Personal engagement in healing

4. General Health

29. Juli

A resource sheet for artists navigating illness, injury, and the often very active process of healing

At TGR, we often accompany artists who are moving through difficult and sometimes perplexing health journeys. These include overuse injuries, focal dystonia, chronic fatigue, and other conditions that sit somewhere between body, psyche, and professional work — and which can’t always be resolved in clinical or linear ways.

Many of the artists we meet have seen dozens of specialists, tried multiple treatment paths, and still find themselves without sustainable relief. Some pursue unconventional, expensive wellness interventions. Others give up seeking external answers and start forging their own healing paths.

One musician we spoke with — a violinist who developed focal dystonia — described creating her own retraining system in the 1990s, long before widely available treatment options existed. She practiced for only a minute or two per day, stopping the moment the dystonic movement emerged. Over time, this gentle ritual became her healing. She later said, not without frustration, “In the end, I just had to heal myself.”

We have deep compassion for the loneliness contained in that sentence — and we also recognize the truth of it. In the end, we all have to engage in our own healing.

Uncertainty in Treatments

We live in a time of remarkable medical resources — and also a time of increasing chronic conditions that evade simple diagnosis. These complex illnesses can leave both patients and doctors disoriented.

Dr. Gabor Maté has written extensively about the body-mind connection, and the discomfort many medical professionals feel when encountering the limits of their knowledge:

“The medical profession’s reflexive discomfort with uncertainty immensely complicates life for patients… One of the most difficult transitions for medical students is to accept the uncertainty that is intrinsic to medical practice.”

Writer Meghan O’Rourke reflects on this from personal experience:

“If medicine can’t see or name the problem, it can neither study nor treat it.”

We understand the wish for clear answers — and we also deeply value the practitioners who are honest when they don’t know, who refer out, or who admit that healing may require something more experimental, more relational, or more collaborative.

When the Healing Becomes the Hustle

In her memoir What My Bones Know, Stephanie Foo documents her experience living with complex PTSD and her determined quest to heal — from psychotherapy and EMDR to acupuncture and meditation. Her schedule was packed with trauma recovery activities, to the point where the healing itself began to echo the hyper-functioning patterns that had led to many problems throughout her life:

“I was stressing out about not being perfect at my relaxation class.”

This passage resonates with many artists we work with. There’s a danger of bringing the same performance m.o. — perfectionism, critical self-evaluation, desperation — into the healing journey. Sometimes, the drive to fix what’s broken can become another burden. The antidote may be slowness, imperfection, community, or the permission to feel lost.

A Personal Path

There have been enormous developments in the fields of performing artists’ medicine. There are outstanding clinicians and researchers working to understand the specific needs of artists, and we’ve seen many people helped through their expertise.

At the same time, we’ve accompanied artists whose recovery has also involved a broader process—one that includes not just medical intervention, but reflection, experimentation, and a willingness to explore what helps them feel more whole. For some, this might mean integrating, for example, physical therapy with somatic awareness, or mindful practices. For others, it’s a slow weaving together of clinical support, psychological insight, and inner resource-building.

We don’t in any way suggest abandoning medical care or chasing miracle cures. Please don’t do that! What we affirm is that healing often requires a layered and personal approach—where structured interventions and more intuitive forms of support can coexist.

We’ve seen again and again that when artists are supported to engage with their healing actively and curiously—across disciplines and at their own pace—meaningful change can emerge.

And even the detours, the doubts, and the things that don’t work often become part of the deeper learning.

At The Green Room

At The Green Room, we work with artists navigating a wide range of health challenges — from physical injuries and chronic conditions to burnout, emotional exhaustion, and the toll of long-term stress.

We offer:

Individual counseling in English or German, online or in person
Space to explore your personal healing process without pressure or judgment
Support in integrating medical care, therapeutic work, and creative practice
Guidance for when the path is unclear — and companionship along the way

Whether you're in the thick of a health crisis or slowly finding your way forward, you don’t have to figure it all out alone.

A Final Note

Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, after being debilitated by chronic fatigue syndrome for two years, returned to his piano through a quiet offering - a recording for his wife. That recording became The Melody at Night, With You, a fragile and luminous testament to recovery. Reflecting on it, Jarrett said: