Music and Mental Health

Hello, my name is Tina Rix. I am a Sr. licensed psychotherapist specializing in trauma and narcissistic abuse, and a now 100% online group mental health practice owner. I am also a singer/songwriter who found that neglecting my creative and musically inclined side for too many years was not healthy. I wanted to integrate all my creative sides with my healing/nurturing side displayed when practicing therapy and seeing clients. I have been fortunate and blessed to have my mental health company, Better Path Family Counseling and Consulting, PLLC, be able to donate 100% of the cost needed to produce Season 1 of the Music and Mental Health Docuseries film project. At the end of 2019, I decided to focus on feeling alive and happy again after putting my foot down and walking away from a severely abusive spouse. I realized there was no reason I could not merge the two worlds I operate in and love together. It was then that Music and Mental Health were birthed, but there was a pre-requisite, I had to go into the community and get the stories of the people who chose music, to begin with. My goal is to eliminate stigmatization and introduce mental health people worldwide while letting them know they deserve to share their stories. I decided not to focus on myself and only rely on myself for this project. The community needed to help me with this one. I wanted to tell the story of the importance of owning your story and stomping out the stigma surrounding mental health through the lives of artists and musicians in the creatively free city of Austin, TX, where I have resided full-time for the past five years. The film's main goal is to feature music and artists you may or may not have heard of before normalizing discussing mental health topics, bring awareness to the importance of mental health and trauma, and utilize music and musicians as a vehicle to help get the message out about the importance of sharing your story and stomping out the stigma surrounding mental illness and trauma (like PTSD). The independent artists featured in this project helped her catalyze healing projects; each one is passionate about mental health awareness and the importance of supporting independent artists. They are our healing agents. They help us emote and process our stuff and provide the soundtrack to our lives. Authenticity from each featured artist's care for humanity is what the spirit of this project left our skeletal film/editing crew uplifted with. We are extremely hopeful that the content of the docuseries resonates with every viewer, young and old, positively. We filmed right up until the world shut down due to COVID-19, in March 2020, then resumed filming in the summer of 2021. It is amazing how timely and even more relevant this film project is now due to the mental and emotional state of people in the US and worldwide. The film has been awarded 60+ film awards globally since it entered into the film festival circuit in the fall of 2021. Here's a little more info about me and the intentions I had when creating this Docuseries: My film company, Thought Positive Media, LLC, was created for artists and creatives to share their life stories and music journey in different ways while creating exposure for themselves. The added incentive of being involved with such a project is to create an avenue to grow their community and fan base, which is vital for independent artists. I am a woman of and for the common people. I am very comfortable rolling up my sleeves and jumping right into any environment, eager to learn from the cultures surrounding me. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor with 18+ years of experience in the mental health and trauma healing field of work. I graduated from Prairie View A&M University at the age of 21, back in 2006, with a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. I am currently attending a private University in California, working on my doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy, emphasizing social justice. I believe in integrating the arts and mental health/family systems, which is what my dissertation will also focus on.