Action through inner change
Introducing
Performance Coaching
As a Performance Coach I incorporate performance psychology techniques with my professional and life experience as a musician and teacher. Integral to my approach is my training as a Results Coach and EFT practitioner. This combination of techniques gives me the opportunity to help performers explore what may be holding them back and to take action to move their lives and careers forward in the direction they wish to go.
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The value of coaching has long been acknowledged and used as a crucial component to foster the potential of elite athletes. Performers face many of these same challenges and have been missing out on the vital skills which coaching has to offer.
As a Performance Coach I help the performer identify their strengths and discover any gaps in their preparation, motivation, confidence or resilience that may let them down. These areas are addressed by teaching a range of techniques that the performer can use to maximise their performing potential.
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Performance coaching for musicians has many facets to it, depending on the challenges and needs of the performer. For some it may be needing to learn skills to manage performance anxiety, prepare effectively for auditions or learn advanced practice techniques as a way of increasing performance confidence. For others motivation may be an issue, not having a clear vision of their purpose and goals. Or perhaps they have no way of managing stress both in their careers and everyday lives. Any of these challenges can impact negatively on achieving peak performance and sabotage you from realising and expanding your potential.
A Performance Coach empowers you to create crystal clear goals so you can take action towards achieving your ambitions. In essence, coaching is an insightful conversation.
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Integral to coaching is identifying what’s important to you, your values and developing a mindset which sees all setbacks as an opportunity to change your perspective and realise your true potential, both personally and professionally.
A good coach is respectful and non-judgemental, has excellent listening skills and energises and motivates the client to lead their own direction and learning.
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What are the
Emotional Freedom Techniques
EFT has been used for over 20 years by elite athletes and performers to achieve peak performance. Clinical EFT or “tapping” is a mind-body stress reduction technique that has been shown to be effective for a range of physical and mental health conditions. EFT draws on accepted and well-researched psychological techniques, exposure therapy and cognitive restructuring ( self-acceptance). Combined with tapping your fingers on acupressure points of the head and upper body, while connecting to a stressful situation, EFT sends calming signals to the brain, telling your body it is safe.
MRI’s show tapping affects the amygdala and areas of the brain involved in memories and the emotional response, quickly and effectively reducing emotional memories. For performers this means that experiences of past stressful performances can be "de-triggered" so that you are more able to utilise the practical approaches that coaching has to offer.
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The stress hormone cortisol can be reduced 37% in one EFT session. This makes it ideal for use with performance or exam stress.
While EFT can be used as a self-help tool a coach helps you focus your attention on your specific issue to improve the effectiveness of the tapping.Working with an EFT practitioner is also advised for dealing with deeper issues such as trauma.
Research shows fewer sessions are needed than other techniques, even for PTSD, and that the results from these sessions hold. Over 250 published studies have confirmed its efficacy.
Managing performance anxiety with EFT
As a highly effective stress reduction technique EFT can quickly help you manage the symptoms of performance anxiety by reducing the stress hormones in your body. Using EFT your breathing naturally slows and deepens, you feel calmer in your body and can quieten your mind. Whether you experience physical or cognitive symptoms, or feelings of dread, doubt or fear EFT can be used to target your specific experience of performance anxiety.
EFT also works at a deeper level by helping you understand the core reasons why you are perceiving performance situations as threatening. Are you fearful of failure or being judged? Afraid you will let your colleagues down? Or be embarrassed by your mistakes? Research shows that EFT can permanently alter the stress response and deactivate the emotional centres which draw on stressful memories.
Using EFT creates cognitive insights which can change your perceptions of past negative performing experiences and transform your emotional response to them so they are no longer triggers for activating your fight or flight response.
The importance of
Auditions
Auditions are an integral part of a musician’s life and are often the most stressful performing experience we have. Having done many auditions myself I know what it is to be both prepared and unprepared! Being on audition panels in professional orchestras for many years and preparing students for auditions I have gained much insight in to the processes, expectations and preparation involved.
Orchestral auditions can impact on our future dreams, from youth orchestra auditions to professional auditions for either freelance work or a permanent position. It’s often not until the student tries to enter the professional orchestral world that the hard reality of auditions hit. Knowing how to effectively prepare is essential if you are to play your best on the day - musically and technically, with mental rehearsal, time planning, using mock auditions productively and with self care.
Being able to learn from every audition with an attitude of self compassion can help you weather the almost inevitable setbacks, increasing your skills and resilience, giving you the determination to pursue your dreams.
Register your interest for my
Workshops
Workshops provide a supportive space for shared experience
and are tailored to your individual needs.
I teach a range of techniques and self-help tools in every workshop to encourage participants to follow up and develop their skills.
Workshops are run in Sydney and on Zoom addressing a variety of issues that performers face. If you are interested in news regarding these workshops please fill out my contact page.