Shaking, racing heart, sweating, breathlessness, chest pain, dizziness, tingling in the hands, nausea and extreme fear are all common issues we successfully help clients overcome.

So what causes all of this? Well, anxiety is a future based emotion as our imagination works against us. A part of the brain called the amygdala switches on to release adrenaline and serotonin (amongst other hormones) when we perceive a threat. Great for fighting predators as it is necessary, but this rarely happens nowadays. It causes us to experience the freeze, fight or flight response and 'protects' us.

Adrenaline causes the heart to race and makes our breathing shallow to better able you to fight or run away. This response also shuts down the brain as we need our instincts, not our brains. The problem is that this response is exactly what we don’t want when performing in public.

Serotonin is more complex. When we perceive we are in control, serotonin is released around your system and creates euphoria very rapidly, allowing us to experience that ‘buzz’ and the feeling we can take on the world. When we perceive we are out of control, the serotonin released makes us feel terrible and this can be unbearable.

Although it may seem we cannot control the release of hormones, we can. By using specific techniques from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Hypnosis, we can learn to rapidly control our perceptions and emotional state, so we can 'do' public speaking with confidence.