ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 focuses on Sarah, a clarinettist playing in a prestigious semi-professional orchestra who had been experiencing devastating performance anxiety for several years, to the point that on some occasions she would panic and turn down engagements. In therapy her narrative indicated that she was suffering from acute music performance anxiety. Analysis of her past history strongly indicates that there were a number of traumatic incidents in her past which are impacting and exacerbating her present-day thoughts regarding performance. She experiences no other significant anxieties in other areas of her life. Her main objective is to perform solo in public without the crippling anxiety that she presently experiences. Sarah was given a single therapy session which lasted one hour and thirty minutes, consisting of eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing followed by cognitive hypnotherapy to reinforce positive thoughts and behaviours in performance. Post-therapy her whole attitude towards performance changed. These were her comments after her first performance: ‘I conquered my fear and gave, I am told, a very good confident performance’. Longitudinally she reports that since her therapy in 2010 she still maintains her newfound confidence and enjoyment in performing.
