How Can Integral Eye Movement Therapy Help With Fear of Public Speaking?
What is Integral Eye Movement Therapy and how does it relate to alleviating fear of public speaking?
Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT), developed by Andrew T. Austin, addresses two questions. “How did the person learn to feel this way about ‘x’?” and “how did this person learn to be this way?” IEMT also recognises that when a person has had a problem for some time, they can develop patterns which, despite their apparent desire for change, keep them stuck. These are known as the 5 patterns of chronicity and where they exist, must be addressed. IEMT also has a protocol for dealing with PTSD.
IEMT works on memories. When a memory is encoded, so is an accompanying emotion. For example, when a person is told by their boss they want to see them in their office, the person may feel like a schoolchild about to be told off. An emotional imprint was laid down at an earlier date which is being re-activated in the present.
The involvement of eye movements in the formation of memories has long been known about. The particular eye movement protocols of IEMT interrupt the eye movement patterns related to the laying down of a particular memory so that the way that particular event is remembered, changes. The person may report that the memory seems more distant, the accompanying emotion is diminished and they might even have some new and helpful revelation about the event.
When we are dealing with the issue “how did this person learn to be this way?” we are moving into the area of identity. When we say “I am ‘x’”, this is an example of what we believe about ourselves – for good or bad. These beliefs about ourselves have usually developed over a long period of time and inform our behaviours. Whilst addressing those identity issues related to the concern for which the client is seeking help, IEMT can also look at identities and labels others might have given us that might be implicated in how we feel and behave, and the internalised representations we have of others.
In relation to public speaking therefore, we might find that there are a number of memories a person has that have fed into a person’s feelings about public speaking. These might be related to earlier speaking incidents, such as being ridiculed when speaking up in class, or to other events that made a person nervous about expressing themselves.
In terms of identity, a person might have a belief such as “I am a fraud”. They might also have internalised an unhelpful representation of authority or something else. These will all be very particular to the client and thus the treatment is tailored very much to the individual.
IEMT also recognises that a person’s issue is distributed throughout the whole system and reveals itself through our physiology. These can be grandiose or subtle movements and gestures; a tightening of certain muscles for example, a breath hold at a point, a shrinking down, to name just a few.
In IEMT, this is known as Physiological State Accessing Cues. We can help a person recognise their way of accessing a negative, emotional state, show how by making small bodily shifts they can move out of it and access more resourceful states they can feed forward into the future. Armed with this understanding, they can through practice, begin to access these more resourceful states more readily.
This aspect of IEMT is a strong feature in my “Easy Speaking” programme.