There are many support professions in the industry now, that folks often conflate with “Intimacy”, but aren’t quite that. While an Intimacy Director or Coordinator may have some of these skills, remember that the primary role of the intimacy director or coordinator (or Intimacy Professional, when we’re talking about both specialities) supports artists in their creation of scenes and moments of intimacy, with choreography that expresses the story within the parameters of all involved. The exact duties of the job are significantly different, depending on the medium (live performance, like theatre; or recorded performance, like film, tv and video games), since the demands of the workplace and the timeline are different. But the intentions are the same:
- facilitate the scene work and the associated workspaces, as needed
- support all people involved
Wait, aren’t there other things that Intimacy Professionals do?
Yes, it’s important for intimacy professionals to have those supporting skills, such as conflict resolution and psychological first aid. But these are not the primary function of the Intimacy Professional. If the facilitating of artists in scenes and moments of intimacy is not what you’re primarily interested in, you might be better suited to another speciality.
What are those specialties?
These specialties are so new: they’ve only recently been becoming “the norm” in our workspaces. Previously they would have been covered by whomever was most capable in the room, and often fell under the purview of the director and/or stage manager. What I’m offering below are some potential ways to categorize, and is not to be construed as the industry-wide standards. I’m giving specific references where I can. These are very general descriptions to give a general idea. Please do more research on your own to get clearer details for each specialty.
Respectful Workspaces
Helping colleagues work together in respectful ways, aiming to create workspaces that are free from harassment. May include preventative actions, such as building community/room agreements, training in communication skills, and training in basic consent practices. Check out Ground Floor: https://www.groundfloorteam.com/programs/arcs
Conflict Resolution
You may be solely interested in assisting companies who are already in conflict. This may be training them in conflict communication skills, or in mediation. Ground Floor offers some of the skills, and also check out Building Bridges: https://buildingbridges.ca/teams-workplace-workshops/
Mental health coordination
- Ensuring that mental health is represented accurately and respectfully in the story.
- Supporting a performer in their Artistic Mental Health Practice, meaning helping a performer in developing their practices for entering and exiting a role in effective and sustainable ways. They are not therapists, and so may refer an artist to a qualified therapist when the need arises.
- May also support the entire cast and crew in their mental health in the workplace, particularly in response to specific challenges presented by the story.
Check out the Association of Mental Health Coordinators: https://www.associationmhc.com/
An MHC is an interdisciplinary mental health professional supporting responsible and compelling portrayal of mental health and challenging or traumatic themes. This includes individualized training, dramaturgy, assessment, cultural intervention, choreography, and crisis management.
We work alongside creative professionals to ensure respectful and accurate portrayals of mental health and challenging themes. From providing personalized guidance to crisis preparedness, we ensure authenticity and sensitivity in storytelling through a blend of therapeutic insight and artistic expertise. Our role is to support the responsible depiction of mental health across various mediums, fostering a deeper understanding of these important subjects.
Specializing in recorded performance (TV/Film) and live performance (theatre, dance, and music), mental health coordinators partner with artists and producing organizations of all sizes to equip their spaces with best practices and tools to support their work.
We offer organizational consulting, on-deck support for a creative process, and comprehensive training for individuals who wish to join us in facilitating safe, accurate, sensitive portrayal of mental illness while incorporating safeguards for cast and crew’s mental wellness.
From The Association of Mental Health Coordinators website
- Click here for their Best Practices and a list of topics
- check out this post for how Mental Health Coordination can cross over with Intimacy Coordination: https://www.instagram.com/p/DMQl3a7vdDv/?img_index=3&igsh=Z2RrMHFjbmU5OGh1
- This post clarifies On-Set Therapist vs. Mental Health Coordinator: https://www.associationmhc.com/post/on-set-therapist-vs-mental-health-coordinator
Cultural Competency Consultant
Supporting people as they navigate their growth towards increasing their compassionate, sensitive and effective interaction with people of different cultures. This may be in support of any range of identities.
The authors of Culturally Proficient Inquiry:
A Lens for Identifying and Examining Education Gaps defines cultural competency as “the capacity to interact compassionately, sensitively and effectively with people of different cultures.
Cultural competency is expressed in ways that recognize the value of the diverse worldviews and cultures of other people—their behaviour, spirituality, beliefs, customs, language, attitudes, gender, social status, economic status, and so on.
From the Assembly of First Nations website
Intimacy Coordination (tv/film) or Direction (live performance)
Supporting the storytelling of scenes and moments of intimacy, and as such must be comfortable with open communication about sex, sexuality, and intimate relationships. The job includes text analysis, collaboration with directors and actors, and knowledge of existing protocols, with quick problem-solving skills. May include communication with people in various departments. If you’re interested in creating choreography, you’re more likely to do that in theatre as an Intimacy Director. It has been said that as an Intimacy Coordinator on set, your job is 80%-90% preparation (phone calls, tracking details, collaborating, looking ahead to possible concerns), 10%- 20% is on set, and maybe 10% of that on set time will include choreographing.
See this post for more information on Intimacy Directing.
See this post for more information on Intimacy Coordinating.