I love meeting performers, students, and teachers, and I especially enjoy working with them on topics of peak performance and anxiety management.  I have the most fun working in an interactive setting with performers and teachers who are active and engaged participants, but I also enjoy giving more formal lecture presentations. 

My group classes incorporate such topics as mental skills training, mindfulness, contemplative practices, creative visualization and imagery, cognitive restructuring, flow states of consciousness, and the pedagogy of optimal performance.  These can be designed for groups of performers, including students, amateurs, and professionals, or they can be geared towards the teachers of these performers. 

What follows are some examples of classes I have offered in the past, to give you an idea of my areas of focus.  Topics which work better in a one-on-one setting include personal consultations, hypnotherapy for performance confidence and/or anxiety management, and personalized mental skills training programs; these are listed at the end.

Performance Anxiety Management for Musicians

This workshop introduces a variety of techniques which help musicians, actors, and public speakers cope with stage fright. The effects of the body’s acute stress response are examined in detail, with several hands-on exercises which work for students as well as professional performers. This session is a good introduction to the causes of performance anxiety and the most effective solutions for long-term anxiety management.  A related workshop, Performance Anxiety Workshop for Educators, includes effective solutions for anxiety management in the teaching studio or classroom.

Mental Skills for Peak Performance and

Sport Psychology Principles for Musicians

What can musicians learn from athletes?  These workshops focus on cultivating the mental skills necessary for performance anxiety management and optimal performance.  We will examine the research and practice of the best sport psychologists, and learn to apply mental skills used by successful Olympic athletes.  When these sessions are adapted for teachers, I emphasize ways in which instructors may adapt their pedagogy to include specific mental skills activities and assignments.

Mindfulness Practices for Performers

Psychologists have recently suggested that mindfulness practice holds tremendous promise for musicians with performance anxiety. Research suggests that both cognitive-behavioral interventions and practices such as mindfulness meditation have similar goals and effects on anxiety sufferers, such as the focus of attention and direction of consciousness.  Learn a variety of mindfulness techniques which work particularly well for performing artists.  Related workshop: Mindfulness for Academic Anxiety, designed for high school and college-aged students struggling with test anxiety and other forms of academic stress.

Nailing Jell-O to a Tree: Centering the Distracted Musician

Instagram, TikTok, iThings…. Today’s students are rewarded for their ability to juggle small bits of information quickly using very short spurts of attention. Music, of course, requires a completely different quality of attentional training. Techniques from sport psychologists and contemplative educators can help distracted musicians learn to cultivate and sustain their focus.

Creative Imagery for Peak Performance

Studies prove that the brain and nervous system cannot distinguish between an event that was keenly imagined and one that actually occurred. This session incorporates a variety of guided imagery exercises to strengthen the imagery skills that can help bring out the best performances in musicians of all ages. This multisensory approach is inclusive to all performers, even those who have trouble visualizing.

Stress Management for Performers

What do bounced checks, road rage, and recitals have in common? Learn to dramatically reduce the effects of tension and anxiety in your life through breathing exercises, autogenic relaxation techniques, and biofeedback. While the emphasis of this session is on enhancing artistic performance and decreasing stress, these techniques will work in almost any stressful situation. This session focuses on physical and mental relaxation rather than mindfulness practice.

Introduction to Mindfulness

This class is an introduction to basic contemplative practices, with or without specific applications for performers.  I offer a broad perspective of mindfulness, extending these practices beyond seated meditation, and focus instead on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness as the gentle, deliberate focus of awareness, without judgment, on the thoughts and events of the present moment.  I also offer Meditation Classes, beginning classes in secular vipassanā (“insight”) meditation, or group practice and guidance for experienced meditation students.

Performance Anxiety Management: The Teacher’s Role and

Pathways of Music and Emotion: Mental Health Principles for Music Teachers

These workshops introduce a variety of techniques to help music teachers assist their students in coping with stage fright.  We will explore the emotional and psychological challenges of being a performing musician, and we will emphasize practical and ethical teaching techniques for instructors who are not licensed mental health professionals.

Contemplative Pedagogy and a New Teaching Paradigm

Informed and enlightened teaching requires a holistic approach to music education.  Studies suggest that contemplative practices can facilitate more positive performance experiences, greater self-awareness, and improved anxiety management on stage and in the practice room.  Join us as we investigate the true meaning of mindfulness and explore the emerging academic discipline of contemplative studies.  We will emphasize the seven tenets of self-awareness, and discuss the ways in which these can be applied to music study and performance, as well as our own mental health.

The Inner Landscape of Teaching: Cultivating Well-Being in Turbulent Times and 

Teacher Burnout: Renewing Body, Mind and Spirit

Explore the inner landscape of a teacher's life and the importance of nurturing self-care. Learn the top reasons why music teachers burn out so easily, strategies for establishing boundaries, criteria for good psychological health, and effective techniques for physical, mental, and emotional stress reduction.

Music and the Brain:  Applications of Neuroscience for the Innovative Teacher

How does the brain process music, and how do students learn, remember, and emotionally connect to their pieces? An understanding of current scientific research can help teachers learn to structure the lesson more effectively, offer better practice strategies, help students conquer frustrations, and pave the way for a more enlightened piano pedagogy of the future. Discover the latest research on the amazing human brain and explore practical tips for more effective teaching and performance anxiety management. 

Other past classes:

- Performance Coaching Masterclasses for Musicians

- Performance Coaching Masterclasses for Actors

- Collaborative Improvisation Masterclasses

- Art and Music as Contemplative Experiences

- Mindfulness in Context

- Anything else (Let me know. I love a challenge!)