My Appearance On The One Show, BBC One, 21st April 2021.
BBC1 invited me onto The One Show to work with “Mavis”, who had a fear of public speaking – to be specific, Mavis had a fear of reading on stage which started as a child after she had been forced to stand up and read from a book at school. The whole incident hadn’t gone well, – and this left Mavis feeling confused, and lacking in confidence.
My objective when arriving to work with Mavis was to help her overcome her fear – which I have helped hundreds of clients to do, and I know is totally possible because I overcame my own fear of public speaking.
In the space of about an hour, I was able to take Mavis from being scared even walking into the school or holding the book to being able to read from it on stage with an audience, all while remaining calm and confident.
The processes I used to help Mavis on the TV show are the same ones I use with clients who come to my Harley Street office. I am the founder of the Integrated Change System, a 7 step system, which I use to treat just about any kind of fear or phobia.
Because Mavis’s phobia had been caused by something that happened at school, the producers had arranged for the segment to be filmed in a classroom. It was interesting to see Mavis’ fear being triggered before my eyes before we even started talking. Just walking into the school was a trigger for Mavis.
Similarly, the book she had been made to read from as a child was George Orwell’s Animal Farm. On the day of filming, of course, the producers made sure there was a copy of the same book nearby, and I noticed that the mere act of seeing the cover created a phobic response in her – very much like the reaction my clients who are scared of spiders have on seeing one.
What Is The Root Cause Of A Fear Of Public Speaking?
The specific trigger for your fear of speaking may be different from what triggers somebody else’s fear of speaking, and you may have more than one trigger.
Being able to pinpoint these triggers makes it much easier to let go of them, which was the first step for me in helping her. Before you work on your phobia of public speaking, you first need to know and understand what it is you’re actually fearful of, how you run that fear, when you run it, and where it all started.
In Mavis’s case her phobia was her subconscious’s way to protect her from suffering the same kind of humiliation and embarrassment that child-Mavis had endured that day at school when she was asked to read from Animal Farm.
Lifting The Weight Of Fear.
When I was working with Mavis for the BBC show, I noticed that initially, she talked about the book Animal Farm like it was big and very heavy. She didn’t even want to pick it up. However, as she released her fear, she became able to hold the book, and soon she realised just how small and light the book was. Often, when we are fearful, we make big bright pictures in our mind that end up making us even more frightened.
The key to eradicating this fear, is to take that mental image, and that memory, and turn it into something else (black + white, smaller), in order to remove the original fear. In the case of Mavis, working with her on that, using my 7 step method, provided rapid relief for her, and her whole physical posture, changed before my eyes.
How Did Mavis Get On? Was She Free From Her Fear Finally?
The real challenge, to test whether the session had worked, was to have Mavis speak to a virtual audience (filmed during lockdown), whilst reading from the book on the school stage. As Mavis stepped onto the stage in front of the cameras, the lights, the mics, and her virtual audience, all the techniques I had taught her came together, and she picked up the copy of Animal Farm that was waiting for her, turned to the cameras, and calmly began to read.
Mavis left our session feeling confident and happy – and I did too!
If you would like to book in for a session with me, in person, or virtually, the first step is to fill out the clarity call form, so that we can schedule a complimentary conversation Free Clarity Call
A Fear Of Public Speaking doesn’t have to hold YOU back in life, so get in touch today and let’s set you free from it.
Speak to you soon,
p.s in just two days, I launch my second book FACE YOUR FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING and you can pre-order yours here on Amazon. The book contains my best professional advice and tips on how to overcome your fear of public speaking, and the advice can be applied to all kinds of situations, from ‘on stage’ public speaking, to wedding speeches and zoom calls!
Get your book at a special pre launch Kindle price.
Chris.
