Dr Anna Waters is an HCPC Registered and BPS Chartered Performance Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, with over 20 years’ experience supporting individuals and organisations across high-performance environments, specialising in the performing arts.
Anna has extensive experience working with performers across disciplines, including musicians, actors, singers, dancers and comedians. Alongside individual performers, she supports whole production teams, including producers, directors, crew members, stage managers, lighting/sound technicians and everyone else involved in bringing a production together.
Her work focuses on areas such as performance anxiety, preparation under pressure and sustaining performer health and wellbeing. She supports clients in enhancing regulation and recovery and strengthening communication and coordination within groups. She is experienced supporting injury rehabilitation and return to performance.
Anna’s background spans a wide range of high-performance settings. She has worked with Olympic, Paralympic and professional sporting organisations and has held key roles within multidisciplinary medical teams, for over two decades. This breadth of experience informs her holistic, collaborative approach to supporting performance and wellbeing.
Her doctoral research explored the role of confidence in injury and return to performance. She has a particular interest in supporting performers through injury rehabilitation, including managing fear of re-injury and rebuilding confidence when returning to the stage.
Anna helps performers to build emotional resilience, manage stress and navigate the psychological demands of high-performance, public-facing professions. She supports clients with a range of issues performance-related stress, low self-esteem, life transitions and relationship difficulties.
Her approach is flexible and client-centred, drawing on evidence-based performance psychology, alongside therapeutic models such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and person-centred therapy. She also offers single-session therapy, where suitable.
Anna is committed to working inclusively and respectfully with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and faiths. She has experience supporting neurodivergent clients, including those with ADHD and dyslexia.
“My aim is help performers gain insight into their unique minds and develop the skill they need, to be able to enjoy performing at their best.”