The Listening Room — Season Three
The Listening Room returns for its third season as an online peer-support and professional development forum for mental health practitioners working with performing artists. Developed in collaboration with the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA), the online series offers a reflective, practice-oriented space for collegial exchange and shared learning across disciplines.
Through conversations with invited guest experts and facilitated peer dialogue, the forum supports ongoing professional reflection, ethical practice, and community-building among practitioners engaged in performing artists’ mental health.
9 October (Friday) — Dr. Mark Seton
11:00 CET / 5:00 ET / 21:00 AEDT
Dr Mark Seton is a Lecturer in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at Excelsia College whose research focuses on actor health and well-being in training and professional practice. His work has been recognized internationally, including through a Churchill Fellowship to the UK, and he contributes regularly to PAMA’s Certificate Program in Performing Arts Medicine. He has published widely on actor well-being, contributed chapters to several books, and serves as an examiner of Honours, Master’s, and Doctoral research in the field. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health.
10 November (Tuesday) — Joanna Latala
17:30 CET / 11:30 ET / 8:30 PT
Joanna Latala is a Polish-born cellist and performance mindset educator based in Sweden. She completed a Master’s degree in Symphony Orchestra Performance in 2019 and has worked professionally with orchestras across Scandinavia, performing throughout Europe and the United States at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, and the Gothenburg Concert Hall.
Her interest in the mental preparation required for high-level performance developed through her orchestral career and studies at the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland. She later pursued further training with performance psychologist Dr Don Greene. In 2023, she founded Achieve Performance Mindset, a platform dedicated to helping professional orchestral musicians strengthen their mental skills and approach performance with greater confidence and resilience.
20 November (Friday) — Dr. Devin Nikki Thomas
18:00 CET / 12:00 ET / 9 PT
Dr Devin Nikki Thomas works at the intersection of public health, mental health, education, and the performing arts. A Health Services Officer in the United States Public Health Service, she has contributed to national and international public health responses, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Operation Allies Welcome, and has held roles with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administration for Children and Families.
She holds a Doctorate in Health Sciences from Radford University and a Master of Public Health from Emory University. Her research has explored the use of theatre as a tool for mental health education, including increasing depression literacy among adolescents. She also teaches in Theatre and Public Health.
Alongside her public health career, Dr Thomas is an award-winning actor and writer with more than 40 film, television, and stage credits, including Law & Order, We Own This City, The Bluest Eye, and Is God Is. Her work explores how the creative arts can support health equity, amplify marginalized voices, and foster dialogue around complex social issues.
Moderator — Heather O’Donnell
Heather O’Donnell is a psychologist (M.Sc.), certified artistic-systemic therapist (DGSF), and former international concert pianist. She is the founding director of TGR The Green Room, a Cologne-based organization supporting the psychosocial and professional well-being of performing artists.
Her work focuses on mental health, giftedness, high performance, artistic identity, and sustainable careers in the arts. Following an injury that redirected her own performing career, she studied psychology at the Free University of Berlin and Prevention and Health Psychology at SRH University, later training in musicians’ health and mindfulness.
O’Donnell has presented internationally and taught at institutions including Columbia University, the New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, and the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. Her forthcoming book, On Being a Musician (Routledge, 2027), explores failure, identity, renewal, and the psychological conditions that support sustainable artistic lives.