Therapy for Creative Professionals

For musicians, performers, writers, artists and those who make things

Creative work is deeply personal. What you make comes from somewhere inside you — and that means the pressures, doubts, frustrations and vulnerabilities of a creative life are not just professional problems. They are personal ones too.

Many of the people I work with are musicians, performers, writers, visual artists and other creative professionals. They come to therapy for all kinds of reasons - but there are themes that arise again and again in creative lives, and I have come to know this territory well.

What Brings Creatives to Therapy

You do not need to be in crisis to benefit from therapy. Many of the people I work with are high-functioning, accomplished and outwardly successful - and still carrying something that gets in the way.

Some of what creatives bring to our work together includes:

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•⁠  ⁠Performance anxiety and stage fright - fear that undermines your ability to do what you love and do well
•⁠  ⁠Perfectionism and self-criticism - an inner critic that is impossible to satisfy
•⁠  ⁠Creative blocks - feeling stuck, dried up, or unable to access what was once natural
•⁠  ⁠Imposter syndrome - the persistent feeling that you do not deserve your success, or will be found out
•⁠  ⁠The emotional cost of exposure - putting your work into the world and feeling raw or vulnerable as a result
•⁠  ⁠Difficult transitions - injury, career change, ageing, loss of a role or identity
•⁠  ⁠The isolation of creative work - and the complex group dynamics of ensembles, companies and collaborations
•⁠  ⁠Relationships and identity - when who you are and what you do are deeply entwined
 

Why Therapy and Why Now?

Therapy offers something that colleagues, coaches and mentors cannot: a space that is entirely about you, with no agenda other than your own wellbeing and growth. It is a place to think, feel, and begin to understand the patterns that shape your experience - so that you can bring more of yourself, more freely, to the work you care about.

I work with creatives at every stage of their career - from students at the start of their professional lives to established artists navigating later-life transitions.

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I currently facilitate a therapy group for students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and I understand the particular pressures of conservatoire and arts training, as well as the realities of a professional creative career.