Performance anxiety is a very widespread mental health issue. Successful sports players, musicians, CEOs, Cheer leaders and ordinary people, all experience performance anxiety. When it happens, the person becomes very self conscious and experiences intense anxiety. The self talk becomes negative and the person imagines the worst possible scenarios (WPS).
Fear of failure and rejection takes over and the person almost freezes in a fight or flight reaction. The sympathetic nervous system is aroused and as a result, the person experiences dryness of mouth, sweaty palms, butterflies in the stomach and the blood circulation diverts from heart, lungs and brain to larger muscle groups making the person immobile. People go to the stage to do piano recitals but they forget the notes and freeze. They stutter before making presentations and miss the tennis serve and golf ball. These symptoms can be nerve wracking for the person who experiences them. One failure results in making several cognitive distortions and the person anticipates failure every time he or she is exposed to their respective situations.
It is hard for the person to function as it is very embarrassing to freeze during performance. The physiological arousal and mental health further lead to fear about failing and lack of confidence. They get bombarded with negative self talk and begin to isolate and withdraw from these situations. The more they avoid, the more their fear gets intensified. Eventually they need professional help to identify their cognitive distortions, reframe dysfunctional thought patterns, learn deep diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation techniques and use affirmations to counter negative self talk.
Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eliminating Fear
In other words Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) becomes instrumental in eradicating these fears and anxieties. Hypnosis is another treatment modality to address performance anxiety. During hypnosis the trained hypnotist would do induction to facilitate deep trance with deepeners and then embedding the appropriate suggestions to release phobias and fears.
During hypnosis, specific fears are addressed in a customized manner. Several hypnotic anchors are offered and the person visualizes performing in the safe setting of hypnosis. Once the suggestions are implanted in the subconscious mind, they begin to modify the behavior of the person.
I have worked with a client who had performance anxiety of cheerleading. She had fallen once or twice during tumbling and she developed an acute fear of tumbling during her cheerleading performance. She came to me and I helped her release the fear by having her doing the tumbling in the safe setting of hypnosis. She rehearsed the moves and was able to develop the confidence to do it in a real setting. I did several sessions on her specific fear and she listened to the audios given to her as homework assignments. Several sessions of releasing anxiety, stress management, and confidence building were conducted. She became proficient in cheerleading again and was discharged after 8 sessions.
Subconscious vs Conscious Mind
During hypnosis, the hypnotist bypasses the conscious mind and talks directly to the subconscious mind. Subconscious mind has a 95% retention rate so the suggestions received become permanent and they begin to help the person deal with their individual fears specifically.
Similarly clients with anxiety about making presentations and giving speeches can also be addressed with hypnosis. I had a client who would stutter before making a presentation in front of 200 hundred people. She was seen for hypnosis for about ten sessions and she became proficient in making presentations at work with utmost confidence. She was also given several audios of the live sessions and she listened to them daily to release her fears and anxiety. The hypnotic anchors helped her immensely to deal with her fears.
In this way we see that hypnosis can be instrumental in releasing performance anxiety about sports, recital, speech delivery, and making presentations.
Blossom Hypnosis offers help for many mental health issues. Rekha Shrivastava is a Certified Hypnotist who is also a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, and a Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor. She has worked with multiple clients and helped them overcome all kinds of anxieties including Performance Anxiety. It is not too late if you still have not worked on your specific anxiety.
At Blossom Hypnosis, help is available. Please call 585-281-2988 to make a free consultation appointment. Rekha offers in-person and also online sessions via Skype, Facetime, Zoom, and Google Meet.
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