Stage fright
is an all-too familiar condition for many performers. It's experienced
by both seasoned professionals and novices alike. It spares no one because
of their age and, in fact, can come on later in life after years of performing.
To most people it is an irrational condition and, in general, is regarded
as something to be borne, to be endured. You perform in spite of it. After
all, you think, it‚s such a common condition and we all can find
our own ways to deal with it. So you accept the cold hands, the sweats,
the waves of nausea, the shortness of breath and just walk onto that stage
and you make it through.
For others, stage fright or performance anxieties can be harder to overcome.
At the least it prevents you from showing your talent at its best. At
worst, it can bring a career to a standstill. We hear of the successful
instrumentalist in a major orchestra who suddenly finds himself no longer
able to walk on stage. Or the middle-aged writer who can‚t bring
herself to read aloud her stories to a room full of strangers. Or the
young singer whose fear of auditioning is getting in the way of a career
before it has even begun.
Various coaching tools and therapies are available to provide some help
and, depending on the severity of the condition and the willingness of
the 'victim‚' to address the problem, have proven successful in overcoming
the physical, emotional and mental manifestations that are the evidence
of stage fright.
PERFORMANCE COACH
One of the newer tools for dealing with stage fright was introduced to
several BSR subscribers recently in Salem, MA by Dr Nancy Cetlin, Ed.D,
for 25 years a psychologist and performance coach. The two-hour introductory
overview focused on several inter-linked processes which she has developed
into a unique program that she has used successfully on hundreds of performers
in various disciplines for the treatment of stage fright and performance
anxiety. Dr Cetlin has offices in Back Bay and Wellesley Lower Falls.
Her website is www.nancycetlin.com
FLOW STATE
To begin, Dr Cetlin presented the idea of the Flow State. As she says,
"it‚s a somewhat altered state of consciousness; something everyone
has experienced involuntarily many times‚" For example, you've
driven home at the end of the day but don't recall the particulars of
the journey. The Flow State, which readers may recognize as being similar
to 'the Zone', is developed and intentionally self-induced. You consciously
recall an event, with all its sights, sounds, textures, even smells, when
you felt yourself to be most Adult and fully capable. This event, whether
it was a moment or a longer period of time, was unencumbered by feelings
of being judged or of being self-critical. Things just flowed for you.
The value of the Flow State, according to Dr Cetlin, comes with the repeated
use of the Flow State Exercise; practicing the recall of that particular
Adult moment and, eventually, of others.
MENTAL REHEARSAL
Next Dr Cetlin talked about the Mental Rehearsal which, as a technique,
is very familiar to any dedicated musician: To learn a piece of music
well you must break it down to smaller and smaller elements, learning
each element perfectly. Then you broaden the elements to include more
and more of the music until the whole work has been mastered. Similarly,
with the Mental Rehearsal, small elements of a problem (in this case,
a musical problem) are first mentally 'experienced‚' and then, resolved
back and forth repeatedly until the resolution of the problem becomes
automatic. By projecting a Flow State into the Mental Rehearsal, Dr Cetlin
states, we reinforce the effectiveness of the Mental Rehearsal.
Both the Flow State and Mental Rehearsal may, for some readers, call to
mind similar techniques; most obviously hypnosis. Dr Cetlin is quick to
express the view that it is not hypnosis. What differentiates her program
from treatments involving hypnosis is Eye Movement Desensitization and
Reprocess (EMDR). This third and most unique aspect of Dr Cetlin's program
is what enables the first two to be so effective. It is where, as Dr Cetlin
puts it, 'the rubber meets the road.'
EMDR
There's nothing like a good night‚s sleep, they say. It gives your
brain a chance to process all the information you took in today, to make
sense of the raw data. This occurs during the Rapid Eye Movement, or REM,
stage of sleep; so-called because the eyes have been observed to 'scan‚'
back and forth rapidly during the stage.
But not all information gets processed, not all raw data gets resolved.
The reason for this, as Dr Cetlin explained, is that some raw data is
just too raw. Some events in our lives, whether far back in our childhood
or more recent, have associations that can't be processed with just a
good night's sleep. These events, as Dr Cetlin puts it, are the 'Fight
or Flight‚' experiences. They reside deep inside the brain, in the
primitive animal brain where our most basic responses reside; where the
gag reflex, and coughing and breathing reside. When something is overwhelming
or terrifying or traumatic it gets stuck in this part of the brain. The
experience can be the root cause of stage fright and performance anxiety,
whether or not it is related to an actual performance event.
Conversely, studies show that when these 'Fight or Flight‚' experiences
occur, the thinking part of the brain, the Cortex, becomes inactive -
extremely so. The raw data, our stage fright, remain stuck in the lower
part of the brain and cannot be drawn out to the higher part of the brain
during REM sleep. As Dr Cetlin puts it: "When the 'Fight or Flight‚'
is up, the Cortex is down. What we want to do is get the 'Fight or Flight‚'
down and bring the Cortex up."
How is that accomplished? By using the Eye Movement Desensitization and
Reprocess program, the third element in Dr Cetlin's method. With EMDR
the Cortex is induced to process information that is being held captive
in the emotional center of the brain. It does this, in part, by emulating
the events that occur in the REM stage of sleep. The Cortex is stimulated
to process information by any of several bi-lateral actions imposed on
it. The most effective of these actions, Dr Cetlin states, has been proven
to be the back-and-forth movement of the eyes as in REM sleep. An alternative
action, which Dr Cetlin demonstrated during the seminar, is the use of
a mechanical device which sends alternating (left and right) tones into
a set of headphones.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocess was first developed between
1987 and 1989 by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D, a Senior Research Fellow at the
Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA, as a methodology for treating
cases of posttraumatic stress in adults and children, particularly those
involving events during the Vietnam War. On the website of the EMDR Institute
(http://www.emdr.com/q&a.htm,
the basis of Dr Shapiro's work is described, in part, as follows: She
hypothesizes that "(we process) the multiple elements of experiences
to an adaptive state where learning takes place. She conceptualizes memory
as being stored in linked networks that are organized around the earliest
related event and its associated affect and contain related thoughts,
images, emotions, and sensations." She further hypothesizes that
"if the information related to a distressing or traumatic experience
is not fully processed, the initial perceptions, emotions, and distorted
thoughts will be stored as they were experienced at the time of the event."
Shapiro also argues that "such unprocessed experiences become the
basis of current dysfunctional reactions and are the cause of many mental
disorders."
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Trauma, as described in this admittedly high level description, can manifest
itself in our stage fright and performance anxieties. Dr Cetlin, recognizing
the link and the effectiveness of the techniques originally identified
and tested by Dr Shapiro, has adapted them as tools for her work as a
performance coach. In her experience with the treatment since 1994, she
believes she has been able to eliminate or diminish stage fright in as
many as 90 percent of her patients.
It was apparent to the participants at the seminar that, after such a
brief introduction, it would be difficult to assess adequately either
the methods and procedures or the benefits. Dr Cetlin stressed that the
two-hour introductory seminar could hardly due justice to the complexities
involved in a treatment using EMDR. As a complete treatment, EMDR is presented
by the therapist in as many as eight phases depending on the issues being
addressed and on their severity. She estimates that, on average, a musician
with a moderate degree of stage fright would require perhaps ten 80-minute
sessions. Within that time, hopefully, the underlying issues would be
identified and a regimen of Mental Rehearsal and Flow State Exercises
could be established.
***
For additional information about Dr Nancy Cetlin's work or to contact
her directly please go to www.nancycetlin.com
The following websites, referenced on Dr Cetlin's web page, provide more
information about Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
www.emdrportal.com
www.emdr.com
www.EMDRIA.org
*
Please note that, although Boston Singers Resource does not endorse this
particular method or similar methods, either explicitly or implicitly,
we view the ideas presented by Dr Cetlin with interest. Persons interested
in this type or any type of mental health program should thoroughly investigate
the methods and claimed benefits before proceeding with any treatment.