I am Natalie H Rogers MSW, founder of “Talkpower :a Panic Clinic For Public Speaking Workshops . Based upon my experience as an Acting teacher, a professional Actress and a Behavioral Psychotherapist I had chosen to focus my attention upon speech phobia. And so for the past 35 years I have trained thousands of professionals to eliminate their fear of public speaking. I am able to do this in my “Talkpower: A Panic Clinic For Public Speaking Workshops, a performance skills training program I developed for demystifying the Fear Of Public Speaking . Through observation and experimentation with my acting and public speaking students I developed “Talkpower, a “performance skills” training program that systematically runs Talkpower students through an array of original physical hands-on exercises, drills and routines that affect the brain there-by creating the performance skills necessary for facing an audience by sigificantly eliminating the feelings of terror and enabling the student to think and speaki clearly. This program is extremely effective with people who suffer from extreme fear of public speaking. In addition, Talkpower is totally different from the fragmented Standard approach of advice, suggestions, relaxation training, theory, visualization and deep breathing found in most public speaking courses.
In my experience i have found that most people who suffer from Fear Of Public Speaking believe that they were born with this devastating condition and that there is nothing they can do about it. They take public Speaking courses but are usually disappointed because Standard courses offer no solution to their problem. Therapy is not the answer because Public Speaking is a skill and Talking about your problem will not prove to be very helpful. And so speech phobic people must project an invisible presence, never speaking at meetings or accepting promotions or jobs where you have to make presentations, declining invitations to deliver a key- note address, never running for office, or assuming any kind of leadership role refusing to ask or answer questions in class, even refusing to make a toast at a son or daughter's wedding or singing or performing in any way. At best some do try to make a presetation but the performance is so embarrassing and shame so intense that they vow never to try again. Why do I call this problem devastating? While fear of public speaking is the butte of many jokes, only those who suffer from this condition can understand how painful and secretly shameful fear of public speaking can be.
Conversations with my students have revealed that at least 75 percent of the thirteen thousand professionals who attended my workshops were the victims of controlling, or abusive parents, bullying classmates, harsh critical teachers, or humiliating older siblings and others; The other 25 percent had experienced some traumatic event that caused a fear of public speaking as a post-traumatic stress response. Painfully one learns very quickly to be afraid and soon an automatic reaction of anxiety ,rapid heartbeat loss of concentration , the ability to think when facing an audience and all of the other symptoms of Speech Phobia develops into an unconscious fear of receiving harsh punishment if one calls attention to oneself. And so I have concluded that fear Of public speaking and intense or unbearable anxiety when facing an audience and being looked at is developed after a baby is born because healthy babies are born with an innate impulse to express themselves and cry out when the baby is unhappy. Later since this same impulse is suppressed when exposed to humiliation, punishment or abuse it develops into speech phobia. On the other hand the unique Performance -Skills Training my speech phobic students receive in my Talkpower, A Panic Clinic Workshops has enabled every one of my them without exception to face an audience and speak well, making possible previously undreamed-of careers and stunning new ‘career opportunities.
In closing may I say that common sense tells us that healthy babies are born with a perfect ability to express themselves and that the inability to face an audience and talk is a response to some form of humiliation, abuse or trauma.
Contact info : Talkpowerinc.com
Call me Natalie H Rogers for A free consultation and perhaps some insight into your problem. 212 684 1711
See my latest book ”Talkpower the Mind Body Way To Speak Without Fear” Skyhorse publishing.
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