As a performing artist, you will have spent thousands of hours honing your craft, developing your technique, learning repertoire and developing good physical habits in order to try to prevent career-limiting injuries. How much attention have you given to your psychological health?

When I studied at Conservatoire in the 1990’s, no-one was talking about psychological wellbeing. It was often a case of “survival of the fittest”, and some of the most astonishingly wonderful musicians didn’t make it out into the music profession simply because they were not equipped with the psychological tools they needed to survive in a challenging environment. Of those that did, some turned to alcohol or other crutches to cope with the pressure they felt as performers and weren’t able to sustain their promising musical careers beyond the first few years.  Performance anxiety was just as prevalent then as it is now (yes, it affects almost all of us), but no-one spoke about it. I know that I was ashamed of my own performance anxiety, seeing it as a weakness. I hoped that if I kept quiet about it, nobody would notice. I later discovered that many of my seemingly confident colleagues were isolated in their suffering too.

I wanted to do more than just survive as a musician, and it was this that led me to coaching and a qualification in rational emotive behaviour therapy, via a degree in psychology. 

Fast forward thirty years and I am now back in a conservatoire setting working as a positive psychology coach at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, enabling students and other external clients to increase their psychological wellbeing and performance confidence. In the context of coaching, performance anxiety is no longer seen as a taboo subject or a shameful affliction. I welcome it in and work with my clients to loosen its power whilst equipping and empowering them with a powerful cocktail of self-knowledge, a better understanding of how their bodies and minds work together, and above all, self-acceptance. This healthy approach to performance lasts much longer than the anaesthetizing cocktails of the past.

I offer 1:1 and group Performance Confidence programmes, available both online and in person.