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Virtually all my life I had been terrified of appearing in public. Over the last few years I have taken up playing a musical instrument - the harp - and my playing reached the point where I was invited to perform locally in front of several hundred people. What should have been a great feeling of pride was replaced by horror and cold sweats at the thought of appearing in public. Several weeks before the event I worked with CTRN's Phobia Clinic, and was able not only to undertake the performance, but to really enjoy it, concentrating on and taking pride in my performance instead of sweating and shaking for days beforehand. I know the problem has gone because on the day I simply wasn't nervous even though everything conspired to try and make me so (harsh lighting of the sort of lighting that you expect in a train station, a stage only 3 feet deep, a packed audience which had standing room only and was spilling out into the entrance, the fact that I knew 80% of those there, and even the ones that I didn't know knew me, and finally that my part was in the second half - so there would have been plenty of time for the nerves to build!) I'm not sure what I did, or how it worked, but the out of control nervousness was gone. Miraculously, my sense of control and well being remained with me, where in the past it used to evaporate into a debilitating bundle of nervousness. No longer the inexplicable shaking, palpitations, forgetting the music and the most dreadful unforced errors. At last I am now able to give a performance true to my ability. In just a few minutes the technique you used instantly enabled me to overcome a problem that I have had for virtually all of my life.
- Certified Public Accountant
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