The Performer's Perspective
Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
to Cultivate Joy & Fulfillment in Your Career
Imagine this...
You're about to go into the room for an important audition. Usually, you'd start to feel your heart race, your palms sweat, and you'd have anxious thoughts swirling around in your head. Today, you came ready with a thought you've been practicing that you're proud to say you finally, truly believe:
"I trust myself."
You trust your preparation, your talent, and your years of training. You trust your instincts as a performer and your ability to be grounded and present in your performance. You trust that you won't be mean to yourself after the audition, that you won't pick apart everything you did wrong and spend the rest of the day feeling bad. You trust that if you don’t get cast, you won’t take it personally or blame yourself for the result. You trust that whatever the outcome is, you'll have your own back, and it will be okay. You trust the decision you made to show up today because it’s driven by your core values. You take a deep breath and walk into the audition room, feeling confident and excited.
Want more auditions that go like this?
.png)
Hey Performer,
I know how passionate you are about what you do. I see you putting yourself out there: auditioning, training, self-taping, and hustling to build the career you want. You're doing your best and giving it your all…but at what cost?
Do you ever feel like…
-
You're not getting the performing opportunities you want
-
You're "behind" or not where you "should" be in your career
-
The constant rejection is taking a toll on your mental health
-
You often get your feelings hurt or feel like you’re “too sensitive”
-
You’re jealous of the success your friends are getting
-
The way you look is more important in this industry than the quality of your work
-
You're getting confusing, contradicting feedback
-
You sacrifice too much for your career, like time with family and friends
-
You've become generally negative or jaded about performing
-
You're constantly over-thinking and doubting yourself or decisions you've made
-
You're always burnt out and exhausted trying to get everything done
-
Your income from performing is inconsistent and insufficient
-
You struggle with nerves, audition anxiety, or performance anxiety
-
You don't feel confident or worthy
-
Maybe you're just not cut out for this lifestyle
If you said yes to any of these, you’re not alone!
When you tie your self-worth to your talent or success in the industry, every rejection feels like a personal attack. The more vulnerable you are, the more the rejection hurts. The more you sacrifice, the more you resent this career that’s giving you very little in return. Every time you choose your career over your happiness, you're telling yourself that you are only as worthy as the credits on your resume. It can feel like you’re on an emotional roller coaster. You're exhausted and burnt out. The highs are so high, but the lows are so incredibly low. Like existential crisis, what-am-I-doing-with-my-life, low.
I have some good news: this doesn’t have to be your experience of being a performer.
“There is overwhelming evidence that well-being can be learned and that core dimensions of well-being may thus be likened to skills and trained through various forms of self-regulation. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which enables individuals to identify maladaptive beliefs about the self and replace them with more adaptive beliefs, has been shown to alleviate stress and reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders.”
THE PLASTICITY OF WELL-BEING: A TRAINING-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR THE CULTIVATION OF HUMAN FLOURISHING
Cortland J. Dahla,1, Christine D. Wilson-Mendenhalla, and Richard J.Davidson
.png)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the relationship between a person's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This helps you understand how your interpretation of the world around you is creating your reality. According to CBT, your thoughts about a situation cause your feelings, which motivate your behaviors, and the behaviors you engage in create your outcomes. For example, if you have the thought “I’m bad at auditioning,” that might cause you to feel anxiety or fear. When you feel that anxiety, your heart starts to race, you go into fight or flight, you don’t feel grounded or present in the audition, maybe you make a mistake or your throat tightens up and your voice cracks on the high note, which becomes proof that you’re not good at auditioning. The outcome is that you believe you’re bad at auditioning because of your thought.
The Performer's Perspective is here to help you identify your current thought patterns and choose new thoughts to practice that will create the feelings, behaviors, and outcomes you’d like to have. This will help you build a career that works for YOU, not the other way around! How do I know? I did it.
The Performer's Perspective uses self-paced, downloadable E-books and Workbooks to teach you the basics of CBT and how to use it. TPP gives you practical tools and exercises, while addressing common concerns or complaints performers have about the industry, in themed, digestible modules.
What to Expect
Downloadable E-Books & Workbooks Covering Topics such as:
How to Use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Somatic exercises for calming your nervous system
Identifying distorted thought patterns & how to choose new thoughts you'll actually believe
Core Values vs. Core Beliefs
Competition vs. Community
Auditioning & Rejection
Self-Love & Self-Worth
Body Image & Typecasting
Redefining Success
Prejudice & Racism
"Shoulds" & Shame
And more uploaded monthly!
One group Zoom call every month where you can ask for support and get your questions answered.
A private Community Page of artists who use the same terminology to process shared experiences.
Special discounted drop-in voice lesson prices in the Madeline Stern Vocal Studio.
You get all these amazing resources, as well as a community of like-minded performers who are cheering you on every step of the way,
for only $25 a month.
So, what are you waiting for? Let's get started!
By doing the inner work to love ourselves, set our own boundaries, and lead with our core values, we make changes that ripple throughout our communities. We can make a difference in the world just by showing up with purpose and intention. Every time we act with integrity, we show the industry that we are not putting up with the way things used to be anymore. If we want our industry to change, we need to start with ourselves.
.png)
Since joining the Performer's Perspective, participants have:
- Started auditioning again
- Been cast in multiple productions
- Found joy in performing again
- Said no to a contract offer because it didn't align with their core values
- Prioritized self-love and self-respect
- Created performance opportunities for themselves
- Learned new skills they never thought they could do
- Started speaking up when they see someone being treated unfairly in rehearsals
- Prioritized spending quality time with friends
Artists deserve respect, safety, compassion, and support.
WE deserve respect, safety, compassion, and support.
You can start by giving that to yourself, first!
Still not sure?
Listen to Kate's story about her breakthrough using
The Performer's Perspective!
Reviews
"The Performer's Perspective has been extremely beneficial to me as a performer. As someone who struggles with audition anxiety, over-thinking, confidence, rejection, etc., this course has helped me to re-frame my thinking and improve my relationship with performing. Every part of the course has felt like it is speaking directly to me. It has also made me feel like there are steps I can take to overcome my struggles with performing. The community is great and the Zoom calls helped me to understand how to apply the methods in the course. Hearing other people's stories made me realize I am not alone in the way I feel. I absolutely recommend this program to every performer!"
- Emy
Reviews
"I am a 30 year old musical theatre lover who thought that it was too late to go back into a passion that I loved as a kid. But through this program and through Madeline and a community of like minded individuals, the possibilities feel more achievable now. My mindset for moving into this industry and life in general has begun to change to a more kind and optimistic one and I feel like I can achieve this dream of theatre again. In an industry that can be very isolating and abrasive, this program brings back the joy and hope you have as a kid who believes that dreams are possible. And we need that more in the world."
- Tara
Reviews
"The Performer’s Perspective is the program you need to take the power back in your performing arts career. The model and concepts taught here help to reframe negative thought patterns and give you more control of your mind and, as a result, your life. Connecting with a community of folks who have parallel experiences of self-doubt made me feel so much less isolated in my experiences! After using this program, I feel like I have the resources I need to show up proud, at ease, and confident to my next audition."
- Caroline
Reviews
"The Performer's Perspective assisted me in reframing my perceptions around performing, auditioning, and overall being an actor. Even within the first lesson and call, I felt more at-ease in my own abilities and experiences. Madeline is a great guide in navigating the challenges of being a performer and the tools given throughout the course were beneficial. These are definitely skills I plan on using not just in my performance career, but in other aspects of my life!"
- Hannah