Conquer Stage Fright - the Six Week Course

Conquer stage fright and enjoy performing.

Stage fright, performance anxiety, public speaking anxiety, performance nerves, butterflies…

It goes by many names, but all who suffer from it will know only too well the paralysing fear that strikes in the hours or minutes before ‘going on’.

But what if it wasn’t something you had to put up with?

What if performance nerves are not just treatable, but able to be conquered so completely that you could even begin to enjoy performing again?

In this course, I – a former stage fright sufferer – will give you ideas, tips and techniques to help you beat the nerves. I’ll show you how current ideas from neuroscience and psychology make sense of stage fright symptoms. Most importantly, I’ll teach you how the principles discovered by Australian actor FM Alexander can help you conquer your fear. By the end of the course, you will have the tools to change totally the way you think about performing, so that you can give the audience your absolute best.

But why should you trust me?

I’m a former sufferer from stage fright.

I know what it’s like to feel sick to the stomach before going onstage. I know the crazy thoughts and tricks the mind can play as you try to get through that tricky semi-quaver run.

As a kid I was a promising musician, but my unhelpful beliefs about performing and music prevented me from giving my best to an audience. The nerves got worse and worse; so bad, in fact, that I quit music. I sidestepped into theatre and worked professionally in theatre-in-education. I could control the nerves when I was giving drama workshops in schools, but they never went away entirely.

It was only when I started having some coaching in Alexander Technique for a completely unrelated problem that my performance nerves started to go away. I started performing as a musician again. Nerves aren’t a problem any more.

Conquer your stage fright with me.

I work with actors and musicians every day, coaching them with Alexander Technique. I teach privately, and I am a tutor at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. I’ve come to realise that there are lots of performers who struggle with performance nerves. Some have even come to believe that it’s normal and impossible to fix. But that isn’t true.

I have drawn on my own experiences and combined it with my theatre and music expertise, my training in Alexander Technique, and my extensive reading on the subject. I’ve created a course that will help you:

Understand why you shouldn’t fear the physical symptoms of stage fright;
Unravel the ‘twisty thinking’ that makes the physical symptoms worse;
Create new, more helpful thinking about performing and your relationship to the audience;
Learn to control your ‘chimp’ brain;
Form good practice habits;
Develop tools and strategies to calm your breathing and your thoughts pre-performance.

What’s in the course?

I will give you a course book and guide you through it over six weeks. Each week, you will have a meeting with me (either in person or by Skype) where we talk through the ideas of the week’s material. Each week I will set you some homework, which will help embed the good practice habits and good thinking that we talk about in the meetings. You can start today, if you wish: no waiting around for a start date weeks in the future!

I’m not going to lie to you: you will have to work. You will need to complete the exercises that I set. I strongly recommend that you attend the meetings each week. You will need to work. But all truly great and good goals require work, and imagine how proud you will be of yourself when you achieve things you’d only dreamed about before!

By the end of the course, you should have all the tools you need to:

Construct a good practice regime;
Know what to practice, and when;
Maintain a positive and calm attitude towards high pressure situations;
Develop a positive relationship with an audience;
Feel ‘in control’ of your performance;
Deal constructively with feedback.

If you want to learn how to love performing, then this course is for you.

Conquer stage fright now, before the big performance opportunity

You’re going to be tempted to pass on this opportunity. You will be tempted to nod, put this course on your ‘to-do’ list, and forget about it. At least, forget about it until it becomes a pressing concern.

Don’t put it off.

You see, conquering the fear now is really important. When the big audition comes along, or the recital, or the singing competition, you need to be ready. Wouldn’t it feel amazing to be calm and in control of your feelings as you head into the audition? Wouldn’t it be great to know that you’d prepared yourself as well as you could? How good would it be to have calm and ordered thoughts as you go onstage?

If that is what you want, then give yourself the gift of the time to get there. Do something now, and have the instant relief of not hiding from yourself any more.

Here’s what you get:

A full course book, with six weeks of material and exercises designed to change your thinking and teach you good habits;
A weekly meeting with me where we discuss the course material, recap the homework, and go through the exercises;
Full email and telephone support for the length of the course, and continuing for the next three months. If you need help or advice, I’m available. We can even do telephone consults before a big gig, if it helps.

Conquer Stage Fright – the Six Week Course