Hypnotherapy for Public Speaking and Imposter Syndrome

Author: Andreas Balasis, LCSW-QS, CHP

Reviewer:  Dr. Mary Perleoni, LMHC ✓

With hypnotherapy, we'll do an imaginal exposure, essentially, where you're in a situation and you're able to experience a sense of relaxation paired with the previously feared stimuli.

We're creating an awareness that a completely different state of being can exist in an environment where it has never existed before.

Where Does the Fear of Public Speaking Come From?

If we're subscribing to a more evolutionary psychological perspective, what happens if you're perceived a certain way by your tribe? If you are disliked, if you are viewed as being unreliable or incompetent, or you've been tasked with doing something and leading something, and you are unable to fulfill those responsibilities?

There's a chance of exile. There's a chance of fewer resources being allocated your way. There's a chance that you are not trusted, which, from an evolutionary standpoint, is equivalent to death. Death or extreme suffering. So somewhere there is an association that if I mess this up, I will be perceived a certain way, I will be judged a certain way, and that will result in significant consequences.

What Questions Come Before Hypnotherapy for Public Speaking?

We want to see what is the actual fear and what is sustaining it. What are the perceived judgments in a worst case scenario? What are the risks? What is the underlying motivation for putting yourself in that situation in the first place?

Is it the people that you are presenting to? Are there past experiences where it went negatively, and now that's influenced your overall sense of belief, your self-efficacy? Is there a subconscious relationship to authority? Is there a belief in deservedness? Is there an imposter syndrome that's taking place?

Do I even like this? Do I feel like I know what I'm talking about? Maybe I'm super prepared and I know exactly what I'm talking about, but I'd rather be doing something else, or I don't believe that I'm the person to be giving this presentation. Maybe I do believe I'm the person to be giving this presentation. I just don't like introducing myself because I don't like being seen.

Why might a person not like being seen? How do they relate to themselves? We can dig deeper. Does this have to do with my physical presentation? Am I self-conscious of my voice? How I look? What do I believe the potential outcomes for me doing this can be?

There are a lot of different questions that go in before we integrate the hypnotherapy, because we want to know what we're shining the spotlight on. If mindfulness is casting a floodlight to illuminate the entirety of a field, hypnosis is a spotlight. So we really want to hone in on a particular area. But in order to be able to do so, we've got to specify what that area is.

How Does Hypnotherapy Help With Public Speaking?

Oftentimes it's a fear response. So the simple mechanism is I'm in a situation. My heart's beating out of my chest, my muscles are tight, I feel like my mind's blank, and I tunnel vision, I'm feeling nauseous. Why would I want to do that? But now that's our only association.

It's not just public speaking and severe discomfort. It's public speaking and decreased muscle tension, regulated heart rate and breathing patterns, sense of purpose, sense of accomplishment.

We construct the meaning behind it. We relate it to values of, say, leadership, values of, it could be intelligence, it could be education. We associate it with chosen values. And that ties into how we integrate it in the therapy with other modalities.

So I love working from ACT, acceptance and commitment therapy, because the psychological flexibility component connects the two of them. If we can clearly identify what we value most and make it so our behavior is in alignment, things get a lot easier.

Can Hypnotherapy Help With Imposter Syndrome?

What does it mean to be an imposter? Are you actively lying? What is the intention behind being an imposter? Are you intending to deceive? Are you intending to take advantage? What have you done to put yourself in the position that you're currently in in the first place? Was all of that a forgery? Did you fake it the whole time? I want to understand the word imposter, what that means. Sometimes saying the word itself with no context elicits a response.

Words that we use really matter. It's our foundation for understanding. So if we can understand the words that are the hottest buttons, where if we press them, we have an automatic response that we don't like, maybe we can reprocess, rewire where that button goes. So if that button is pressed, it went in this direction, and we don't like this direction. But now when the button is pressed, we could take a different course.

What If You Feel Unqualified?

What does one understand the necessary qualifications to be? If someone associates a belief I am not qualified, what does it mean to be qualified? We need to start there. Otherwise, we're using a comparison with no basis to compare against. I'd need to know how they define what it means to be qualified. That's where I would start.

Meet Andreas Balasis

My name is Andreas Balasis. I'm a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Florida, and also a qualified supervisor. I've been intensively trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction through the Perelman School of Medicine at UPenn. Mental performance coaching is another area that I'm really interested in.

If the fear of public speaking is holding you back at work or anywhere else, reach out to IBWHC to set up a conversation with Andreas.