Home  /  Hypnotherapy  /  Performance Anxiety & Public Speaking

Hypnotherapy for performance anxiety & public speaking: Rockville, MD & online across Maryland

You know your material. Hypnotherapy works on the alarm that goes off anyway.

The racing heart, the shallow breath, the shaking voice, the mind that goes blank in front of a room and works perfectly everywhere else, the quiet urge to just leave: that's not a knowledge problem, and more preparation won't fix it. It's an automatic threat response, and the automatic layer is exactly where hypnotherapy does its work. Presentations, performances, interviews, toasts, depositions, auditions: if being watched and evaluated sets off the alarm, this is for you.

Schedule a free consultation 15 minutes, free. Tell me what happens and when it happens, and I'll tell you honestly whether this work fits.

Why this happens

The problem isn't your skills. It's your access to them under threat.

Performance anxiety runs on a loop. Your body reads the room as a threat and fires the alarm: pounding heart, dry mouth, trembling hands, heat in the face. You notice the symptoms and start monitoring yourself: can they see my hands shaking? Did my voice just crack? That self-monitoring pulls attention away from what you're saying, which produces the stumble or the blank you were dreading, which confirms the fear and makes the alarm fire harder next time. Eventually many people just start avoiding: declining the panel, letting a colleague present, turning the camera off.

Notice what's missing from that loop: any deficit in ability. The knowledge is there; you use it fluently in low-stakes settings. And notice something else: this isn't an argument you can win in your head. You already know, intellectually, that the room isn't actually dangerous, and it changes nothing when your name is called. Hypnosis is a state of focused, absorbed attention in which the automatic layer running that loop becomes workable. We rehearse the feared situation with your nervous system settled instead of braced, retrain attention to point at your message and your audience rather than inward at your own symptoms, and change what your body has learned to expect when eyes turn toward you.

What we work on

The body's alarm: settling the physical response so it stops hijacking the moment

Attention: outward to your message and audience, not inward to your symptoms

Blanking and recovery: finding your place again without spiraling when you stumble

The replay: shutting down the hours of post-event rumination and self-criticism

Avoidance: taking back the opportunities the anxiety has been costing you

Self-hypnosis skills you keep, for the green room, the hallway, and the night before

Sessions run 50-55 minutes, in person in Rockville or by video anywhere in Maryland. If you have a specific event on the calendar, we can structure the work around it.

This page is for you if it shows up in

Presentations, pitches, panels, and leading meetings

Interviews, testimony, oral exams, and being put on the spot

Auditions, musical or theatrical performance, and competition

Freezing, rushing, trembling, flushing, nausea, or losing your voice

Weddings and toasts, or any moment the room goes quiet for you

Avoidance or career limits from being seen and evaluated

Not quite your pattern? If it's broad, day-to-day vigilance and overpreparation rather than the spotlight specifically, high-functioning anxiety therapy is the better fit.

How the work maps to the moment

Performance anxiety has a shape. We work on every part of it.

Before: the dread

For many people the days before are worse than the event itself: sleep suffers, the mind runs disaster previews, and the anxiety about being anxious becomes its own problem. We use hypnotic rehearsal to give your nervous system a different preview, one where you're composed and absorbed in the task, and self-hypnosis tools to interrupt the anticipatory spiral when it starts.

The first minute: the crest

The adrenaline usually peaks right as you begin, and that first minute is where people panic and try to fight the feeling. We work on the opposite: letting the surge be usable energy rather than a signal to flee, and giving your attention one reliable place to land, so you can ride the crest instead of being thrown by it.

During: the moment

In the moment itself, the goals are a body regulated enough to think, attention pointed at the work instead of the self, and a practiced way back when something goes sideways. A stumble is only a catastrophe if it triggers the spiral; we build the recovery reflex so a lost word stays a lost word, not a verdict on you.

After: the replay

The post-event autopsy, replaying every flaw for hours or days, is what teaches your brain that performing is dangerous, and it's what feeds the dread before the next one. We work on closing the loop: an honest, brief review that keeps what's useful, and an end to the punishment that keeps the whole cycle running.

Why work with me on this

I don't just treat performance anxiety. I've spent a career standing in front of rooms.

Before becoming a psychotherapist, I conducted more than 6,200 hours of hypnosis and coaching sessions, including extensive work with confidence, anxiety, and performance blocks. I've also lived the other side of this page: I've trained over a hundred practitioners, presented for several consecutive years at the National Guild of Hypnotists conference, and was invited to the National Institutes of Health to present on hypnosis and self-hypnosis. I know what it is to stand up in front of an expert audience with something on the line, and I use these same tools myself.

Now, as a Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor, I bring something most hypnotists and speaking coaches cannot: if the fear of being seen turns out to be connected to something deeper, such as perfectionism, a humiliating past event that's still with you, or anxiety that reaches beyond the stage, we can work with that too, in the same room, with clinical training behind it.

Where the work happens

A room, not a stage.

There's a particular irony in doing this work: the thing that scares you is being watched, and the place we practice it is about as unwatched as a room can be. No audience, no camera unless you want one, no performance to get right. Just a quiet office in Rockville, soft light, comfortable chairs, and the time to let your nervous system learn something new at a pace it can actually absorb.

If you'd rather not travel, we do the same work by video anywhere in Maryland, from wherever you feel most settled.

A private therapy room at Sage Oak in Rockville: comfortable seating, plants, and a wall of books
The calm, private waiting area at the Sage Oak office in Rockville, Maryland

A client reflection

When I started my program my self-esteem and confidence were down. At the end of my sessions, I feel so much more confident. I trust myself again. I would recommend him to anyone.

E.G.  ·  Confidence & self-trust

Shared with permission. Initials only, to protect privacy. Individual results vary, and I'll tell you honestly what to expect for your situation.

Common questions

About hypnotherapy for performance anxiety

Can hypnotherapy really help with public speaking anxiety?+

For many people, yes, and I won't promise it works for everyone, because nothing does. Performance anxiety responds well to this kind of work because the problem usually isn't a skill deficit; it's an alarm response firing in a situation your body has tagged as dangerous. Hypnosis works directly with that automatic layer: rehearsing the situation in a calm state, retraining where your attention goes, and changing what your body expects to happen when you stand up to speak. In the free consultation I'll ask about your specific pattern and tell you honestly whether it's a good fit.

Will hypnosis make me fearless?+

That's not the goal, and honestly you wouldn't want it. A certain amount of activation is what makes you sharp; the performers you admire are not the ones who feel nothing. What we change is the runaway version of the alarm, the one that hijacks your body and blanks your mind, so you can stay present, think clearly, and actually use everything you prepared.

How many sessions does this take?+

If you have a specific event coming up, tell me when we talk; we can often structure the work around it, including a session close to the date. That said, the goal is not just to survive one presentation. It's to change your relationship with being watched and evaluated, so the next one costs you less than this one did.

What if my mind goes blank the moment people look at me?+

Blanking is one of the most common stress responses there is, and it is not proof that you don't know your material; it's proof that the alarm got loud enough to crowd out your access to it. A lot of the work is rehearsing the recovery itself: catching the pause, finding your next point, coming back to the room, and continuing, without treating the blank as a verdict on you. When your body trusts it can recover, it stops bracing so hard in the first place.

I'm fine one-on-one but fall apart in front of a group. Is that normal?+

Extremely. Performance anxiety is usually situational, not global. Plenty of highly capable people, including executives, litigators, physicians, and musicians, are articulate and confident in every context except the one where they feel evaluated. That specificity is actually good news: it means the skills exist and the knowledge exists. The problem is access under threat, and access is exactly what this work targets.

What about beta-blockers or anxiety medication?+

Some people use beta-blockers for performances, prescribed by their physician, and that's between you and your doctor. Medication can dampen the physical symptoms; it doesn't change the anticipatory dread, the avoidance, or the post-event replay. Hypnotherapy works on those layers, and the approaches can coexist. Many clients find that as the underlying response changes, the question of medication becomes less pressing.

What can't hypnotherapy do for my speaking?+

It won't install skills you haven't built. If you've never structured a talk or practiced delivery, hypnotherapy removes the interference but doesn't replace preparation; a coach or a group like Toastmasters covers that side. It also isn't a substitute for treating broader social anxiety or panic disorder if that's what's actually going on. Part of my job in the consultation is telling you which situation you're in, and I will.

Do I need hypnotherapy or regular therapy?+

If the fear is contained to performance situations and your life otherwise works, focused hypnotherapy is often the efficient choice. If speaking anxiety is one thread in a larger pattern, such as harsh self-criticism, perfectionism, or anxiety that follows you everywhere, broader psychotherapy may serve you better, and I can offer that too, with hypnosis woven in where it helps. You don't have to diagnose yourself before calling. That's what the free consultation is for.

The next room you speak in doesn't have to feel like the last one.

Start with a free 15-minute consultation. Tell me what you need to be able to do, what your body does instead, and whether there's a date on the calendar. I'll give you an honest read on whether this work fits, and what it would look like.

Schedule your free consultation

Curious how hypnotherapy works more broadly? Hypnotherapy at Sage Oak  ·  Fees & insurance