Mark Found His Voice

Case Study: Finding a Voice –  1 Session Was All it Took to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety

Client: Mark
Presenting Issue: Extreme anxiety/nerves about needing to give a Best Man’s speech.
Methodology: One integrated session of Hypnotherapy & Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT).
Practitioner: James

Overview:

One of the greatest honours you can give is the role of best man to your closest friend. But unfortunately, such an honour came with an overwhelming amount of anxiety. Mark was concerned he’d stand in front of 100+ people and forget his Best Man’s speech. He was worried that he’d blank out on the audience or blank out in the moment or, from too much anxiety, forget what he’d need to say, ruining this once in a lifetime day.

The Problem:

Even though Mark had been triggered by a number of different components that had led him to feel anxious about Public Speaking, Mark felt that this Anxiety lived in his unconscious mind, not conscious. Therefore, if someone told him; “Practice more” or “Imagine they’re all in their underwear”, nothing worked—he felt that he’d require something quick and productive to eliminate his knee-jerk response to Public Speaking and feel better again.

The Solution: Integrated Approach

James brought him in for a session where they would do both:

1. Hypnotherapy: With hypnosis, they could access the unconscious mind, i.e. the original space where anxiety patterns had been established. During the trance, James would:
   • Reframe the Event: Allow Mark to no longer perceive this opportunity as a performance but rather an authentic delivery of a very nice story.
   • Install Empowering Anchors: Rewire the brain to create new chemical pathways relative to how he’d feel calm, empowered and confident.
   • Future-Pace: Use hypnosis to take Mark into the future (of the wedding day) to let him experience him doing the speech get work done, clearly and using any and all good feeling resources of success beforehand.
2. Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT): This brilliant method would process the kinaesthetic patterns (the feelings) behind the anxiety itself. IEMT quickly reduces the intensity of negative feelings and their associations with memory/future events. By guiding Mark through some eye movements, he could access the feeling associated with the Public Speaking Anxiety so they could:
   • Disrupt the Pattern: Get Mark unstuck and out of the thought-feeling loop that kept panicking him.
   • Neutralise the Charge: Allow the nervous system response to dissipate and relieve his sensory experience of anxiety in the body.
   • Cognitive Shift: Hopefully, allow Mark to recall the concept of Public Speaking in the future without the awful physical reactions.

The Result:

All of this worked well together and made the session shorter yet more desirable because hypnosis would create all the new, positive expectations of control and confidence while IEMT would release everything negative that would work against them.

Mark stood up in front of everyone on his Friend’s wedding day and delivered his speech like an authentic, humorous pro. He remained aware in his head, without being linked to the internal feedback loop of how he’s coming across.