I remember the year I decided to try beta blockers for auditions.

I had been diagnosed with an essential tremor in my early twenties, and performance nerves made it noticeably worse. My hands could begin shaking precisely when I most needed them to feel steady and responsive, which just made me more nervous.

Almost everyone taking major auditions seemed to be using beta blockers, and I felt as though I were competing on an uneven playing field without them. So I tried them for a year.

It was like a dream. The tremor disappeared while I was taking them. My hands stopped shaking, the physical symptoms settled down, and I felt fine. I felt, honestly, great.

I could have stayed on them indefinitely. Plenty of musicians do, and I’m not sharing this to tell anyone else what choice they should make. That’s a personal choice, for sure.

But something in me didn’t want to depend on a pill in order to do the thing I loved under pressure. So I began looking for another way, long before the Alexander Technique ever entered my life.

What I eventually learned was that the physical symptoms were never the whole story. Beta blockers could reduce the shaking in my hands and the pounding of my heart, but they couldn’t teach me how to meet the fear itself and grow as a person.

They didn’t address what was happening in my mind before the audition, how I was responding emotionally and physically to the possibility of being judged, or how much pressure I was placing on myself to control the outcome.

When I finally discovered the Alexander Technique, I began to understand how my thoughts, attention, emotions, breathing, and physical coordination were working together whenever I felt stressed.

Instead of trying to suppress the symptoms, I learned how to recognize the reactions that were generating so much tension and interference in the first place. With time and practice, I was able to stop relying on beta blockers and develop a very different relationship with performance nerves.

More importantly, I discovered that relaxed confidence isn’t something you have to work at. It begins to emerge when you learn how to let go and stop interfering with your experience in the moment and your natural capacity for expression.

That discovery changed much more than my experience of auditions. It changed how I practiced, performed, spoke in front of people, responded to pressure, and felt about myself when things didn’t go exactly as planned.

Now, it is one of my greatest joys to coach professional musicians who want to experience that same kind of freedom: the ability to take auditions, perform, teach, or speak onstage with authentic presence, greater ease, and more trust in themselves—without allowing stress to determine what they can access in the moment.

Inside The Art of Freedom® coaching, my six-month private coaching program, we don’t simply try to manage performance-anxiety symptoms. We explore what is happening within your whole system and help you develop skills you can use independently in the practice room, backstage, in auditions, and under the lights.

And even though the foundation of The Art of Freedom® Method is the Alexander Technique, you don’t need to be in the physical presence of an Alexander teacher for this to work, because you’re learning how to do it for yourself from Day 1.

During our work together, you receive:

✨ Personalized private coaching focused on your individual patterns, professional goals, repertoire, auditions, performances, and social speaking situations.

✨ Simple daily awareness practices from The Art of Freedom® Method and touch-free Primal Alexander™ Technique to help you calm your mind, reduce unnecessary tension, and become more available to yourself.

✨ Practical application at your instrument and onstage, so the work becomes part of how you practice, rehearse, perform, teach, and communicate.

✨ Ongoing learning and support, including session recordings and notes, course materials, live Masterclasses, group sessions, and email access between appointments.

As violinist Jill Greene Griffin shared after working with me:

“What she was able to teach me is so incredibly valuable. I know I’m just taking baby steps and we are only scratching the surface, but to me it is very significant. I am so very excited about what’s next on this journey.”

This work isn’t about pretending that an important audition or performance doesn’t matter or trying to become someone who never feels nervous. It’s about learning how to remain connected to the heart-centered, brilliant musician you already are, even when the stakes are high.

Over time, you become better able to:

✨ Enter auditions and performances with more relaxed confidence.

✨ Access your training, artistry, and expressive freedom on demand.

✨ Recover more quickly if something unexpected happens.

✨ Speak or perform with greater authenticity and presence.

✨ Rise above stress instead of becoming organized around it.

✨ Feel good about yourself regardless of the result.

For musicians who wish to explore performing without relying on beta blockers, this work offers a practical, drug-free way to develop the awareness and self-trust that medication alone cannot teach.

The deeper benefit is knowing that whether you win the audition, give the performance you hoped for, receive the response you wanted, or encounter something completely unexpected, you can remain connected to yourself.

You can perform with ease, freedom, and authentic presence.

You can trust yourself under pressure.

And you can feel good about who you are, no matter what happens.

I currently have two openings for professional musicians ready to begin private coaching in August.

If you’re ready to experience auditions, performances, or public speaking with more relaxed confidence, ease, and freedom, please reach out to me directly and ask for details about The Art of Freedom® coaching.

You can send me a private message or comment below, and we’ll have a conversation about what you’re experiencing, what you most want to change, and whether this six-month private coaching program is the right next step for you.

I look forward to connecting with you and exploring what’s possible!

Joyfully,
Jennifer ❤

* Photo by the magical Tina Gutierrez – Arts Photography