Join the Musicians’ Union and BAPAM for a one-hour online session with Dramatherapist Heather Turkington, exploring stress and burnout, their signs and causes, practical coping strategies, and when and where to seek support, free for MU members in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

About the event

All of us can experience stress, anxiety and burnout. But it can be hard when you are in the middle of feeling stressed, anxious or burnt out to know it is happening, let alone to know how to manage it and where to turn.

In this session, Dramatherapist Heather Turkington will take us through:

• When stress can lead to burnout
• The signs and symptoms
• The risk factors and causes
• Strategies and techniques to reduce stress and burnout
• When and where to get help
• Time for reflection, discussion and questions
• A handout with further reading and an exercise to try at home.

About Heather

Heather Turkington is a Dramatherapist based in Co. Armagh in Northern Ireland.

Heather’s work sees her specialising in complex trauma, and holds post as Psychological Trauma Therapist in the NHS, working with people experiencing PTSD as a result of the NI conflict.

She also works privately and freelance in both therapeutic and organisational roles. In her spare time she is an actor and musician.

How to attend

This is a free session for MU members based in Scotland and Northern Ireland, to book a place please email sni@themu.org. A Zoom meeting link will be circulated at the point of registration.

The post For MU Members in Scotland and Northern Ireland: Managing Stress and Burnout in the Music Industry appeared first on BAPAM.

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Start Time: 10 AM

End Time: 11.30 AM

Join BAPAM and One Dance UK for an insightful CPD session focused on healthy lifelong practice. Led by accredited counsellor and psychotherapist Laura Duester and former professional dancer turned internationally recognised teacher, lecturer, and researcher Edel Quin, the session will explore strategies for sustainable practice to nurture your body and mind. Focusing on specific career transitions, as well as the importance of warm up, cool down and rest, you’ll leave the session with tools to help sustain your career, whether you’re at the start of your journey or a seasoned professional.

Laura Duester

Laura Duester is an accredited counsellor and psychotherapist, offering one-to-one and couple therapy in Bicester (Oxfordshire) and online. She runs a clinical practice, , specialising in working with anxiety, trauma, relationships and dancers/performers. Laura also regularly delivers mental health training for organisations.

Laura’s core approach is psychodynamic psychotherapy, complemented by additional expertise in positive psychology, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), outdoor (walk and talk) therapy, neurodivergence, couple relationships, Rewind trauma therapy, mindfulness, life coaching and mental health first aid. She is accredited with the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society and a registered practitioner for the Ä¢¹½tv.

Laura has extensive professional experience from roles within universities, schools, charities and helplines. She has created self-help resources including a guided  and a free  online course. Her work has also been featured in major media outlets including the BBC, ITV, The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph and HuffPost.

Edel Quin

Edel is a former professional dancer, turned internationally recognised dance teacher, lecturer, and researcher. She co-authored ‘Safe Dance Practice: An Applied Dance Science Perspective’ (Human Kinetics, 2015), a cornerstone resource in the field of dance teaching and training. In 2021, Edel was awarded the prestigious International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) Dance Educator Award, honouring her work in integrating dance science into teaching and prioritising dancer well-being through evidence-based practice across styles, ages, and settings.

Edel has worked at leading institutions across the globe including Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (UK), Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (Hong Kong), Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (University of Limerick, Ireland), University of Bern (Switzerland), Beijing Dance Academy (China) and University of Wyoming (USA). Now based in Chichester, UK, Edel contributes to the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Dance Science, Dance, and Sport Science at the University of Chichester. As a freelance educator her work continues to inform and support future generations of dancers and educators.

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Veronika Klirova is a flute player at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, a yoga teacher for musicians and a passionate performance wellbeing advocate. She completed her first yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India is 2018 and has been teaching and further educating herself on the subject ever since. She has delivered Musicians’ Yoga sessions for BAPAM, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

This session is suitable for all ages and can be done seated.

The post RSM and BAPAM Present: Mindful Movement appeared first on BAPAM.

In this session, psychotherapist Laura Duester looks at how to recognise those thoughts and how to challenge them to encourage greater self-compassion, including how to safely and effectively regulate emotions. Topics covered will include:

• Emotional awareness

• Repression of emotions

• Emotional calming techniques

• Definition of negative thoughts – automatic negative thoughts

• Why we have them and how they can take hold

• Musicians and negative thoughts

• Attribution error

• Techniques to break the cycle of negative thoughts

Laura is a qualified and accredited counsellor and psychotherapist. She works with people experiencing a range of mental health challenges including depression, anxiety and stress. She runs LD Therapy, offering one-to-one sessions online and in Oxfordshire, and has also worked for organisations including helplines, universities, businesses and schools. As a trained dancer and dance teacher with 15 years’ experience in the creative sector, Laura specialises in working with performers and dancers.

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In this session, Lucie Rayner and will help singers look after their voices to prevent injury and explore what work places can do to help singers avoid vocal overload, covering the following topics:

• The definition of vocal overload

• The prevalence of vocal overload among voice users

• Scenarios that make musicians susceptible to vocal overload

• Techniques to look after the voice

• What the workplace can do to help voice users –

  o   Quiet green room

  o   Vocal cool downs

  o   Having a space where musicians don’t need to raise their voice over background noise e.g. selling merch after a gig

Lucie Rayner is a Chartered Physiotherapist and assessing clinician for The Ä¢¹½tv (BAPAM) and specialises in treating performing artists with a wide range of musculoskeletal problems. She has extensive experience in managing acute and chronic injuries in dancers, musicians, and other performers from amateur to elite level. She currently works freelance in a variety of settings, including supporting West End musical theatre performers.

Besfort Williams trained at The Guildford School of Acting. He is an associate of renowned singing teacher Mark Meylan, and has clients working in television, theater, and the recording industries. He teaches on the musical theater BA Hons course at Arts Educational and has previously taught at LAMDA. He has assisted as vocal coach on The Book of Mormon tour, and most recently has acted as vocal consultant for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new production The Magician’s Elephant.

The post RSM and BAPAM Present: Vocal Overload and the Workplace appeared first on BAPAM.