Public Speaking Performance Enhancement

Common Concerns about Speaking in Public:

• Quivering voice, hands and/or knees
• Avoidance of speaking situations, or urge to flee if you couldn’t avoid it
• Dry mouth, clammy hands
• Pounding heart
• Embarrassing oneself

The only thing feared more than death, statistically, is public speaking. So if you have this fear you are in a very large “club.” Nevertheless, it is distressing to live with this fear, as life often calls on us to make a speech. We may be asked to speak to the wedding guests if we are the “Best Man” or “Maid of Honor.” School classes regularly require verbal reports, presentations and speeches. And our jobs may ask this of us, sometimes unexpectedly.

Many people come to organizations that help people gain skills in speaking.  Toastmasters International is one very positive organization that offers reasonably priced meetings, with an organized program for acquiring 10 basic skills of speaking. Taking this step is highly recommended, and has helped many to overcome their fears, bashfulness, and social awkwardness.

But sometimes you don’t have time for a course, or you may be taking a speaking course and still feel extreme distress. Trauma Therapies offer protocols for performance enhancement that can greatly help in this situation when time is limited and the stakes are high. They offer two advantages: The positive approach is to strengthen confidence about all past successes in speaking or any related skills, which can be greatly encouraging through the efficiency of these techniques. The other option is to take the time to desensitize negative past experiences that relate to speaking.

For one young man fearful in high school presentations, the first bad experience was his first speech in 4th grade. He was expecting himself to be perfect in his first try Since of course he wasn’t, he drew a false negative conclusion: “I am a failure at speaking.” Using an efficient trauma therapy, he could see that his expectation of himself was unreasonable, and that he actually did pretty good in the task. This desensitization process helped him see that his expectations in the present weren’t very reasonable, either. He was then able to visualize the whole process of his speech going well. He reported a greatly increased sense of calm, and confidence in his ability to do well. He in fact did do well, and was very pleased and happy with himself.

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