The tightrope walker helping people with anxiety

A professional tightrope walker is passing on his skill to people who struggle with anxiety and want to improve their confidence.

Chris Bullzini from Shepton Mallet has toured the world and performed his high-wire shows for Cirque du Soleil and several Tim Burton films.

Since settling in Somerset, he decided to teach tightrope walking workshops to help people overcome any difficulties in life they might face.

"The wire is a real metaphor, everyone is walking a tightrope and has a high wire to cross in some way, whether it's their family, their career, their confidence, " he explained.

Mr Bullzini said he found his love for tightrope walking when he was a teenager.

"When I watched somebody else walk on the wire there was something almost mystical, it looked like it defied gravity," Mr Bullzini said.

"I thought she was floating. I wanted to create that sense of wonder that I experienced, I wanted to create that in the audience that watched me."

When he was 18, he decided to leave the UK and travel around the world, learning the craft of tightrope walking.

He eventually decided to settle in Evercreech, near Shepton Mallet.

He still performs alongside teaching people his skill.

"If you can do that [tightrope walking] in the physical world, you can apply those same techniques to the rest of your life."

Mr Bullzini said the "most exciting" thing about teaching people is to see the "look of success on their faces and hear about how it's transformed them".

"If people hear these words and they are questioning whether or not to go for their weird artistic career or get a sensible job in an office, they would at least consider putting some energy into the eccentric career."

Mr Bullzini offers the workshops free of charge at his circus yard outside Shepton Mallet. He said his next run of courses will be announced soon.

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