SERENA WOOLF MSc MA - KENT & LONDON
Specialist in Musicians' Health & Performance
Musicians are elite fine-motor athletes, but unlike their sporting counterparts, they rarely benefit from the support, advice, and guidance required to maintain peak form.
SERENA WOOLF MSc MA - KENT & LONDON
Specialist in Musicians' Health & Performance
Musicians are elite fine-motor athletes, but unlike their sporting counterparts, they rarely benefit from the support, advice, and guidance required to maintain peak form.
• WELCOME
Technique and performance challenges, stress, and pain can all be part of a musical career.
Technique and performance challenges, stress and pain can all be part of a musical career.
You've probably spent decades in intense study and performance to get to this point, with everything that comes with it – travel, long days, heavy schedules. Musicians often define themselves through their profession and the instrument they play, so when things start to go wrong – when playing-related stress or pain creeps in – it can be hard to know where to turn. Performing arts medicine, in which I specialise, is a relatively new discipline that helps musicians solve playing-related problems in total confidence and offers solutions that maintain peak form.
I work with the complete musician, addressing any or all of the issues you may be facing as a player, singer, conductor, or teacher. Over the years I’ve developed a large palette of techniques to help musicians with problems. After listening to you and identifying your concerns, we work together to find durable solutions to problems rather than just treating symptoms.
You've probably spent decades in intense study and performance to get to this point, with everything that comes with it – travel, long days, heavy schedules. Musicians often define themselves through their profession and the instrument they play, so when things start to go wrong – when playing-related stress or pain creeps in – it can be hard to know where to turn. Performing arts medicine, in which I specialise, is a relatively new discipline that helps musicians solve playing-related problems in total confidence and offers solutions that maintain peak form.
I work with the complete musician, addressing any or all of the issues you may be facing as a player, singer, conductor, or teacher. Over the years I’ve developed a large palette of techniques to help musicians with problems. After listening to you and identifying your concerns, we work together to find durable solutions to problems rather than just treating symptoms.
• CARE
Why musicians come to me
Prevention & Cure
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Pain experienced in your back, neck, shoulder, arm, wrist and hand is most often connected to the way you sit, stand and hold your instrument to play. We address this at the level of use and coordination. Together we look at what you are doing when you play and why this could be causing pain, to be able to implement pain-free solutions.
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Practice and performance load can lead to aching and soreness in muscles and tendons. I help you understand, identify and modify movement patterns behind the pain and develop schedules and mental practice techniques that enable muscles to function better.
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We work together to structure practice, reinforce your stage presence, and develop a mental approach and breathing techniques so that your performance holds up under pressure.
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We look at and manage what happens when working under pressure — physically and psychologically — so that preparation translates into success on the platform.
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Physical coordination, rather than lack of practice, can often be at the heart of technical problems you experience. It can be difficult to find comfortable alternatives after years of playing in a certain way. This is something I identify and help you with.
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We explore and modify the coordination patterns causing this movement disorder whilst also addressing the technical and psychological elements associated with the problem.
• TALKS & WORKSHOPS
Knowing how stress and pain can occur, and how to prevent them, is essential for successful performance.
I give educational talks and workshops on healthy performance, describing how technique, practice, and performance relate to pain – and how to establish ways of preventing problems before they arise. I work in educational settings with music teachers, young musicians, music students, schools, and arts organisations. My presentations include an easy-to-implement toolkit of simple prevention measures. Many of these measures are prescribed by the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM), of which I am a registered practitioner.
I tailor presentations to your requirements, from practical work with small groups to slide presentations with large audiences, or a mixture of both. I aim to show you how to engage in healthy performance practices and what steps to take if playing-related problems arise.
Knowing how stress and pain can occur, and how to prevent them, is essential for successful performance.
I give educational talks and workshops on healthy performance, describing how technique, practice, and performance relate to pain – and how to establish ways of preventing problems before they arise. I work in educational settings with music teachers, young musicians, music students, schools, and arts organisations. My presentations include an easy-to-implement toolkit of simple prevention measures. Many of these measures are prescribed by the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM), of which I am a registered practitioner.
I tailor presentations to your requirements, from practical work with small groups to slide presentations with large audiences, or a mixture of both. I aim to show you how to engage in healthy performance practices and what steps to take if playing-related problems arise.
• ABOUT SERENA
I work as both a clinician and performance coach, addressing issues such as pain, movement, posture and technique.
These are all closely linked to other factors I cover, such as practice regimes, mental and physical preparation, managing a career, and the pressures of life as a performer. I offer a single point of contact for problems that are often referred to different practitioners — because in practice, these issues are often closely related.
My experience includes more than 12 years as an Alexander Technique teacher specialising in hypermobility and chronic pain — in New York, London (where I taught at LAMDA), and now in Folkestone. As a BAPAM-registered practitioner, some of that time has been spent working with musicians on problems related to playing and performance that don't fit neatly into any one specialism.
Before any of this, I trained as a double bass player to diploma standard and spent several years playing as an orchestral musician whilst also managing an orchestra. After that I moved into the business side of classical music — artist promotion at Decca International and Nimbus Records, working with top roster musicians and singers. Later I ran my own artist communications agency in Paris.
All this means that I understand the pressures of a professional music career: I have lived it — on stage, backstage, and as part of the industry.
I work as both a clinician and performance coach, addressing issues such as pain, movement, posture and technique.
These are all closely linked to other factors I cover, such as practice regimes, mental and physical preparation, managing a career, and the pressures of life as a performer. I offer a single point of contact for problems that are often referred to different practitioners — because in practice, these issues are often closely related.
My experience includes more than 12 years as an Alexander Technique teacher specialising in hypermobility and chronic pain — in New York, London (where I taught at LAMDA), and now in Folkestone. As a BAPAM-registered practitioner, some of that time has been spent working with musicians on problems related to playing and performance that don't fit neatly into any one specialism.
Before any of this, I trained as a double bass player to diploma standard and spent several years playing as an orchestral musician whilst also managing an orchestra. After that I moved into the business side of classical music — artist promotion at Decca International and Nimbus Records, working with top roster musicians and singers. Later I ran my own artist communications agency in Paris.
All this means that I understand the pressures of a professional music career: I have lived it — on stage, backstage, and as part of the industry.
• REGISTERED PRACTITIONER WITH:
• CONFIDENTIALITY
"Confidentiality isn't a policy here — it's the basis of the work."
From experience, musicians keep playing problems to themselves for professional reasons. I've treated some very high-profile artists, but you won't find any testimonials here. What happens during a consultation remains between you, me, and the four walls of my consulting room, unless you ask me to connect with other people.
• CONFIDENTIALITY
"Confidentiality isn't a policy here — it's the basis of the work."
From experience, musicians keep playing problems to themselves for professional reasons. I've treated some very high-profile artists, but you won't find any testimonials here. What happens during a consultation remains between you, me, and the four walls of my consulting room, unless you ask me to connect with other people.
• QUALIFICATIONS
MSc Performing Arts Medicine
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
MA Psychology
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, TEACHERS COLLEGE,
NEW YORK
Alexander Technique, MSTAT
THE DIMON INSTITUTE, NEW YORK /
THE CONSTRUCTIVE TEACHING CENTRE, LONDON
• QUALIFICATIONS
MSc Performing Arts Medicine
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
MA Psychology
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, TEACHERS COLLEGE, NEW YORK
Alexander Technique, MSTAT
THE DIMON INSTITUTE, NEW YORK /
THE CONSTRUCTIVE TEACHING CENTRE, LONDON
• CONTACT
All enquiries are confidential.
I typically reply within two working days.
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