Mental Performance Therapy
Dr.Vernice Richards
Mental Performance Therapy for Performing Artists
Success in the performing arts requires discipline, creativity and an unusual capacity to be both deeply engaged and highly aware of what is happening in the moment.
There is the technique of the craft and then there is everything that surrounds the performance of it. The psychological demands of learning, performing and even more so living in it.
There is pressure to be ready, pressure to be good, pressure to remain present while being watched, pressure to uphold an image, pressure to navigate a world within a world.
For some performers, the strengths become barriers or blind spots when not managed.
Preparation gradually becomes over-preparation. Attention becomes self-monitoring. High standards become perfectionism. A difficult performance, audition or piece of criticism can stay in the mind long after the moment has passed.
When Performance Strengths Become Blind Spots
SENSITIVITY
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE
VULNERABILITY
CRITICISM FEELS
CONSUMING
RELENTLESS
SELF-MONITORING
MISTAKES FEEL
UNACCEPTABLE
FEELING EXPOSED
The Hybrid Mindset for Performing Artists
The performing arts cultivate and reward creativity, discipline, presence, sensitivity, vulnerability, expression and the ability to respond in the moment.
These qualities are part of what makes the work powerful but also fertile ground for blind spots when the strengths are relied upon too heavily or carried into situations that require something different.
The Hybrid Mindset draws from the strengths of different performance cultures so that the qualities developed through the arts can be expanded and complemented by other ways of thinking, responding and performing.
Sport offers different perspectives on repetition, pressure, recovery and consistency. Read The Athlete & The Artist
Business offers different approaches to strategy, decision-making, adaptability and sustainability. Read The Entrepreneur & The Artist
Unlocking more ways to perform. More flexibility under pressure. More freedom in your creative process. More capacity to recover from mistakes and criticism. More ability to move between intensity and ease. More confidence when you don't feel completely certain.
That's the adaptive performance that can be created by embracing a Hybrid Mindset.
Read Think Like an Athlete. Create Like an Artist. Build Like an Entrepreneur.