Professional Development for Performing Arts Practitioners

The performing arts is a sector that is fulfilling, fast moving, and demanding. Professionals thrive through sheer will power and dedication backed up with resilience.

In a professional development coaching session, you will find a highly confidential forward-looking space to curate opportunities for your career. You will be able to tap into the transformative power of coaching in a professional context, just like those in business have been doing for years, but you will be working with someone who understands our profession and has extensive experience coaching practitioners across the performing arts.

• I will match the energy and commitment you have to your career in our sessions.
• I have the experience and knowledge to support your ambitions.
• I offer a free 30 min discovery call for anyone who would like further information. I encourage you to take the opportunity to invest some of your earnings back into your career and see where it takes you.
• I work flexibly offering sessions in person (Frimley), via video calls or on a nature walk (voice call or in person)

Some discussions come up with such regularity that they deserve normalising, for example:

• maintaining a work/life balance
• performing through personal stress (grief or change)
• professional identity
• tension in performing teachers
• imposter syndrome
• values conflicts

Believe me, these are normal. They are also not difficult to address when you know how.

Sometimes the coaching space is not to manage issues, but to feel confident in the next step in your career. Examples of work in this area include:

• writing a mission statement
• creating content
• building your network
• dealing with dilemmas (shall I choose option A or option B)
• building a culture of growth in your team

When working with me you will benefit from my experience as pianist, coach, educator and researcher. I have researched professional identity and the values and ways of supporting a positive sense of professional self-concept. I am employed to deliver professional development to staff and students at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I am an experienced coach and I have sustained my own fulfilling career in the arts.

I think Bobbie is awesome. Our relationship was mutually respectful, there was empathy from both sides and although our relationship was professional, we had fun, laughed and joked.

I felt a sense of trust and safety within our sessions, whereby she was able to ask the tough questions and therefore felt I was in a safe place to be able to answer them honestly without judgement. I found our sessions enjoyable, eye-opening, informative, structured, but with the ability to improvise. I looked forward to them and always left wanting more. I always felt I had achieved something, whether it was a strategy, or personal insight, or left with thought provoking ideas. Using Wheels and Questioning Topics was outstanding. It helped prioritize certain areas of my life and moreover exposed career challenges for me to dig deeper into.

Bobbie is always welcoming, intuitive and has a real ability to read sub-conscious thought or feelings. This attribute, I don’t think can be taught. She seems to have an innate ability to read people, which in coaching I’m sure is a huge asset. It certainly was as we worked together. She’s not afraid to ask tough questions, but does so in a non-judgmental and supporting way. Her coaching process is innate and she has the ability to read between the lines. Her observations of people’s tone, physiology and subtext are truly admirable.  One always feels safe with Bobbie. She is a very good listener and also has the ability to appropriately interrupt when required to keep me on track for my goals. 

On an end note, it was an absolutely wonderful experience working with Bobbie. She opened up some insightful areas for me to reflect upon as I go forward in my career. I know Bobbie is going to be a huge success and provide so much goodness and help to her clients as she moves forward with this aspect of her portfolio career. Much thanks and respect ! You are one of my favs, It’s totally acceptable to know your worth. You taught me that, so I touché it right back!

(8 Sessions)

Daniel Fathers

Actor, Executive Producer, Development Mentor and Consultant

Our sessions helped me to re-evaluate my work/life balance with a particular focus on creating boundaries during this period of remote working where anyone can contact me at any time. Most of all, the sessions helped me to voice frustrations that had been lying within but I hadn’t given myself permission to express yet. I loved the life purpose tool SO MUCH. It felt creative, fun, freeing but also, on a serious note, it helped me to understand what exactly I was trying to achieve on a meta level. And the metaphorical creative aspect really opened my mind for a wider exploration of the possibilities. 

I think your warm and friendly manner was essential in terms of helping me to open up and feel safe. You had no issues in establishing a rapport with me and I never felt resistance to any of your questions. Your pacing was always calm and organised. You were also able to hold me to account with kindness. 

I would 100% recommend you to other people looking for coaching. I think from my experience with you, it seems that you would be a particularly good fit with creatives who are able and willing to think outside the box a bit more and open up to meta levels in order to work back down to the nitty-gritty. 

Hannah Dunster

Director of Soundcastle

I have found our sessions really useful, I feel we have a really good flow and rapport when talking, and have really looked forward to them. What has stood out the most is the way in which Bobbie really listens to me and I really feel like she understands me as a person. Often my thoughts feel really muddled at the beginning of the session but by the end, things become much clearer and I have a clear sense of how I can shape my thinking to move forward in a positive way. I really like the way she echos back my thoughts in a distilled way – this really provides clarity.  I particularly value her encouragement but at the same time the way in which she encourages me to challenge myself. As a result of the coaching, I am much more self-aware and find myself coming back to the targets we have set. You leave me feeling empowered and confident.

(4 Sessions)

Anonymous

Educator and Researcher

I wanted to explore work-life balance with a view to manage my stress levels and find a way to enjoy work as a default attitude, rather than experiencing work as an overwhelming assortment of other people’s demands on me. ​This has definitely been addressed, and in really unexpected ways too. ​It was so lovely working with Bobbie. Her warm and calm energy provided the perfect space for me to feel comfortable talking openly about challenges and past experiences. “I highly recommend Bobbie for anyone who is looking for a happier and more fulfilling life!”

LB

Bobbie is such an insightful listener and very clever at joining threads together from different parts of the conversation. There was something I said at the start of our last session which she remembered and linked to something I mentioned at the end which formed a bit of a ‘lightbulb’ moment!  The main thing I have taken away is that decisions don’t have to pose a threat. I have also deepened my understanding of what is within and outside of my control. I felt treated with respect and fully in control of the situation and how the conversations progressed. I absolutely recommend Bobbie as a coach. 

Anonymous