An overdue update from Bram + new Director Cohort launch!

In case you haven’t gotten enough of them… Here’s another “Happy New Year!”

It’s been a while! More than a while… Over a YEAR since my last newsletter. Part of me feels proud and excited to show you that, in fact, (+ogether) has NOT slowly faded away into nonexistence like so many other things do out there in the world, but another part of me is frustrated and embarrassed that I haven’t carried the momentum through as well as I hoped an intended.

The reality is that a lot has been changing in my life over the past year, and I hope this helps explain where my focus and energy have been at. Ultimately, I think you’ll find it will lead to a more robust, holistic, and clinically-minded experience for anyone doing a (+ogether) group going forward.

I launched the (+ogether) site and began pushing for the first director cohort in July of 2023. Since then, we’ve successfully executed two full cohort cycles, the first for Directors and the second for DPs. Each of these cohorts brought a great deal of learning and experience in seeing how this concept plays out real time, and also demonstrated that this concept works and it brought real value to the directors and DPs who participated. I finished the second cohort feeling encouraged and inspired to continue expanding and refining the experience to add more value and ongoing ROI for the participants.

However, all of this was happening concurrently with another big shift in my life…

For the past year, I’ve been quietly working full-time on a Master’s degree to shift my career and begin to work as a licensed psychotherapist.

Through the beginning of 2023, I was working hard to process my changing and ongoing relationship to the film industry. I had begun to work full time freelance as a director, primarily in the commercial space, and I was not enjoying where my career was heading. Though I had begun to attain what had been my dream and desire for some time, I was frustrated with what I found.

With more “success” was coming greater uncertainty about when my next job would arrive, and less time in the year actually on set and doing what I loved so much about this job: working closely with people.

Compounding with the rapidly advancing generative AI technology, the increasing demand of social content production, and the general disillusionment I felt towards advertising and quick, empty “content”, I began to feel I had less and less interest in a future of work that didn’t enable me to work deeply, slowly, meaningfully, and passionately with people in a vocational craft that I could practice every single day. I began to challenge myself to think beyond what I had previously thought to be my path, and I began to research and speak to other active clinicians, including some who had made a similar transition as the one I was considering. I found myself inspired with fresh vision, refreshed, and nervously but hopefully decided to take the leap and see what met me on the other side. For me, directing has always been about people, and I wondered what it might feel like to work without the camera in the way.

Since January of 2024, I’ve been studying full time on a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis in Boston. What I’ve found has been much greater than I even anticipated—I feel an increasing passion, love, and curiosity for the psychoanalytic theory and it’s application in the clinical setting, I feel expanded and inspired to conceptualize human beings and art in more creative and liberated ways, and I feel very pleased with my decision and the direction I am heading in. I am also working full time as a post-producer to be able to move through graduate school with financial stability.

I still intend to work as a director, but I wanted to change my relationship to film—going forward, I hope to use psychotherapy as my day to day vocation, and continue to use filmmaking to express interests, questions, and stories that I find important in a more freely creative and experimental way, not necessarily connected to commercialization or vocation. Of course, the hard part will be finding the financial means to make any sort of work, and that will be a road I will have to navigate step by step. I’ve been a part of enough large and small scale projects to know that I can make things I feel deeply connected to and proud of that do not require a large budget. For me, this decision felt and continues to feel worth making for the longterm implications on my life and work.

So… What does this have to do with (+ogether)?

Glad you asked! It’s been my intention to continue developing and facilitating more cohorts, but the reality is, I simply haven’t had the margin in the past 6 months or so. I just finished up a very intense semester, and alongside my full-time job, I did not have the margin to put energy towards (+).

However, this Spring, that’s changing! With a lighter course load and more open time, I am now in the process of recruiting for the next (+ogether) Director Cohort!

Given how much I’m learning about interpersonal dynamics, and particularly, group dynamics, I’m extremely excited to have the chance to facilitate these groups again. I believe I have grown as a facilitator and will have even more to bring to the participants this time around.

A few things will be changing:

• I am reducing the price to 4x payments of $150, equalling $600 total for the 16-week cohort cycle. I really wanted to make the groups more accessible and inclusive to people, and I hope this price point will pave the way for more people to access this experience. I will also offer a 10% discount if the amount is paid upfront.

• The cohort cycle will continue to implement the “Hot Seat” / Ultimate Question format (see the description on my site for more info), but will now regularly feature an industry guest every 3rd session to provide the group with access to more outside industry experts and receive personal access and unlimited potential for questions. Each 16-week cohort will hear from two guest speakers. I introduced guest speakers to the DP cohort, and it seemed to be a really helpful and valuable asset for the participants.

If you’re a director and you have interest in being a part of this upcoming cohort, please visit the (+ogether) website and submit an application! The cohort will likely be on a weeknight or a Saturday late morning (Eastern Time). If you’re a director and you’ve applied in the past, you’ll be hearing from me very soon as I reengage you to see if you are still interested and available.

If you’re here and simply want to continue to learn from the insights coming out of these cohorts… Thank you so much for reading, and just sit tight. 🙂 I intend to revive the newsletter and continue using this space to share. Additionally, as I continue to learn and become more and more interested in psychoanalytic theory and how it relates to storytelling, filmmaking, and creativity, I may begin to use this forum to process and share reflections as I actively bridge these worlds. I am excited about that, too.

Thank you for your patience! Feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] if you’d like to chat about anything you read.

(+)