Joe will parter with his colleague and best friend, Philip Searcy, LISW-CP. This workshop is geared at highlighting the powerful connection of mental health and professional theater. We desire for artists and educators to comprehend how mental health is a part of human development and human nature. This workshop will focus on helping actors better understand themselves so that they can more effectively relate to a character they are portraying. This will aid them in connecting this character with those they interact with on the stage. We will educate artists / educators on the critical primary emotions; anger, sorrow, joy, fear, disgust, guilt/shame, interest and surprise and how these all play into how humans react and are perceived by others. In this workshop, we will dive into the understanding of how the bio-social aspect of our lives directly impacts our thoughts, emotions and behaviors. We believe this information will allow artists / educators to better recognize the charter analysis in their own life so that it does not impact their professional life. Our goal for this workshop is for actors and educators to leave feeling better equipped with confidence to build character analysis as well as a jump start at ridding barriers in their own mental health.