Fail Better: A Mental Health Workout

with Arts Psychologist Chris Cheers

Presented in Season 3 2021

World Premiere
Presented by Arts House

Monday 11 October
10:30am
60min

Tickets
This event is free.
BOOK HERE

Terms and conditions for this event can be found here [Word | PDF]

Warning
Contains potentially triggering content or themes, including Mental Health and Covid-19/Coronavirus.

Contains some infrequent/low pressure audience interaction.

This event is for ages 16+

Accessibility
This event will be Auslan interpreted and have live AI captioning

a black and white image of a skull a black and white logo

Join psychologist Chris Cheers in a gentle but invigorating mental workout that dismantles the notion of success and failure in the arts. This free online presentation and Q&A is a booster shot for all creatives.

Watch the recorded session here

Recorded session Presented by Arts House Monday 11 October 2021.

Where’s your head at? The last two years have dumped an avalanche on artists, so we’re calling in support to help you pull yourself from the debris.

Melbourne psychologist Chris Cheers is deeply involved with the arts community, and in this free online presentation and Q&A he will help you reframe your thinking in the face of cancelled shows, shuttered venues and grant rejections. None of these are failures.

Cheers invites you to understand your work not in terms of success or otherwise. Instead, perceiving your artistic development over a longer term helps you look at gains and setbacks as steps within a larger continuum. In this expanded understanding, you’re always furthering the mastery of your art, while acknowledging that you’ll never arrive at a final destination.

In a time of suffering and uncertainty, this session will address the power of art and the role it plays in building our creative identity.

Artists have always been good at DIY, but you don’t have to go this alone. Join us in this gentle but invigorating mental workout.

Further Reading

This session will draw concepts from Dr Sarah Lewis’ book, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery.

You can also listen to an interview with Dr Lewis on the Brené Brown podcast via these links
The Rise, the Creative Process and the Difference Between Mastery and Success
Creativity, Surrender and Aesthetic Force

About Chris Cheers

Chris Cheers is a psychologist and educator based in Melbourne, Australia. He is passionate about creating accessible, accepting and safe spaces where people become empowered to reach their life goals. Through extensive training and lived experience, Chris has also developed an expertise in providing individual psychology services and workshops to artists and creatives, and the LGBTIQ+ community.

Before training as a psychologist, Chris worked for arts organisations across Australia, developing a rich understanding of the industry and a rich network of relationships with artists and arts workers. Chris brings this experience and understanding to providing specialised mental health care to clients who work in acting, music, dance, other arts workers and workers in creatives industries.

With this experience, and his expertise as a psychologist and educator, Chris offers specialised workshops and consultation to arts organisations wanting to elevate the mental health and wellbeing of their artists and workers. Chris has provided workshops and mental health consultation to the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Arts Wellbeing Collective (Arts Centre Melbourne), National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Australian Academy of Music, Arts House (City of Melbourne) and various independent theatre productions and films.