PERFORMANCE COACHING Perform at your best To perform is to act , to carry out an action, to execute a task , to actually DO something. It can mean to act, sing, dance, give a speech or play music before an audience, or in a more private sense, it can relate to creative, interpersonal and sexual behaviour. Performing in any sense places the individual in a vulnerable situation where one risks public and/or private humiliation and failure. Performing takes courage. However whenever the task or action is successfully completed the rewards are great and memorable. Please Note: All emails quoted in this article were unsolicited. A Performance Coach?
Performance Coaching in the Arts
Performance Coaching in Sport
Performance Coaching in Communication
Performance Coaching in Relationships
A Performance Coach? For many years now, in fact for most of my life, I have been involved in the business of helping people achieve their goals, helping them DO something they want to be able to DO. At one level this can mean helping them to overcome obstacles that prevent them from maximising their talents and abilities. At another level It can mean assisting them on their journey towards wellness, freeing them from the blockages that prevent them from healing, both body and mind. Most are aware of the recent emergence of “Life Coaching” which seemed to emerge in the US during the mid nineties and is now gaining significant momentum. In this busy (western) world, as the service industries continue to grow, the personal fitness trainer has been joined by the “Life Coach", a sort of personal trainer for the mind. The need for this service has been attributed to the changing business and societal environment where much of the mentoring that existed in earlier decades is no longer available often due to economic pressures and “downsizing”. As the structure and pace of society changes, even the family structure often no longer provides mentoring support. The word mentor has its origins in Homer’s Odyssey. In Greek mythology, Mentor was the trusted friend and advisor to Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. When Odysseus was away fighting the Trojan War, Mentor was trusted to guide, counsel and teach Odysseus’ son. The term "mentor" is synonymous with guiding and teaching. The life coach can be seen as the new mentor for this age. Coaching is not consulting where a person is given methods and solutions to a problem, it is rather a co creative partnership where the coach helps bring out the strengths and talents of the client guiding them to achieve their stated goals by providing the tools, support and structure to accomplish more with a clearer focus. Coaching is not therapy. It does not purport to address past “issues” but has a future orientation, however in this way it does borrow heavily from the main principals of Solution Oriented Counselling, my preferred counselling methodology. I offer a unique blend of approaches in my “Performance Coaching” coupled with the added advantage of my skills in the use of hypnosis and hypnotherapy to assist in the achievement of desired goals. Performance Coaching in the Arts Because my background is in the arts, many of my clients are artists. I count a number of high profile actors, singers, musicians, comedians, TV and radio personalities, film makers, writers and visual artists amongst my client base, and enjoy the special rapport that I have with them. They all have particular, but very different needs, as their work highlights the stress that performance brings to their lives. Their professional survival and career depends on being able to publicly perform, consistently and at the highest standard while at the same time, hopefully, maintaining a balanced healthy private life as well. An international high profile singer wrote in an e-mail to me: "The last session we had was REALLY REALLY great. I felt so good from the moment we finished it, and the improvement in my performance (and in my top notes) is really phenomenal! Daryl, I originally came to you because I had worked myself into a completely destructive state and was virtually paralysing myself vocally and dramatically. Since working with you, I have experienced not only a reversal of that state to point Zero, but am now moving forward and am beginning to believe that I can reconnect with the freedom I used to experience before I learned to doubt myself whilst singing. With a calm mind, free of self doubt and sabotage, I am beginning to feel free to "play" and be IN the music and the role. I have started to re-access the freedom to create in the moment and be spontaneous in my singing just as I did when I was a child. I LOVE IT!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!"
Performance Coaching in Sport I also see sports men and women who are after that competitive edge. From marathon runners and triathletes, to golfers and tennis players. All have benefited from my unique blend of counselling, hypnosis and performance coaching that enables them to enter and maintain “the zone”. Athletes have attributed the PB times they have achieved to the work they have done with me. "The marathon was truly a fantastic experience and I was thrilled with my time. The whole experience was amazing and I even managed a sprint finish at the end. I was so focused throughout the whole race and I wasn't even nervous before the start. It was certainly something to do with the Hypnotherapy, and thank you so much for your help".
Good performance coaching has a flow on effect and this comment from a golfer on his last visit to me says it all. “You know, now I am over the “yips” everything else in my life is falling in to place.”
Performance Coaching in Communication For many years I have specialised in teaching communication skills with particular reference to performance and presentation. My training and teaching experience in the performing arts has helped me develop a deep understanding of this area and it is still pleasing to receive emails from clients like this one, who was terrified of giving a speech at his best friends wedding. “It was a fantastic day and I actually enjoyed it! There is no doubt that your assistance played a major part in this and I can’t thank you enough. All the techniques, particularly the breathing and visualisation, helped keep my nerves at a controllable level. Daryl, thanks again for all your help - I actually believe that this will make a significant difference in my life generally, as this was my biggest phobia - to over come it and actually enjoy it has given me a real shot of self confidence. ”
Another client who was almost paralyzed with fear at even the thought of giving a talk to a small group, wrote this: "Dear Daryl, you truly are a miracle worker. I go back to 1999, I am at my brothers wedding ceremony, and I don’t hear a single word of the service because I am rigid with fear. My name is called to read a verse and what do I do? I get my eldest sister to go up instead of me!
Then there was Wednesday afternoon, same person, completely different approach. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I could get up in front of a crowd and speak to them from my heart. But thanks to you I have and I will continue to do so if asked. Your methods have made it so easy to tap into the person I should be when speaking to a group of people, either socially or when giving a speech. And best of all, they were interested! Daryl, thank you doesn’t seem enough but that’s all I have."
I also work with people whose job it is to communicate, like this young university tutor who wrote the following: "I just wanted to let you know how things have been going with me at the university. I have given three lectures since I last saw you, and things are going really well! I have been a lot more relaxed, calm and confident, and was able to be myself and talk to the students without a long 'speech' to read from!!
I have not experienced the extreme anxiety or 'panic attacks' that I previously suffered from, and feel very happy and positive about myself and my abilities.
I really appreciate what you have done for me - the hypnotherapy has clearly worked wonders, but even having the time to just talk to you and listen to your great advice and feedback has been very valuable and helpful. You have certainly restored my confidence, and I can't thank you enough for the positive difference this has made to me."
Performance Coaching in Relationships Perhaps this is the most neglected area of our education. The most basic information about human communication and behaviour is never taught in school. Instead we blunder through life unassisted trying to learn by our mistakes. I was motivated to enter this area of coaching after a session with a client who was in his seventies who had been thrice married and thrice painfully divorced, when he said as he shook his head, “ I just don’t understand women. I have no idea what goes on in their minds.” While I limit my coaching to the areas I have indicated above, it has been said that all coaching is life coaching. It is about personal achievement and attaining goals and hypnosis really helps. “Professional Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses or organisations. Through the process of coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life.
In each meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client into action. Coaching accelerates the client's progress by providing greater focus and awareness of choice. Coaching concentrates on where clients are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future.”
International Coaching Federation WHERE? I usually conduct individual sessions in my consulting rooms but I can be flexible and if there is a need I will go on to a film set for instance or arrange for telephone consultations. Fees for consultations outside my consulting room are negotiated. HOW OFTEN? My coaching is client driven and so the process can be a series of sessions or even a single session on an "as needed" basis. Often clients return when they feel the need for - as one client put it - "a dose of Daryl" HOW MUCH? Standard consultation fees apply.The initial consultation is one and a half hours long and the fee is $125. Subsequent sessions are one hour long and the fee is $100. Afterhours appointments (6 and 8 pm) are charged an additional $10. Phone me to talk it over: Melbourne 9349 3279 or 0419 556 203 | 
