Public Speaking

Pho­bias are com­mon. But, glos­so­pho­bia (the fear of pub­lic speak­ing) is the most preva­lent of all, and is thought to affect as many as three out of every four peo­ple in West­ern societies.

As with most pho­bias, the fear of pub­lic speak­ing tends to develop in response to past expe­ri­ences, either due to a sin­gle trau­matic event or through grad­ual conditioning/association. The fear is then com­pounded by both neg­a­tive emo­tions attached to mem­o­ries of the past and anticipation/expectation of future poor per­for­mance, fail­ure and/or ridicule. The fear of speak­ing in pub­lic is main­tained and fur­ther com­pounded by avoid­ance of pub­lic speak­ing or fix­a­tion on it.

Symp­toms vary, but typ­i­cally include extreme anx­i­ety prior to, or even at the thought of hav­ing to ver­bally com­mu­ni­cate with any group of peo­ple. The fight and flight stress response is trig­gered, increas­ing heart rate, blood pres­sure, oxy­gen intake, per­spi­ra­tion, stiff­en­ing the mus­cles, tight­en­ing the throat, and dis­turb­ing the thought processes lead­ing to a greater inci­dence of “ums” and “ahhs”, for­get­ful­ness and con­fu­sion. The anx­i­ety gen­er­ated, in extreme cases, can lead to a full-blown panic attack.

Adap­tively speak­ing, there are two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. But, the fear of pub­lic speak­ing serves no use­ful pur­pose. In fact, as those who suf­fer from it will be only too aware, it is an over­whelm­ing fear that con­strains oppor­tu­ni­ties and enjoy­ment of life, influ­enc­ing choices, neg­a­tively impact­ing the phys­i­cal body and dimin­ish­ing feel­ings of self –con­fi­dence and self-worth.

Thank­fully, glos­so­pho­bia is very respon­sive to hyp­nother­apy and can be swiftly and endur­ingly trans­formed through Pub­lic Speak­ing Hyp­no­sis.

At the out­set, the individual’s unique sit­u­a­tion is assessed, iden­ti­fy­ing and explor­ing the causes and trig­gers of the fear of pub­lic speak­ing as they exist in the individual’s life. The phys­i­cal, emo­tional, cog­ni­tive and behav­ioural ram­i­fi­ca­tions of that fear are also inves­ti­gated in depth.

Typ­i­cally, a pub­lic speak­ing hyp­no­sis treat­ment pro­gramme employs deep relax­ation hyp­no­sis to coun­ter­act the dam­ag­ing side effects of the fight or flight response, eas­ing away ten­sion, re-educating the body to respond calmly and oper­ate opti­mally. Direct pos­i­tive sug­ges­tion and post hyp­notic sug­ges­tion are used to change the cog­ni­tive responses, and to instil alter­na­tive, more effec­tive ways of deal­ing with spe­cific stres­sors, re-educating the mind to respond to the feared stim­u­lus in a more relaxed and con­trolled way.

Mem­o­ries from the past that are inter­fer­ing with the present are uncov­ered, re-visited and re-framed, the emo­tional and cog­ni­tive influ­ence on the present and future de-sensitised.

Pub­lic speak­ing hyp­no­sis treat­ment pro­grammes also tend to apply tech­niques such as men­tal rehearsal, cre­ative imagery, future pac­ing and pseudo-orientation in time to fur­ther min­imise the neg­a­tive stress response, max­imise innate abil­i­ties, boost self-esteem and build con­fi­dence in abil­ity to com­mu­ni­cate effec­tively with any group of people.

Through pub­lic speak­ing hyp­no­sis, an under­stand­ing of future suc­cess is both estab­lished and cemented.