Jon came to me having always been nervous around public speaking. Things came to a head for him however when he had a full blown panic attack shortly before a big presentation to clients at work.
In the hypnotherapy session, Jon recalled scenes from his childhood which revealed the root cause of this anxiety: a large family gathering where his uncle insisted that Jon play his violin even though he didn’t want to. Jon’s performance went badly and he felt the whole family was laughing at him. And then at school, he was stood down from performing the main part in the play and again Jon felt humiliated and that he wasn’t good enough.
Many clients, like Jon, have a subconscious belief, formed at a young age, that being the centre of attention is unpleasant and humiliating. This can arise from those embarrassing experiences we didn’t know how to handle in childhood or where we didn’t have a voice: you were dropped off at nursery and wet yourself; everyone laughed when you messed up in class.
This causes the subconscious to form a belief – that when you are the centre of attention or performing, it’s painful, embarassing and you’re not good enough. These beliefs can stay with us into adulthood. And so when, as an adult, you stand up to speak at work, the anxiety sweeps in. Anxiety is nature’s warning mechanism, alerting you to the ‘danger’ your subconscious perceives from being the centre of attention.
With RTT hypnotherapy, we can quickly uncover these buried beliefs and clear them away. We then reprogramme your subconscious so that you feel calm and confident about public speaking and it becomes something you look forward to and actively enjoy.
Once Jon understood where his fear of public speaking was coming from and we dealt with that at the subconscious level, he felt liberated. Jon is now calm and confident when he gives presentations at work, whether formal or off the cuff and really enjoys this aspect of his job.
If you want to discuss an issue around fear of public speaking, do get in touch.