Hypnotherapy for Performance Anxiety
Due to my career as a professional vocalist and singer, I love working with performers helping them unlock their true potential. The challenges that can arise with anxiety around performance are very real. It is natural to experience nerves before a performance - whether it be delivering a presentation or a wedding speech, running a race, performing an audition piece or simply standing up to speak in front of a room full of colleagues - all of these can be a daunting prospect. Sweaty palms, brain-freeze, increased heart rate, dry mouth, stomach flips, the sudden need for the loo…. All of these responses are very common. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help us to become confident and calm performers.
VISUALISE YOUR SUCCESS
Before a fight World Heavy Weight boxer, Muhammed Ali would focus intensely on visualising how he would take on his opponent in the ring, mov by move, round by round. When Ali was clear on how he would defeat his opponent he would call a press conference and confidently announce in which round and how he would win the fight. Ali’s predictions were no empty boasts as they invariable came true!
Ali was not engaging in idle talk but was really sharing his vision of his desired outcome with the press.
Let's understand how the brain works and how it is possible overcome performance anxiety and achieve our goals.
This is the prefrontal cortex, it is our conscious part, the part you know as you, and it is connected to a vast intellectual resource known as the Intellectual Mind. When we are operating from this part of the brain, we are calm, we make good decisions and come up with solutions based on a proper assessment of the situation, the outcome is generally very positive.
However there is another part of the brain, the original Primitive Mind, which concerns itself with our survival, constantly scanning for danger and threat. If it perceives a threat or crisis it steps in to help by making us anxious (to keep us on high alert) depressed (to keep us isolated from danger) or angry (ready to fight).
The Primitive Mind is a negative and obsessive mind and always refers back to previous patterns of behaviour, which are often inappropriate. If the stress response ensured our survival previously - that is what we are encouraged to do again.
The Primitive Brain does not like change, so if we push ourselves out of our comfort zone, it often encourages us not to - perceiving it as threat. However there are many rewards to be received by positive action and doing the things that challenge us, these rewards encourage us to seek out more positive experiences. We must learn to take intellectual control over and override our primitive impulses.
The Primitive Brain cannot tell the difference between imagined and reality. If we imagine something bad happening we receive the stress response and become anxious, by negatively forecasting a performance going wrong or dwelling on an unsuccessful past performance we strengthen those negative neural pathways and add to our stress bucket.
When our stress bucket is full we spend more time in the Primitive Brain feeling nervous, anxious and depressed going over all the worst possible outcomes. This can affect our sleep patterns which negatively impacts our ability to make good decisions and think positively.
However - In the same way we can negatively forecast future outcomes we can positively forecast future outcomes using tools such as visualisation, reframing and trance.
By understanding Neuroplasticity, we can learn to take control of our own thought patterns around the events in our lives and make powerful positive changes.
The success of this was proven in a study:
THE BRAIN IS MORE PLAYDOH THAN PORCELAIN
In 1994, Harvard scientists taught a simple 5-fingered combination of piano notes to a group of volunteers, which they played over and over again for two consecutive days.
Another group didn’t actually play the notes but just imagined playing them and imagined hearing them for the same period of time. The brain scans taken over the five days show the changes to the brain are almost identical, the stretch of motor cortex devoted to these finger movements took over surrounding areas ‘like dandelions on a suburban lawn’
Mental practice resulted in a similar reorganisation on the brain - Pascal-leone later wrote
The brain cannot tell the difference between imagined and reality
THE METHOD
The hypnotherapy method is to shift focus away from your fears onto your ideal outcome. We focus on your ideal mindset during preparation, the build up, including all sensory aspects like the smell of the arena, the sound of the crowd, the feeling of the pitch beneath your feet, the microphone in your hand, as well as the physical action of the performance and the wonderful feeling afterwards. This works to deeply embed and strengthen the positive nueropathways, so that when it comes to the day of the performance your brain believes you’ve already done it!
The brain is familiar with the experience and does not register it as a threat reacting with a stress response.. Instead it releases the right amount of chemicals needed for you to be motivated, clear headed and focused for your performance.
We reframe memories of past performances you considered ‘unsuccessful’ in a technique called Rewind & Reframe. It works by manipulating the memory so that it doesn’t cause you anxiety, instead you can move forward, taking with you valuable lessons to strengthen future performances
QUANTUM ZENO EFFCT
Focused attention holds together and stabilises brain circuits so that they can wire together by Hebb’s law. Once they are wired together, the brain will respond to similar situations in a reliable hardwired way.
This is known as the Quantum Zeno effect as explained by Dr Henry Strapp of UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
‘The Power is in the focus!’
HOW DOES HYPNOSIS WORK?
Hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation where we have focused attention. During trance our brain is in programming mode, sorting and filing through our experiences.
This is when we have access to the subconscious mind allowing for positive reinforcements and fundamental shifts in your mindset.
Solution focused hypnotherapy works quickly - positive results are usually felt within 6 sessions
Words by Ella Wolfman, Solution Focused Hypnotherapist
