AXA and Hartbeat Unite Star Comedians and Break New Ground with ‘Group Therapy’

Stand-up comedians are known for baring their souls to massive audiences in the name of entertainment. But a new Tribeca-lauded documentary, Group Therapy, takes it further—showing that sharing our struggles is a crucial first step in protecting mental health.

Released on Prime Video, Group Therapy brings together six of today’s leading stand-up comedians for a candid, touching and humorous conversation revealing the connections between their professional comedy journeys and overcoming their mental health struggles.

Host Neil Patrick Harris guides comic personalities Tig Notaro, Nicole Byer, Mike Birbiglia, London Hughes, Gary Gulman and Atsuko Okatsuka through a group therapy session in front of a live audience. Striking a delicate balance between depth and levity, they take the audience on an emotional journey, shifting from tears to laughter and back again, a powerful reminder of the therapeutic power of sharing.

Although each cast member has a very different story, their shared experience of mental health issues is what unites them. Mike Birbiglia openly discusses his struggles with sleep disorders and anxiety. Gary Gulman is vocal about his life-long battle with depression, Nicole Byer reflects on her experiences with grief and her evolving relationship with body image and societal expectations.

Besides the cast’s revelations, one of the most powerful things about the film is that it accompanies a worldwide mental health risk prevention initiative by one of the world’s leading global health insurers - AXA. The 90 minute “docu-therapy” was co-produced by AXA and Hartbeat, in collaboration with WPP, which developed the concept with Hartbeat, its award-winning team, and director Neil Berkeley. Founded by Kevin Hart, the entertainment company Hartbeat creates content and experiences at the intersection of comedy and culture.

Following its critically lauded premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, Group Therapy has gone on to showcase at global film festivals, including The American Film Institute Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival, GlobeDocs Documentary Film Festival, and the inaugural Tribeca Lisbon Film Festival.

More than an award-winning documentary and a boundary-pushing strategy for an insurance brand, Group Therapy represents a unique mental health initiative – at a crucial time when almost one-third of the global population is currently experiencing a mental health condition.

The documentary follows the release of the 5th edition of AXA’s Mind Health report, which paints a worrying picture of the global mental health crisis. Across 16 surveyed countries, 32% of respondents reported experiencing mental health conditions, and younger people are particularly impacted.

Neil Berkley, director, Group Therapy, “‘Sharing is therapeutic’ was always our north star in terms of the message we wanted to get across: we wanted to put both the comedians and the audience in a safe place where they could share. When we first made this documentary, we called it an experiment, because it’s a unique concept. There were never any mandates from AXA to talk about this or do that or mention the brand collaboration aspect in the film.”

Virginie Berçot, global brand director, AXA, “This documentary was born out of a massive international survey we commissioned on mental health. We wanted to find out what sort of challenges people were facing, and the results were alarming. The first step to dealing with mental health problems is to start talking about it with your family, your friends, your co-workers. Sharing is therapeutic. As an insurer, we wanted to get across that message in a really distinctive way that stands out and grabs people’s attention – and with Group Therapy, I think we’ve achieved that.”

Dimitri Guerassimov, chief creative officer, WPP’s VML France, “Group Therapy focuses on comedians—people who make a living exposing their thoughts, feelings, and insecurities—and takes that further. To reinforce the film’s message that sharing is therapeutic, we push boundaries and take the stars out of their comfort zones. This was only possible with AXA’s trust, giving us creative freedom to make something unique. We see Group Therapy as a catalyst for more conversations—because sharing is therapeutic. Sharing in the first line of defence in this generational fight for mental health. At its core, this is the world’s first feature-length PSA on mental health - both an ode to the human psyche and a love letter to the craft of comedy.”

“Group Therapy is a testament to comedy’s power to build connection, uniting the voices that shape culture and creating space for their stories to be heard,” says Janina Lundy, Hartbeat’s EVP of marketing and brand partnerships. “This project is a prime example of how Hartbeat collaborates with brands and agencies to co-create IP and premium content that resonates more deeply with audiences. AXA and WPP were incredible partners in bringing this powerful story to life and spotlighting the healing power of sharing.”

Ahead of the film’s release on Prime Video, AXA has created a series of short video teasers and static banners that will run across Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV and on paid social media including Meta. The campaign, which aims to drive audiences to AXA’s mental health initiatives on a dedicated ‘Mind Health’ landing page, spans three sets of 15- and 20-second videos featuring footage and punchlines from the Group Therapy documentary, alongside a series of real-life scenarios where therapeutic sharing can happen - from chatting to grandparents round the dinner table or sports teammates in the locker room - to deliver the campaign message that ‘Therapy starts with a talk’.