The media and popular culture frequently portrays of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy as something strange or unreal. Despite this, many people in the know use this powerful set of techniques to cure themselves of phobias, ailments and other problems.
Below are a set of case studies where notable people have used Hypnotherapy to help with performance anxiety or stage fright.
Mel B (Melanie Brown)
Commonly known as Melanie B or Mel B, is an English Singer, Actress, and Television personality. She was a member of the pop group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Scary Spice.
She has battled stage fright her entire career. When she launched her burlesque show in Las Vegas in 2009 she used hypnotherapy to overcome it. Speaking with People Magazine about the production called Peepshow, she said, “My friend hypnotized me before I started rehearsals to have a real open mind”. She went on to say, “I was getting a bit nervous. My anxiety was getting to me. I was hypnotized to calm me down and it worked”.
Jenny Slate
Jenny Slate is an American Actress, Comedian and Author.
She joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for just one season in 2009 and was reportedly fired. She struggled with severe stage fright after this experience and turned to Hypnotherapy for help.
During a 2017 she gave an interview to The Guardian newspaper about it. She explains, “Performing was always an innocent, energetic joy for me but once I was fired, I got a specific type of stage fright — a narrative inside of me: ‘These people don’t like you and they don’t want you to be here. And whatever that magic is that clicks in when you’re on stage, it’s not going to happen tonight.’ My entire self-worth was challenged. I didn’t want to quit stand-up just because I got fired from one job, so I fought against it. I went to a hypnotherapist – it sounds crazy, but it worked.”
Olivia Coleman
Olivia Colman is an English actress best known for her Oscar winning performance in The Favourite and her role in The Crown.
In an interview with the Independent newspaper in 2021 she revealed that she saw a hypnotherapist for stage fright after once ‘wetting herself’ on stage laughing. She said, “I worry… getting older and slightly more recognisable, the fear that all of these people will watch when you f*** it up and [say], ‘Ah, she did it wrong’ or ‘We went to see that person that we’ve seen on the telly – not as good on stage”.
She went on to say she went to a hypnotherapist “to try and come up with some tools to stop being quite so petrified”.