Performing Arts.
Therapy for Performers
I specialise in therapy, counselling and mentoring for those in the performing arts, as well as sports, media and those involved in performing at any level.
Whether you’re experiencing mental blocks, injury worries or retirement issues, healing the whole individual is paramount if you are to perform at your very best.
I have extensive experience working as a performer – a Top 10 Music Recording Artist, Producer and Composer, as well as an EPL Premiership Football Academy Youth Development Coach.
I have worked with West End, professional and student actors, dancers, musicians and singers, writers, presenters and producers working in TV and Film, as well as professional and academy footballers, cricketers, athletes, golfers, show jumpers, swimmers, Team GB gymnasts, rowers and fencers, and been the Behavioural Therapist at the Brit School for Performing Arts & Technology in London, as well as counselling students at Performers College for the Performing Arts.
Through BAPAM, there is a £10 discount for One-on-One sessions for Equity, Spotlight, Actors Guild, Musicians Union, employees in the Performing Arts or students.
Issues I can help with include:
- Audition Nerves
- Body Image
- Coach/Teacher Issues
- Coping with Pressure
- Criticism
- Eating Problems/Nutrition
- Fear of Failing
- Injury
- Lack of Improvement
- Low Confidence
- Motivation
- Performance Anxiety
- Retirement
- Setting Goals
- Writer’s Block
Bill Nighy, actor
"The trouble is that confidence is a movable feast."
Wil Wheaton, actor
"One of the primary reasons I speak out about my mental illness, is so that I can make the difference in someone’s life that I wish had been made in mine when I was young, because not only did I have no idea what Depression even was until I was in my twenties, once I was pretty sure that I had it, I suffered with it for another fifteen years, because I was ashamed, I was embarrassed, and I was afraid."
Zayn Malik, singer-songwriter
"The thing is, I love performing. I love the buzz. I don’t want to do any other job. That’s why my anxiety is so upsetting and difficult to explain. It’s this thing that swells up and blocks out your rational thought processes. Even when you know you want to do something, know that it will be good for you, that you’ll enjoy it when you’re doing it, the anxiety is telling you a different story. It’s a constant battle within yourself."
Miley Cyrus, singer-songwriter-actor
"I went through a time where I was really depressed. Like, I locked myself in my room and my dad had to break my door down. It was a lot to do with, like, I had really bad skin, and I felt really bullied because of that. But I never was depressed because of the way someone else made me feel, I just was depressed."
Olivia Munn, actor
"I have lived with anxiety and sporadic bouts of depression for most of my adult life. [Ten] years ago I tackled it, learned to fully understand it and haven’t felt the dark depths of depression in about a decade. But before that, thoughts of suicide crossed my mind more than a few times."
Emma Stone, actor
"I am very grateful I didn't know that I had a disorder … I wanted to be an actor and there weren't a lot of actors who spoke about having panic attacks."
Lady Gaga, singer-songwriter-actor
"For me, with my mental-health issues, half of the battle in the beginning was, I felt like I was lying to the world because I was feeling so much pain but nobody knew. So that’s why I came out and said that I have PTSD, because I don’t want to hide — any more than I already have to."
Donald Glover, actor-writer-producer-director-musician-DJ
"After I came off tour… I was just super depressed. I mean, I tried to kill myself. I was really fucked up after that, because I had this girl that I thought I was going to marry and we broke up. I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing. I wasn’t living up to my standard, I was living up to other people’s standards, and I just said ‘I don’t see the point'."
Shannon Purser, actor
"Everybody hears OCD and they think, ‘OK, you like to clean or be organized.’ That’s really not what it is, especially not for everybody. In my case, it was me being super self-conscious, to the point where it was debilitating. I didn’t feel comfortable talking to people. It’s incredible, but I will sing the praises of therapy. I think everybody should be in therapy. It helps so much to have somebody educated you can talk to."
Britney Spears, singer-songwriter-actor
"I moved to Los Angeles when I was very young. I was so under scrutiny. If a hair was out of place, I’d be so anxious."
Sia, singer-songwriter-actor-director
"I have social anxiety. It's easier being up on stage because there's security in being there. When I'm off stage, I'm trying not to be a manic freak. I'm quite shy."
Jennifer Lawrence, actor
"I just try to acknowledge that the scrutiny is stressful, and that anyone would find it stressful. So I've got to try to let it go, and try to be myself, and focus on important things, like picking up dog poop."
Zayn Malik, singer-songwriter
"Just being honest about everything, explaining what it is that makes you feel uncomfortable, what it is that you’re cool with. And making sure that all of that is in order and everyone’s got a clear understanding of what that is. People now have a better perspective on where I was coming from [in the past] and just an understanding that it wasn’t coming from necessarily being ungrateful, shall we say, or not aware of the opportunities that were in front of me, it was just me struggling with being able to actually be there."
Liam Payne, singer-songwriter
"Going out and putting that happy smile on my face and singing the songs, honestly, sometimes it was like putting on one of those costumes, going out there and, underneath the costume, people don't really see what's going on. I wasn't in a good place."
Cheryl, singer
"I would talk to myself so nastily: 'You silly cow. You stupid b***h.' No one could make me feel worse about myself than I did, and that was a massive problem. I went to therapy because I felt I owed it to my son, owed it to myself, never to go back to having that mindset. I’m actively undoing all the bad thought patterns and traps I used to fall into."
Dakota Johnson, actor
"Sometimes I panic to the point where I don't know what I'm thinking or doing. I have a full anxiety attack…. I have them all the time anyway, but with auditioning it's bad. I'm so terrified of it."
Winona Ryder, actor
"I remember really being so terrified of letting anybody around me know about my depression. I didn't want anyone to think I was crazy. And I felt like I was going crazy. I don’t regret opening up about what I went through, because, it sounds really cliché, but I have had so many women come up to me and say it meant so much to them."
Jon Hamm, actor
"I struggled with chronic depression. I was in bad shape after both of my parents died within 10 years of each other. I did do therapy: it gives you another perspective when you are so lost in your own spiral, your own bullshit. It helps."
Glenn Close, actor
"I felt this inertia that would come over me. You think of something and it just seems too much, too hard. That’s how depression manifested in me. It’s amazing when you open up, how receptive others are and how you’re not alone."
Ryan Reynolds, actor
"I tend to get pretty depressed and I have some issues with anxiety and things like that. For me, it's more psychological. Exercise is a means of expelling those demons."
Katy Perry, singer-songwriter
"The biggest lie that we've ever been sold, is that we as artists have to stay in pain to create."
Emma Stone, actor
"I drew a little green monster on my shoulder that speaks to me in my ear and tells me all these things that aren’t true. But if I turn my head and keep doing what I’m doing – let it speak to me, but don’t give it the credit it needs – then it shrinks down and fades away."
Jim Carrey, actor
"Depression is your body saying, 'I don't want to be this character anymore. I don't want to hold up this avatar that you've created in the world. It's too much for me.’ You should think of the word 'depressed' as 'deep rest.' Your body needs to be depressed. It needs deep rest from the character that you've been trying to play."
Sophie Turner, actor
"I would just believe it, I would just say, 'Yeah, I am spotty, I am fat, I am a bad actress.’ I had no motivation to do anything or go out. I understand your pain. Trust me, I do. But I’ve seen people go from the darkest moments in their lives to living a happy, fulfilling life. You can do it too. I believe in you."
Justin Bieber, singer-songwriter-actor
"I’m struggling just to get through the days. I think a lot of people are."
Miley Cyrus, singer-songwriter-actor
"So many people look at my depression as me being ungrateful, but that is not it— I can't help it. There's nothing worse than being fake happy."
Emma Stone, actor
"Everyone experiences a version of anxiety or worry in their lives, and maybe we go through it in a different or more intense way for longer periods of time, but there's nothing wrong with you. Don't ever feel like you're a weirdo for it because we're all weirdos."
