EMDR for Fear of Public Speaking – Laurel Parnell

In this video the client, a therapist, has a fear of public speaking. She would like to present publically, but she is very anxious and avoids situations where speaking would be required. She said that when she speaks, she can’t think, and has significant anticipatory anxiety that could be so severe it affected her sleep before scheduled events. Her goals for treatment were to be confident enough that “I can handle whatever happens so I can think.” She wanted to be able to speak publically and do presentations and also to see more couples without sleepless nights.

In the session the client using tactile stimulation pulsers for bilateral stimulation, installed resources. We then used the bridging technique to bridge from a recent example of her speaking anxiety to find a target from the past. After processing that target to completion and installing a positive cognition we returned to the incident we bridged from to check our work. She felt much better, but found another area that still had charge. We then bridged a second time to find another target from her childhood and processed that. When that was complete, we again returned to the recent anxiety-producing situation to check our work. She felt much better in that situation, no distress. She then imagined future scenarios of speaking. These felt better, but new concerns came up that she hadn’t been aware of before. After exploring these, we decided to close the session with the understanding that these could be targeted in future sessions. At the end of the video I summarize the session and explain what I did and why.