:05about 15, 20 people all around the world. They're former promoters, former roadies, former PR, um, artists,
11:15they come from the industry. The biggest thing, the biggest barrier that I have as a clinician have
11:23heard from working with people in the industry. And when I sit with someone, they say, it feels so good
11:30that somebody understands my work and what I'm going through. I don't have to explain to you
11:37what it's like to walk onto a bus because you just understand it. We at Amber Health fundamentally
11:43believe that that is the difference between quality care and I'll say non-quality care,
11:50but different to care, right? We believe that that relationship is very, very, very important.
11:54And that, you know, the, the client who is receiving the care, when they know that the other person
12:01understands the experience, it makes a big, big difference in the, uh, quickness of the work,
12:08but also the relationship and building it. And that's why we find it's successful.
12:14Awesome. Um, and this work that you do, like the, the clinical care, the clinical model that you've
12:22built, um, you touched on saying, you know, therapy is not the end all be all. Um, I'm a mindfulness
12:30practitioner, breathwork practitioner, and we'll go through a practice momentarily, things that can really
12:35help you in a moment of stress when you're on the road and you're traveling in the corporate
12:40environment. Um, but I'd love to know what role do you see mindfulness playing at, um, relieving,
12:48you know, the stress, anxiety, suicidality of the people that you interact with on the road?
12:53It's paramount. So included in that original data that we collected where we showed you the slide
13:04before we actually asked a, we had a mindfulness questionnaire on there. We wanted to understand
13:10not only what was happening from a depressive level and anxiety level, suicidality, et cetera,
13:15et cetera, all these sort of negative mental health outcomes. We wanted to understand
13:20who was engaged in meditation, wellness, mindfulness practices.
13:27Turns out that the people who have been practicing mindfulness for two, three thousand years
13:32were onto something, right? And we know that the science that's coming out on the effectiveness
13:37of mindfulness is actually quite extraordinary that they've been doing in the last
13:4015, 20 years in hospital settings and clinical settings. It actually is very, very, very effective
13:49as an intervention. So here's what we found. We wanted to, we wanted to understand the difference
13:56between those who are engaged in mindfulness and those who weren't. So if you look at the screen,
14:01unsurprisingly, when you have higher stress, it can lead to higher levels of depression.
14:11When you have higher levels of depression, it can lead to higher levels of feeling suicidal.
14:18That makes sense to everybody, right? Stress leads to depression that leads to
14:25the worst outcome from a mental health perspective.
14:31Finding two says, hmm, for those who have increased levels of stress. So again,
14:37finding one and finding two have the same levels of stress that were happening to them, to them in
14:43their work. But these two had lower levels of depression, which led to lower levels of suicidality.
14:50So what's the difference? Anybody know?
14:56What's the intervention? Mindfulness. So it turns out
15:01that our bodies, our minds, our experiences can absorb stress and manage stress completely
15:14differently when we engage in a mindfulness.
15:17Mindfulness. So yeah, you could have nervous system regulation, right? All of the mindfulness,
15:23it stops our minds from going, we're breathing, all the things that Brandon's going to lead us
15:26through for those of us who maybe have never had a mindfulness practice or a meditation practice.
15:32But it is a staggering finding because nothing else changes, right? The work doesn't change,
15:38the stress doesn't change, the environments don't change. The only thing that changes is the individual
15:43decision to engage in mindfulness. I guess it kind of makes sense, right? You get an email from
15:51your boss or whatever it is and your heart rate goes up and you're ready to fire off the
15:55fuck you email or whatever it might be. What does everybody tell you?
16:00Take a breath.
16:00Right? Or don't do it within 24 hours, right? Don't. Because it allows our nervous system to
16:08regulate our rational mind to sort of kick in all of the thoughts and feelings and stories and
16:16angers and resentments and all the shit that the email brings up, which we can work out in therapy for
16:22sure. We give them a space to burn off a little bit. And so it helps lower the depression and then it
16:34helps lower the suicidality. There are so many ways to engage with your mental health, right? And I think
16:45we live in a world now where more people are open to this. We're having this conversation. Like,
16:55I want to thank you. I want to thank Billboard. I want to thank all of you for sitting here doing it
16:59because we were not having these conversations two, three years ago. And the fact that we can have
17:05these conversations means that we can change things. So there's ways to get involved. There's ways to
17:14help yourself. And the cool thing about mindfulness is it's available 24 hours, right? It is always
17:23there. We just have to learn how to engage with it. And I don't know, maybe I'll ask you a question.
17:35I'm going to become the therapist for a second. So Brandon, I mean, we're going to get to your,
17:41or we're, and I want to take, to take up too much time, but maybe why don't you tell us and me about
17:46your engagement with mindfulness and how it changed maybe some of your life?
17:55Well, like I said, I'm music executive. So I've been in the music industry for the last 15 plus years,
18:03label side, partnership side. And I got a lot of those fuck you emails from my boss, right?
18:13My sort of aha moment came when I was fired from a job that my whole life and identity was just like
18:24built around. And once that was taken away and my level of like access to the industry just
18:31temporarily disappeared, I felt like I had nothing at all. Um, and I realized was like,
18:39okay, like my whole ego and identity is just like wrapped in this industry that I love, but it's
18:46not all of me. Like it's something that I do and I participate in, but this industry isn't my name and
18:53it's not my last name. So I went to a yoga breathwork class and I'd just gone through a breakup at that
19:01time too. So I was just like in a very turbulent kind of place, but I was doing some of the,
19:07the breathing exercises and I'll, I'll, you know, go into one pretty soon, but I had this temporary
19:14moment of relief. I had to do a deep inhale and hold. And as I was holding that breath, I felt all of
19:25the guilt and shame and resentment and everything, it just like disappeared. And I was just sort of
19:32floating in bliss and what we call like equanimity. It was just the space of nothing. And that's when I
19:39knew I was like these ancient civilizations, like this mindfulness stuff, it, it works.
19:46And as soon as I came out of the breath, maybe it popped back in. Like I am the person that just
19:51got fired. I am all the things, but I was like, there's something here with this mindfulness stuff.
19:57Um, and that's where I decided to really focus my, my work and energy in this industry to provide
20:05resources and, and, and be a help because I've lost friends to suicide. Um, I've had my own addiction
20:12struggles and I just wanted to help. Um, so I'll walk you through a breath, one that you can quite
20:20literally do right when you get that, oh my God, email, you feel your body tense. It could be an email.
20:27It can be your kids, family. This works with everything. Right. Um, but some researchers,
20:33I think they first found this or discovered this breath in the thirties, a team of like physiologists
20:40and it resurfaced almost like 10, 15 years ago, um, from a doctor, forget his last name is Jack
20:48something, but he's based in UCLA and there was a researcher at Stanford. They, they were doing a lot
20:54of studies on, on stress and they rediscovered this breath. It's called the physi, physiological sigh.
21:03Some of you might've heard of it, but when you're facing that very stressful moment, you feel your
21:08nervous system tense up. It's a very simple breathing exercise. You take an inhale in through the nose and
21:16then you take a rapid, a second inhalation through the nose. So, and then you sigh out through the mouth.
21:23Sometimes if you see your dog, like maybe sleeping, if anyone has dogs, they just like automatically do
21:33this. They just like, and then a deep breath. They recommend that you do that breath at least two to
21:42three times. And the studies have shown that your, your, your rates of stress just dramatically drop.
21:50I want to do this practice for about a minute, two minutes and see how we feel.
21:55Um, and then we'll go into our next breathing exercise. So again, the physiological, uh,
22:00sigh, one inhale or two inhales through the nose, feel free to close your eyes.
22:19On that second inhale, feel free to just hold for a little bit, hold and exhale.
22:30Continue for a few moments. You might notice that you feel a little tingly, a little lightheaded.
22:49It's totally normal. What you're doing is just re-oxygenate, re-oxygenating your bloodstream
22:56in your system, calibrating your nervous system, turning on your parasympathetic nervous system.
23:06The longer you inhale, the more sense of calm and relaxation that you can feel.
23:17And do two more.
23:19And final breath.
23:35And just eyes remaining closed. Just breathe at your own pace from here.
23:44Notice any sensations.
23:49You might notice a softening.
23:57And another exercise you can do, which I'll guide you through if you have a little bit more time,
24:03is just a simple body scan.
24:08Just a moment for you to check in with the deeper parts of yourself.
24:14Sometimes the parts that we tend to overlook when we're going through a busy day.
24:20So from here with our eyes closed.
24:24And just breathing at our own pace.
24:28Let's put our attention at the top of our head, our crown.
24:32Breathing in here, noticing how we feel, noticing any sensations.
24:43And then we're going to lower our awareness and inner gaze to our forehead.
25:01Slowly coming down to your eyes.
25:04Really softening here.
25:15What does the inner eye see right now?
25:23Slowly making our way down to our mouth and our lips.
25:27Breathing into the space consciously.
25:40Now lowering to our neck and our throat.
25:45Taking conscious inhales here.
25:50Breathing into our throat and neck.
25:59Making our way down to our shoulders.
26:02Notice what you feel here.
26:08We tend to carry a lot of worry, anxiety.
26:12All the pressure from the world tends to reside in our shoulders.
26:18On your inhale, see if you can just loosen the shoulders a bit.
26:23And bringing our awareness down to our chest and our heart.
26:47Consciously breathing into the space.
26:49As we lower feeling where our tailbone is making contact with the chair.
27:18Breathing into our hips.
27:19Breathing into our hips and our waist.
27:31Moving down to our legs, our thighs.
27:45Breathing into our knees.
27:49Deep inhales in through the nose.
27:56And out through the nose.
27:57And on your next exhale, bringing your focus down to your legs.
28:06Your shins.
28:09And your ankle.
28:15And now breathing into your feet.
28:24Take one more inhale together in through the nose and out through the mouth.
28:35And I invite you to open your eyes when you're ready.
28:49We just did two quick exercises that you can apply to your day.
29:02I'm really honored and thankful to share this moment with you.
29:09Thank you, Zach, for joining me.
29:12Thank you, everybody here.
29:16Thank you, estimating me.
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