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Public speaking and
presentation nerves are extremely common. One recent survey placed public
speaking as the number one public fear. In other words, lots of people
experience nerves when it comes to giving presentations!
In the modern day workplace we are
expected perhaps more than ever before to be able to deliver
presentations. This can be enormously stressful for a person who has a
fear of being put on the spot in this way, and can actually become a
serious problem. If your job depends on giving presentations or speaking
to groups of people, then it is really important that you can be relaxed
about it. It's not just the talk itself that becomes a problem but all the
anxiety that leads up to the talk can be debilitating over time. It's not
at all uncommon for people suffering with generalised anxiety to have
public speaking (usually for their job) listed as one of their main
stresses and worries in life. At it's worst it can ruin careers!.The good
news is it can usually be treated really easily. If you're troubled by
public speaking or have presentation nerves, don't suffer in silence. Help
is really just a telephone call away! |
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Understanding
Public Speaking Nerves
A fear of public speaking is
not a sign of weakness. It is simply a misunderstanding at the
unconscious level of awareness. It's quite normal for people who are
otherwise highly successful to have a fear of public speaking. The
fear often (but not always) begins at a very young age. Picture
this. You're six years old and the teacher asks you to come up to
the front of the class and write your name on the blackboard. You
tentatively make your way to the front of the class....beads of
sweat are forming on your forehead, your palms are sweaty. You take
the chalk, you are a hoping for a miracle......all that you can
manage are a few wobbly lines....you wish the Earth would swallow
you up right there and then. This is quite enough to create a future
fear of presentations! ANY experience of being in front of a group
of people which leaves you feeling humiliated can create a fear of
public speaking. Even worrying about such a thing happening can
create a fear of presentations.
The unconscious mind takes a
mental note (a template) of how awful that experience feels and now
any time we go into any situation which even feels "a bit"
like that, the fear is triggered. The fear is designed to stop you
going into that situation or if you're already in it to get you out
as quickly as possible. Fear is designed to make you uncomfortable!
It tends to get worse over time if left untreated because fear
becomes the strategy by which the unconscious mind believes you are
surviving and therefore says "Do more of that next time!" |
| The picture to the
right shows the brain of someone who is afraid of public speaking.
We can see that the "incoming signal" shows a group of
people looking at us. This incoming signal is filtered by the
thalamus which recognises that a "group of people looking at
us" is a potential threat. The alarm is raised and there is a
short circuit message sent from the Thalamus to the Amygdala. The
amygdala sends an anxiety signal to the adrenal glands and
adrenaline and cortisol (fear hormones) are released into the
bloodstream. Adrenaline and cortisol cause sweating, shaking,
nerves, increased heart rate, tremors, light headedness etc.
Secondary to this there is a fuller assessment of the situation
which follows directly behind the original short circuit which
carries the full picture as assessed using the visual cortex. When
anxiety is not too high to be unmanageable, the second signal can
often "dampen" the initial fear as we are able to make a
better assessment of the real level of threat. This comes in useful
later in treatment but does little to help if our anxiety about
public speaking is very intense in the first place. |
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| We
treat public speaking nerves in much the same way as we treat any
phobia (See
here). We de-arouse and de-sensitive the template which is
causing the fear, we reduce anxiety generally, and then re-frame the
difficulty as a pleasure using positive visualisation methods
alongside traditional hypnotic suggestions for confidence and
relaxation. I will also supply you with a hypnosis CD which is
specifically designed to give you "rehearsal room" time in
the comfort of your own home using these techniques to improve your
presentation confidence and skills. At one level of course public
speaking is a skill, and presentation skills, like any other skill,
are learned through repetition. Once you have your fear out of the
way, you can even enjoy being in the limelight and sharing your
brilliance!
I help people frequently with
this difficulty. Generally speaking I would expect us to need three
working sessions to deal with a simple public speaking fear. As with
all anxiety related problems though, if there is a large overload of
general anxiety, we may need more than three sessions,
because it's necessary to take care of extra anxiety before a mind
will let go of a fear sensitised template. Do remember that taking
care of extra anxiety is not a bad thing! As always though I assure
you we never make a meal of things....if it CAN be done in three
sessions, it WILL be! The information shown here is limited for web
purposes. With all difficulties, I offer a free initial consultation
where we can meet and discuss your specific needs and I can explain
in more detail how it all works.
If you would
like to book a consultation with a view to starting treatment in
Bristol or Bath you can contact me/
call on 0117 904 4504 or email
me. |
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