Annarosa Berman interviews Scarlet Bennett for Opera Australia's Allerta e-newsletter

On the coach with a performance psychologist

Allerta sits down with performance psychologist Scarlet Bennett, who shares her views on a range of fascinating subjects….

Allerta!: How did you come to be a performance psychologist?

Scarlet Bennett: My interest in performance psychology grew from my own experiences. I started my working life as a singer in popular nightspots in Perth, simultaneously training in the classical tradition. I continued this training after meeting my husband, bass Stephen Bennett, and moving to Sydney. The pressure of the shift to classical music combined with feeling that I had to try to live up to my husband’s growing reputation contributed to my first intense experiences of performance anxiety. I ultimately chose not to pursue a professional career in classical music, but I never forgot those challenging experiences.

I discovered early in my exploration of peak performance psychology that the knowledge base was (and is) heavily biased towards athletes, and that musicians have been quite neglected. The things with which they struggle are highly treatable –there are solid evidence-based solutions that can make the experience of being a professional musician much easier and much more pleasurable. But most musicians don’t know this. I enjoy having the opportunity to make these solutions more widely available.

A: You have written about the “paradox” of musicians’ need for mental toughness. Could you tell us more about this?

SB: Mental toughness is something that musicians tend not to have. A lot of research has been done into the personality profiles of people with different talents and abilities, and across different career choices. When looking at group averages, musicians have a distinct psychological profile –higher than average emotional sensitivity and reactivity, higher than average genetic tendency towards sensitivity and anxiety, and a greater need for solitude and time to think/reflect.

High emotional sensitivity may be the very characteristic that allows musicians to convey deep emotion and communicate with their audiences. But it also makes musicians vulnerable in an environment that would challenge even people with the thickest of skins. What is a necessary strength from a musical point of view, makes it very hard to cope with all the scrutiny, criticism and competition inherent in the professional environment.

This means that musicians have to build mental toughness without blunting the sensitivity that makes them great.

A: What are some of the most common anxiety problems with which musicians struggle?

SB: Some people experience problem nerves from their earliest performances. Others have no problem for years, until some other life event – a health scare or divorce, for instance – makes them psychologically vulnerable, so that they suddenly start struggling with nerves. Other people are fine under normal performance conditions but struggle to cope with audition pressure. Student musicians often imagine that once they “arrive” they won’t have so much trouble with nerves, but often the opposite is true. Once you’re working professionally, expectations about the quality you’ll deliver rise and so, too, do your expectations of yourself. Sometimes performers only start experiencing problem nerves later in their careers when they start to worry that they may not be able to meet the perceived expectations of others. It’s a complex and fascinating area, and one where custom treatment is by far the superior approach – the diversity of triggers dictates that any “out of the box” approach is going to be half-baked.

A: Artists very often have to media interviews, which can be nerve-wracking, especially if it’s live-to-air and if the interviewer is hostile. What advice do you have for them?

SB: Ask to see the questions in advance so you can think about the sort of answers you’d like to give. If this is not possible, prepare in much the same way that you might prepare for a job interview. It’s not hard to figure out the type of questions that could be asked and to pre-prepare some answers. Think also about any sensitive topics that you want to avoid. Set clear boundaries in your own mind about what you will and won’t discuss. Think about what you might say if you don’t want to answer a particular question – use humour if appropriate.

Avoid getting dragged into hostile interactions by remaining calm and pleasant. If an interviewer persists with a hostile approach in the face of all diplomatic efforts on your part, pleasantly enquire about the reason for the hostility. Directly confronted, hostile interviewers may back off and take a more conciliatory approach, or attempt to justify their position, revealing their bias or agenda. Both approaches take the pressure off you and give you time to think. The main thing is to make sure hostility remains one-sided at all times.

A: Sometimes people are asked to perform a role (on stage or otherwise) for which they feel ill equipped. When is it good to take on a new challenge and when is it better to turn it down? And what is the least damaging way to turn down an offer?

SB: This is an issue of burning interest to performing artists because they quite often feel that “if I turn this down, I may not be offered another chance”. This type of thinking can encourage them to take imprudent risks – if they take the chance and fail, their chances of not getting another offer increase exponentially. But at the same time, they face the very real risk that knocking back an offer of work will have negative consequences.

Ask yourself: Realistically, what are my chances of succeeding/failing at this? What will be the consequences either way? Do I have the experience to rise to this challenge or is the gap between where I am now and where I need to be too big? Are the potential benefits worth the risk? Can I broker a different solution that makes everyone happy?

It’s really important to conduct this type of risk assessment with as much objectivity as possible. Concealing your weaknesses from others is one thing, lying to yourself is quite another. The performers who enjoy long-term careers are invariably those who have either made good decisions about the challenges they accept, or those who have had the good fortune to be forgiven for mistakes made along the way.

Stellar careers are not facilitated by risk aversion. Nor are they facilitated by imprudent risk taking. The ability to cope with uncertainty and make intelligent risk assessments are important characteristics of high achievers.

A: How does one handle negative media reviews?

SB: Feedback is absolutely crucial to high achievement because it allows for improvement, but performing artists who don’t have a strong internal benchmark by which to measure themselves, are vulnerable to the comments and opinions of everyone with whom they’re in contact. Ultimately, the capacity to handle negative reviews comes from a strong sense of self.

It’s also important to be discerning about the weight given to any particular opinion. Not all opinions are equal.

Scarlet Bennett can be found at http://www.expertperformer.com