Psychological Wellness for Dancers: A Closer Look at Perfectionism and Shame

Perfectionism and shame can have serious and long-term consequences on dancer mental health and well-being. This article introduces four practical strategies that integrate self-compassion and psychological skills training to help build coping skills and shame resilience among dancers. These strategies include the story circle, reframing, visualization, and reflective journaling. For each strategy, I provide a brief description, intended purpose, and benefits, along with instructor guidelines, ideas, talking points, and specific examples. My hope is that these strategies can be used to enhance dancers’ psychological wellness, foster more psychologically safe and brave spaces for dancers, and ultimately, create a more positive dance culture.