Ed Lyon Therapy
Stress Management and Performance Coach
Being a performer - be it dance, music or theatre and screen - involves a unique collection of stresses. Quite apart from having to run a business as a freelancer and all the stress and uncertainty which comes with that, people who perform for a living are under a huge amount of scrutiny: from themselves, their peers, their employers and their audience. It is highly competitive, and yet deeply subjective industry. While it is undoubtedly a career which offers huge rewards, personal, artistic and sometimes financial - it also presents challenges about motivation, self worth and self esteem, insecurity, as well amplifying feelings of isolation, loneliness and helplessness. It is easy to underestimate the importance of caring for our own psychological well-being and resilience.
This kind of therapy divides into two categories: Acute Crisis Management and Performance Coaching.
Most people seeking help from a therapist come because they have reached crisis point - that moment at which personal coping mechanisms are no longer effective and psychological and emotional suffering have become too much to bear. Through a combination of talking therapy, CBT and Hypnotherapy, Ed will support you in developing new strategies - changes in behaviour and thought - to reduce stress and bring calmness and equilibrium to problem solving. He will also teach techniques to overcome the obstacles which have presented themselves, be they professional or personal. This time limited intervention will usually be done over a period of 4-10 weekly sessions.
Ongoing Performance and Life Skills coaching is an essential part of continued professional development in any field. Useful for professionals and students alike, performance coaching uses therapeutic techniques to prepare clients for challenging situations before developing potential problems or difficulties. Talking therapy can identify unhelpful behaviours and thinking patterns and re-frame them, while hypnosis can allow for imaginal rehearsal and graduated exposure to anxiety inducing situations. Performers can even use imaginal rehearsal formally: training fine motor function and increasing positive outcome expectancy.