Amy Littlewood’s Performance Anxiety Coaching Guidance

There are multiple avenues to explore when embarking on a journey with performance anxiety. Firstly, understanding it is essential – what underpins it and where it stems from.

Then, choosing the right treatment is important. Often a multi-dimensional approach is the most helpful. For many, the best starting point is to talk with someone like a performance mentor, coach or counsellor, who can help lead you through the necessary steps, helping you gain insight into what is happening, and supporting you to develop a more manageable relationship with your anxiety.

You can learn a lot through reading articles, blogs, research and books, whether related to music or another field like sport. Knowing yourself and your needs is the best insight you can get, and talking about performing anxiety with others can be both enlightening and empowering.

There used to be a stigma attached to mental health, and to some extent there still is, although it is lessening. It is not weakness to struggle with stress and anxiety – many more people suffer than we may realise. What can lock anxiety into place is a sense of isolation, cause by not talking about it and having to pretend that everything is fine.

It is normal to feel pressure and anxiety and to need assistance. If musicians can support each other and gain awareness of each other’s struggles, the music industry will hopefully continue in the direction of normalising the discussion around performance anxiety.

Amy Littlewood’s Performance Anxiety Guide is in 4 parts:

1. Understanding How Anxiety Manifests
2. The Root Causes of Performance Anxiety
3. Treating Performance Anxiety
4. Managing Performance Anxiety

Amy Littlewood is a professional violinist and performance mentor. Find out more about her work at www.ppmentoring.co.uk.