If you are wondering what an Introductory Session might look like, below is a brief description.

You select and pay for a time slot available on the calendar under Book a Session. When you sign up there will be a few questions to help me learn more about you and your goals.

After your initial request I might ask a few additional questions to help me create as individualized a session as I can for your needs.

Questions I’m curious about include some of the following:

What is your goal?

What are you excited about in your work?

What areas do you find to be more challenging for you?

Once I’ve gathered your responses I’ll create specific plans and experiential practices to support our work.

During our online meeting we will start by having you share your presentation or parts of it that you already have in place.

After listening to what you have, I will check in to see how you are feeling in regards to your responses you originally sent and if there was anything new you discovered while sharing with me.

Next we will workshop some of the areas you are feeling less confident in.

For instance if you expressed a concern with what to do with your hands during the presentation we will explore some exercises to help you explore how to bring your body and movement into your presentation. We might try some interactive exercises to isolate the goal you are working on, such as a movement exercise that helps you focus on connecting with your body or a breathing exercise to help you stay present in the moment. And then we would go back and try to integrate those practices into your presentation.

After integrating these new practices we will pause and check in to see what new things you might be noticing or feeling. This could include observations I have based on the contrast I have seen between the two.

We will continue this back and forth and exploration based on what you wrote about for your goal and what new things might become uncovered during our work.

In my 20+ years of teaching, the majority of my teaching has been focused on working with non-actors. This has included a wide range of folks who are interested in performance or maybe want to improve their communication skills in general.

Acting is a skill. And like most skills we can all improve if we practice.

There are specific skills that actors use that might not be practical for you and your work but there are lots of tools that actors utilize that can be adjusted to help you grow as a communicator and presenter.

I use acting skills and tools because for generations actors have had to rely on these tools to help them preform night after night and in high pressure and intense environments and balance telling a story and serving their audiences.

At the root of it, acting is a practical practice, that helps you build to a specific end goal of a performance and story. And these tools can be a great support to your work in a diverse range of fields.

You will be sent a link for a private online meeting on Zoom. In most cases I will record the meeting to have record of our work if you are ever interested in additional sessions. The recording will never be shared without prior permission.

I have used Zoom to teach workshops for groups and for individual sessions and have found it to be a great resource for learning.

Some suggestions to make your Zoom experience better

Find a quiet space with some room to move and stand, based on the style of work you are doing.

Check and see if your space will be well lit so that your face is visible to the camera and that your audio is working well so your voice can be heard.

If you are interested in changing your accent I would encourage you to keep your own accent and add on another accent or dialect to your vocal toolbox.

Your accent is a part of you and an important part of what makes you you. Adding tools to be able to switch to another accent if that helps you communicate in a variety of settings adds to your list of tools rather than taking away something you have.

Finding a dialect and accent coach is a great way to do this and a skill set outside of my expertise.

If you have additional vocal needs other specialist who can be helpful are Speech Pathologist and ESL instructors.

I am not a liscenced counselor or doctor. If you struggle with an anxiety disorder finding medical helps is an important step.

My philosophy on performance nerves are that at the root it means you care.

Having some anxiety and fear about performing is normal. As a performer one of the steps I work towards is channeling the fear and anxiety into a way that I can still perform and not allow it to take over. Practicing those skills and tools can help you feel more confident about performing through the anxiety and nerves.

There are skills that overlap between live presentations and communication that happens on-camera.

And there are also technical differences that can help make each of the specific styles and settings have its own set of challenges.

Learning how to adjust between a live presentation and on-camera work allows for a greater range in communication.

Some of the differences you will notice are how pronounced or big your non-verbals might be from live vs. on-camera. Other differences might include how you have to adjust your voice for each medium, differences in audience interactions, use of the space and movement.

I am not trained in ESL education. I have worked with learners from a variety of first languages and have supported them in their presentations and communication and can work with ways to support through body language, listening, presence, and storytelling.

If you need more specific help with language and ESL my reccomndation is to find a licenced ESL instructor who can support your specific needs.

As someone who has been on the receiving end of a great deal of feedback on my own performance and communication skills, I have experienced both wonderful and supportive environments and environments that have felt unsafe as a learner and performer.

As an educator it is my hope to create safe environments where you feel comfortable trying new skills. I also recognize that not every teacher’s style fits with every learner, so take what works from working with me and use it if it is helpful and ignore the parts that might not connect with you.

Questions I often ask while teaching

“What did you notice?”

“What did you like about what you did?”

“What was challenging for you in this?”

“Would it be okay if I shared some things I noticed?”

“Did you notice what your body was doing in this moment?”

“Can you try it again with this adjustment and then compare how the two different attempts felt?”

What is your goal?

Do you have a one time event and want some general feedback and space to practice? Then one session might be just what you need.

Are you looking to make changes to your presentation or on-camera skills? Depending on your previous experiences this could change how many sessions you want to book. Communication and acting are on-going practices and most actors continue to train for the entirety of their lives.

Everyone learns at different rates and you may find some of your goals take longer to get to than others.

I offer two package options, 4 Sessions and 8 Sessions. These are built to be used in consecutive weeks to build on the goals and needs of the individual.

An Introductory Session is required before purchasing a package option. This allows me the opportunity to learn if I can continue to support you in your learning goals and for you to see if working with me is a good fit.

When you watch someone perform a skill that looks effortless, think professional athletes, dancers, and performers. You might almost imagine yourself doing the skill as it looks so effortless in the moment. That is until you attempt it yourself.

This is where practice paired with feedback comes in. Practice is essential to you taking the things we work on and moving forward. Having feedback in a session can help you discover insights into how you are practicing and working through things in new ways outside of your own perspective and perception.

Taking the time to practice is always your choice. My observation over the years of my own work and others is that practice helps integrate growth and changes into your work.

Currently this option is not available for individual sessions but can be scheduled for a group workshop.

If you are interested in this for the future I am working to set up options for in person sessions available for the Pittsburgh area.

I live in the Eastern Standard Time Zone.

If you live in another time zone and are interested in working together let me know and we can work together to find a time that works.