Dr Mark Seton is an Honorary Research Associate in the Discipline of Theatre and Performance, The University of Sydney and a lecturer in Excelsia University College’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, Australia. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2009 to conduct a study tour of actor training healthcare practices in the UK. Arising from this study, the Equity Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, initiated an internationally ground-breaking Actors’ Wellbeing Study (AWS) in 2013.

He is an educator and consultant for Sense Connexion, established to support the wellbeing of actors and other professionals, including lawyers and health practitioners, whose capacity for empathy and sensitivity is crucial to their effectiveness and success. Alongside membership of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health, Mark is Chair of the Human Research Ethics Committee for the Australian University of Theology, a Board member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA), and a founding member of the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare (ASPAH). 

Upcoming Short Courses

Body wisdom for vocal performers and educators: What the heart and lungs can teach us about sustainable and joyful vocal practice!
Thursday 18th June 2026
9:00 PM - 11:00 PM
(London Time)

Body wisdom for vocal performers and educators: What the heart and lungs can teach us about sustainable and joyful vocal practice!

Dr Mark Seton

Join Dr Mark Seton as he discusses his recent research with creatives (260 participants) on how many are seeking to be more empowered in their personal and professional lives, as well as more embodied and enduring in the midst of rapidly changing life and work. This foundational and interactive workshop takes us on an embodied journey into how the actual heart functions and its crucial partnership with our lungs. In this course we’ll learn from their collective wisdom how to remain healthily ‘opened’ and ‘closed’ at the same time, to breath in and breath out, allowing time for both refreshment and recovery between each beat of our hearts, and each drawing of breath.

Past Short Courses

‘Disarming’ Performance Anxiety: Re-engaging the joy of performing by becoming more resilient in our innate vulnerability
Tuesday 29th October 2024
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
(London Time)

‘Disarming’ Performance Anxiety: Re-engaging the joy of performing by becoming more resilient in our innate vulnerability

Dr Mark Seton

In this workshop, Dr Mark Seton will offer practical, playful and holistic strategies to ‘dis-arm’ three factors of being human that can impact our capacity to perform: doubt, shame and trauma.