Conditioning for Performing Artists™

Injury Prevention and Stress Release in the Performing Arts

Performing artists face a unique set of challenges on their creative journey—from performance anxiety and stage fright to physical strain and injury. Staying in top physical and mental condition is essential for success, yet many performers struggle with burnout, chronic stress, and unprocessed trauma. Often, it’s not just about practice or technique—the nervous system itself can become the limiting factor.

Conditioning for Performing Artists™ is a program I developed from over twenty years of training in modalities including Performing Arts Medicine, Somatic Experiencing™, Transforming Touch®, Body Mapping, Body-Mind Centering®, Applied Polyvagal Theory, Yoga, Reiki, Tai Chi, and Meditation. It is also informed by my thirty-plus years as a professional pianist, pedagogue, and recreational dancer. This integrative approach combines science, somatic awareness, and lived experience to help performers prevent injury, manage stress, resolve trauma, and enhance resilience, strength, and mobility.

The program is built around key pillars:

• Body Mapping – Learn intentional, efficient movement to prevent and resolve performance-related injuries.

• Somatic Experiencing® – Address stress, shock, and trauma stored in the body before it interferes with your art.

• Transforming the Experience-Based Brain® – Regulation-focused protocols delivered through Transforming Touch® to reorganize and re-pattern trauma.

• Polyvagal Theory – Understand how your nervous system responds to safety and threat, and learn practical tools to support regulation through the Safe and Sound Protocol.

• Body-Mind Centering® – Explore how mind, body, and movement interact, integrating anatomical, psychophysical, and developmental principles for conscious, expressive performance.

A highlight of the program is the ten-session journey of Safe Experiencing. Performers engage with the SIBAM framework (Sensation–Image–Behaviour–Affect–Meaning) and practical somatic tools to regulate the nervous system. This work addresses challenges ranging from performance anxiety and childhood trauma to injuries, medical procedures, falls, Long Covid, and other stressors—helping performers renegotiate past experiences to support optimal performance.

Coupling Dynamics in Performance
Inspired by Kathy Kain’s model, this aspect of the program explores how emotional, somatic, cognitive, and environmental patterns from past performances can become over- or under-coupled in the body. By bringing these patterns into awareness, performers learn how habitual responses shape their nervous system and creative expression, and gain strategies to create more ease and freedom in performance.

By recognizing the complexity and vulnerability inherent in the creative act, performers build the skills and resources to sustain their craft while caring for themselves—and maybe even enjoy the process along the way.

Sessions are available in person or remotely, making this program accessible to performers anywhere in the world.