IN THE PRESS

The Telegraph tried our glossophobia treatment

Lucy Atkins, writing in The Telegraph · Saturday 1 November 2008



A Telegraph journalist with a paralysing fear of public speaking came to our Harley Street clinic to try a quick cure for glossophobia. This is her first-hand account of the treatment — and how she left "weirdly confident".

"I could probably cure just about any phobia in five minutes," says Guy Baglow, psychologist and founder of the Phobia Clinic. As I lie back in his comfy Harley Street offices, it would be an understatement to say that I feel cynical. Still, my glossophobia — fear of public speaking — is the most common problem Baglow treats. It's estimated that as many as 75 per cent of us suffer from it, hence the old joke that the average person at a funeral would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Currently, Baglow's schedule is packed with nervy City bankers riding out the credit crunch. "They're terrified that if they can't present themselves brilliantly they'll be out," he says.

A phobia can develop over several years or strike suddenly. "It can happen to anyone," says Baglow. His clients tend to be high-octane career people, hobbled by their fear of public speaking. One was a police chief, who, although confident when dealing with terrorists, had a paralysing dread of making a presentation.

Then there was the top Texan salesman who was used to presenting material to hundreds but who froze on day one of a new job in front of only 20 people. His confidence plummeted and, like me, he ended up on Baglow's couch.

My own presentational nadir came 18 months ago when, at short notice, I had to introduce a famous writer to 300 people at a literary festival. The sea of faces triggered a powerful physical reaction: my limbs shook, my mouth dried up and my mind went blank. I was just about able to speak, waveringly, but feared that I might collapse at any moment. I have since, through dread, turned down interesting speaking and interviewing opportunities. "People go to enormous efforts to avoid what scares them," says Baglow. "This can seriously hamper careers."

Sometimes the cause is deep-rooted. One City bigwig developed a sweaty back, neck and shoulders when giving speeches. During his treatment, it emerged that, in childhood, his father would stand over him threateningly as he recited his times tables.

Baglow's technique, known as the "Fast Phobia Cure", breaks these negative psychological associations and replaces them with new, calm and positive ones.

I close my eyes, put on headphones and let Baglow's hypnotic voice take me back to that awful literary event. I run through it in my head as if watching a black-and-white movie. We fast-forward my "movie", then rewind it at high speed, several times. This "deconditioning" exercise removes negative emotions (there is no time to feel them), creating a sense of control. I then envisage a confident "future self" before an admiring audience, and "fast-forward rewind" this scenario a few times.

I feel weirdly confident: I could almost rush straight to Speakers' Corner and let rip.

"No one needs to live with a phobia," says Baglow. He claims to have cured many phobias — about anything from tomatoes to sharks and, memorably, male strippers — in a couple of sessions. There is no need for Freudian analysis, tears or tearing out of hair, he says.

Whether I am cured remains to be seen. But one client, a quaking banker with a public-speaking phobia, has just enrolled on a stand-up comedy course. There is hope for us all.

Article by Lucy Atkins, originally published in The Telegraph, Saturday 1 November 2008. Reproduced here as coverage of the Mindspa Phobia Clinic.

© Telegraph Media Group.