Performance Anxiety

Feel sick to the stomach at the thought of making a speech? Always anxious when you have to give a presentation? Terrified of having to pass an exam or test (see also Passing Driving Tests)? Nervous when you're competing in a sporting event (see also Sports Performance)? Thoughts of not being good enough, of failing or of doing something embarrassing or wrong all come into play when you're suffering from performance anxiety. Hypnotherapy is very effective at combating all kinds of performance anxiety and uses direct suggestions for calmness and control, as well as rehearsal (in which you rehearse behaviour before, during and after the performance while in the trance state) to help you direct your attention away from your dry mouth and trembling hands and instead focus completely on what you're doing or saying. Now a fear of negative evaluation need never hold you back again. Get set for success!

THE EVIDENCE?
In an article in The Times in January 2005, Dr Nick Baylis says that '[self-hypnosis] can provide a low-cost, low-risk virtual training environment in which to practise our skills in preventing and relieving stress and anxiety; build the confidence for public speaking and presentations; develop our optimism and overcome our inertia.'

To read an article published in The Times about the use of hypnotherapy in treating performance anxiety, click here.

To go back to the What Hypnosis Can Help page, click here.