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Grazia Marin knows how painful being an artist can be. A Melbourne psychologist who specialises in helping artists with so-called creativity crises, she's also an artist - although she's only recently returned to her art after a 30-year gap in which earning a living took over her life.

'All artists have periods of self-doubt and find themselves in a position where they can't judge their own work and be objective,' says Marin, who's now half-way through a visual arts diploma at Melbourne's RMIT University. 'It's hard for them to stand back and evaluate their work. I would share that with a lot of artists and also the journey of finding which style is the best and most suitable for an individual because that's a journey of development.'

Many artists have self-doubt without needing a psychologist's couch. But for some, it can become a paralysing block. Drained by their work they may feel nothing is left for anyone else, or become unable to function as parents or friends. Stereotypical tortured artists, studios stacked with unfinished canvases, really exist. They become disorganised, unable to cope, and have difficulty getting started or seeing things through, Marin says.

'They sometimes find themselves sitting in their workroom and not knowing where to start and what to do, and that kind of experience can be devastating to an artist because most of them are fairly fragile people. It can undermine their confidence and lead to depression and anxiety.'

It can happen even to artists who are successful. 'Some of them may have been carrying out an art practice for some time and may have had some shows and sold some work, but the stress and tension of it all doesn't build their inner peace,' Marin says. 'It becomes an inner pressure. They feel that they've got to keep producing. If they fail in a show to sell anything their fragility just plunges them into self-doubt and confusion.'