The Public Speaking & Presentation Confidence Intensive
For Business Leaders, Startup Founders, and Entrepreneurs Who Are Ready to Resolve Anxiety About Public Speaking, Presentations, and Stage Fright in as Little as One Day Using Accelerated Resolution Therapy
Serving professionals in all of Massachusetts, Washington State, Oregon, and Florida
Avoiding presentations and public speaking limits everything you’re capable of achieving
In regular conversations, you’re good. You can joke around, hold your own in discussions, and contribute ideas. No one would describe you as shy.
But the moment you need to present, whether it’s a board meeting, an investor pitch, or even just speaking up in a team Zoom call, everything changes.
You’ve prepared for hours. You know your material cold. But the second you start talking in front of people, you blank out.
Your brain shuts down, your heart races, and your voice shakes. You get stuck in your head thinking “don’t mess up”, which, of course, makes you mess up.
And it’s not just presentations, is it?
You’ve avoided opportunities, declined promotions, and stayed quiet in meetings because you're afraid you’ll sound ignorant to your peers. Maybe you’ve even changed jobs or dropped out of programs because the presentation requirements made you too anxious.
The ironic part is you’ve gotten little, if any, negative feedback. Your colleagues would probably be shocked to know just how anxious you get. But you know.
Research shows that 75% of people experience presentation anxiety to some degree. And as an entrepreneur or business professional, the consequences for your career are staggering: nearly half of all professionals (45%) have avoided accepting a promotion because of presentation anxiety.
Those who suffer from it earn 10% less over their careers and are 15% less likely to reach leadership positions. The career opportunities you’re missing are incalculable.
The career cost of presentation anxiety, fear of public speaking, and stage fright is simply too high.
Warren Buffett, now one of the most effective communicators in business, once vomited before presentations and avoided even saying his own name in public. He later said that overcoming presentation fear “will make a difference of 50% in your value.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. Research shows employees are 70% more likely to get promoted to management positions if confident in public speaking.
Why Therapy, Toastmasters, and Medication Didn’t Help
(And What Actually Does)
You may have already tried therapy. Maybe you talked about your anxiety for months. Maybe you learned breathing techniques or cognitive reframing. And maybe it helped a little. But when you walked into that conference room, your body reacted in the same way it has for years.
Or you joined Toastmasters. You showed up week after week, practicing in a supportive environment. You got better at structuring speeches. You learned techniques. You even got comfortable presenting to that specific group. But then you had to present to your actual board. Or pitch to actual investors. And the anxiety came roaring back—because the stakes were real.
Or your doctor prescribed propranolol. It helped with the physical symptoms: the racing heart, the shaking hands. But you still felt foggy. Your mind still went blank. You couldn't access your expertise when it mattered most. And the thought of taking medication before every important presentation for the rest of your career felt unsustainable.
Here’s the fundamental problem with all of these approaches: They’re treating fear of public speaking as if it’s a skills gap. It’s not.
Toastmasters teaches you how to present: structuring content, using vocal variety, and making eye contact. These are valuable skills. But if you already know your material and still freeze when it’s your turn to present, more practice won’t fix the underlying issue.
Traditional talk therapy helps you understand your thoughts and develop coping strategies. But understanding why you're anxious doesn't stop your nervous system from activating a threat response.
Propranolol suppresses physical symptoms: it slows your heart rate, stops the shaking. But it's masking the manifestation, not resolving the cause. And many professionals experience mental fogginess from beta-blockers precisely when they need to be sharpest.
The truth is: Fear of public speaking isn’t about lacking presentation skills. It’s a nervous system problem.
Your brain learned, usually from a specific experience or series of experiences, that public speaking situations are dangerous, like:
You blanked during a presentation in school
A teacher publicly humiliated you
You watched someone else get criticized and your brain decided, “never again.”
Now, every time you face a similar situation, your amygdala (your brain’s threat-detection center) activates a full threat response: racing heart, shallow breathing, mental fog, the works.
You don’t need more skills or better coping strategies. You don’t need to mask symptoms with medication.
You need to resolve what's creating the fear response in the first place.
That's what Accelerated Resolution Therapy does and why it works when skills training, talk therapy, and medication don’t.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy Resolves Fear of Public Speaking & Presenting In as Little as One Day
Accelerated Resolution Therapy works differently from any other treatment you’ve tried.
Instead of talking about your anxiety or learning coping strategies, ART targets the specific memories and experiences that created your threat response in the first place and changes them at the neurological level.
Using rapid eye movements (similar to REM sleep), we reprocess old memories and future fears so that they no longer trigger a threat response. Your brain keeps any factual information of what happened, but releases the emotional charge (the fear, anxiety, shame, or humiliation).
The result: When you face similar situations in the future, your nervous system stays calm. You can access your expertise, think clearly, and present with confidence because your brain no longer perceives it as a threat.
ART has a 94% completion rate, meaning nearly everyone who starts treatment finishes it and experiences rapid relief. Compare that to traditional talk therapy, where dropout rates for anxiety treatment can exceed 50%.
Why? Because ART doesn’t require you to:
Relive traumatic experiences in detail
Do homework between sessions
Practice exposure repeatedly
Take medication
Change your thinking through willpower, tools, or skills
ART targets the specific memories that taught your brain to fear presenting and reprocesses them so that they no longer trigger anxiety. Your brain keeps the facts, but loses the fear response.
Your Success Does Not Need Not Be Held Hostage by Your Nervous System
Here’s what can change after your intensive day:
Accepting the VP role you’ve been declining for two years: the one with the quarterly board presentations and the $40K salary bump
Closing the funding round because you could finally pitch your vision without your voice shaking or your mind going blank in front of investors
Getting the consulting contract that requires monthly client presentations: the work you’re qualified for, not the behind-the-scenes role you settled for
Saying yes to the TEDx talk invitation: the 18-minute opportunity that could define your reputation and open doors you didn’t know existed
Being invited to speak at industry conferences: the visibility that positions you as a thought leader and brings inbound business
Leading the all-hands meeting that gets you recognized by senior leadership instead of hiding behind slides and delegating the speaking parts
Negotiating the promotion you deserve because you can finally articulate your value in the high-stakes conversation with your CEO
Launching the business that requires sales presentations and pitching instead of staying in the safe corporate job that’s killing your soul
In as little as one day, Accelerated Resolution Therapy will help you access the career advancement, income growth, and professional recognition you’ve been leaving on the table.
The Intensive Process
What’s Included:
Assessment (30-45 minutes)
ART Processing Session (3-5 hours): Process the anxiety and fear using bilateral stimulation so that it no longer interferes with your current opportunities
Results-Focused Guarantee and Follow-Up Care:
Three complimentary follow-up sessions at 30, 90, and 180 days (30 minutes each, virtual)
If you’re still experiencing stage fright (which is unlikely), we’ll do additional ART processing during these sessions at no extra charge
My goal: Complete resolution of your public speaking anxiety
There are two ways to get started
Option 1: Apply for the Full Intensive
Best for business professionals who:
Are ready to resolve this now
Have researched ART and understand the approach
Want the fastest path to healing
Investment: $5,000 flat fee
Includes:
Comprehensive assessment
ART intensive (typically 3-5 hours)
Three results-focused follow-up sessions at 30, 90, and 180 days
Additional ART interventions during follow-ups, if needed, at no extra charge
→ Schedule Your Intensive Here
Option 2: Assessment + Introduction Session First
Best for executives who:
Want to experience ART’s approach before committing
Need to assess fit and build trust first
Prefer to make decisions in stages
Investment: $500 (fully credited towards your intensive cost, if you book your intensive within 14 days)
This 75-90 minute session includes:
A comprehensive assessment
Experience a brief complementary intervention
Clear recommendation on whether the ART intensive is right for you
Your Next Move
That presentation that’s keeping you up at night…
The keynote opportunity is sitting in your inbox…
The investor pitch in three weeks…
The executive team meeting where you need to speak up about the strategic direction…
You can keep managing the anxiety. Keep over-preparing. Keep declining opportunities. Keep letting fear decide your career trajectory. And it doesn’t have to be this way.
By investing one day to resolve the anxiety response that takes over when you present or speak in front of others, you’ll remove the handbrake that has been limiting your career.
Warren Buffett said overcoming this “will make a difference of 50% in your value.”
The intensive takes one day. And then you’re free to present like the expert you are.
I work with a select number of business leaders each month who are ready to present with confidence instead of fear. My monthly spots fill up fast, so don’t wait.
Frequently asked questions
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This intensive is designed for business leaders, startup founders, executives, and entrepreneurs who are objectively capable presenters but experience debilitating anxiety when the stakes are high. You're likely a good candidate if you know your material cold yet blank out in front of important audiences, avoid opportunities that require presentations despite being qualified, or spend days dreading a 15-minute talk that you could deliver flawlessly in practice.
ART is effective for resolving the specific experiences that created your presentation anxiety—whether that's a humiliating moment in school, harsh criticism from a superior, or watching someone else fail publicly. Most clients see meaningful shifts within the single half-day intensive.
This approach works particularly well for high-achievers who've tried Toastmasters, executive coaches, or public speaking courses but still experience the physical fear response that those skill-building approaches couldn't resolve. You don't need more presentation skills; you need to resolve what's triggering your nervous system.
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Those approaches address different aspects of the problem, but not the root cause. Toastmasters builds presentation skills. Executive coaching provides frameworks and practice. Propranolol masks physical symptoms. But presentation anxiety isn't a skills gap or a symptom management problem; it's a nervous system problem.
Your brain learned from past experiences that presenting in high-stakes situations is dangerous. Now it activates a threat response every time you face similar circumstances: racing heart, mental fog, voice shaking. That's a neurological response, not a knowledge problem.
ART works directly with your brain's threat-detection system to reprocess the experiences that created this response. You already know how to present; we're removing the internal interference that hijacks you in the moments that matter.
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The bilateral eye movements help activate your brain's natural processing mechanisms while you focus on the memory. When you experience something profound, traumatic, or formative, your brain sometimes stores it in a way that keeps triggering present-day reactions. The eye movements, combined with guided visualization, help your brain reprocess and store the memory without the emotional charge that keeps it activated.
Think of it like helping your brain organize information more efficiently. The simplicity is actually the strength.
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Our intensive sessions offer complete privacy protection. They're conducted entirely remotely via secure video platform from your home office outside of work hours, with no one at your workplace knowing. Since I'm based in Mexico, there's no possibility of running into me in your local community.
Many executives frame this work as "leadership development" or "performance optimization" when discussing professional development with colleagues — which is technically accurate. The virtual format gives you complete control over your privacy while addressing what may be the final barrier to operating at your full career potential.
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ART typically takes 1-3 sessions to resolve presentation anxiety; compare that to months or years of traditional talk therapy. My one-day intensive format allows us to complete 2-4 targeted ART sessions with appropriate breaks and integration time.
ART works efficiently because it targets the specific memories and experiences that created your presentation anxiety, rather than spending months talking about the anxiety or building coping strategies around it. Using rapid eye movements (similar to REM sleep) combined with guided visualization, we help your brain reprocess the experiences that taught it to perceive presenting as a threat.
Your brain keeps the factual information (what happened) but releases the emotional charge (the fear, shame, or humiliation). The result: when you face similar situations in the future, your nervous system stays calm instead of activating a threat response.
Clinical research shows ART has a 94% completion rate with sustained results at follow-up, because we're resolving how these experiences are stored neurologically, not just teaching you to manage around them.
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Your success comes from your expertise, preparation habits, and work ethic, not from your presentation anxiety. The anxiety is actually a performance drain, not an enhancer. Think about how much mental energy you currently waste catastrophizing before presentations, over-preparing to compensate for fear, or declining opportunities altogether.
ART clients typically report better performance because they can finally access their expertise under pressure. Your preparation habits will remain; you'll still review your slides and know your material. But you'll prepare from a place of competence rather than terror. You'll sleep the night before. Your brain won't go blank when investors ask tough questions. You'll accept the speaking opportunities that actually advance your career.
The difference is that your drive will be powered by confidence and strategic thinking, not by anxiety and compensation mechanisms.
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No. ART works by reprocessing the emotional charge of memories, not analyzing your business decisions or presentation content. You don't need to share:
Confidential company information or data
Details that might violate NDAs or confidentiality agreements
Specific names, numbers, or proprietary information
Information that could create legal or professional liability
We focus on how experiences felt and the responses they created, not the business details.
You can say “I blanked during an important investor pitch” without explaining what company, what product, what the pitch was about, or any confidential details. You can say “I was publicly criticized after a board presentation” without revealing what the presentation covered or who was in the room.
The therapeutic work happens at the emotional and neurological level. Everything discussed is protected by full therapeutic privilege and remains completely confidential.
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The ART intensives I offer are focused, one-day virtual sessions conducted via secure video platform.
We start by reviewing your completed Executive Performance & Stress Assessment to identify specific situations where performance blocks show up most, then trace them back to their origin points. Then we use the ART protocol to reprocess those foundational experiences, typically 3-5 key memories that created the anxiety response.
The entire process takes 3-5 hours with breaks. To prepare, you'll complete the EPSA assessment and required consent/HIPAA documents that I will email you when you schedule your intensive — these help us maximize our session time and target the most impactful areas.
Set yourself up in a private space with reliable internet, wear comfortable clothing, have water and snacks available, and clear your entire day. Most clients find the virtual format surprisingly effective and appreciate the complete privacy of being in their own space.
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The investment for a one-day ART intensive is $5,000. Many executives use HSA/FSA funds or consider it a professional development expense — roughly equivalent to a high-level executive coaching program but with faster, more targeted results. Friday and weekend intensives are available.
To get started, you'll apple for your intensive. Once you are approved, you’ll schedule your intensive and pay your nonrefundable deposit. My record system will then email you the Executive Performance & Stress Assessment (EPSA) and consent documents to complete and sign virtually.
Since it's virtual, there are no travel time or location constraints — just block out one full day in your calendar.
I also include brief follow-up check-ins at 30, 90, and 180 days to ensure sustained results. If you need more ART interventions at the follow-up, those are included at no additional charge.
Allyson Clemmons, LICSW
About Me
As a multi-business owner myself, I understand you need solutions that work on your timeline. My job is simple: find what's blocking your leadership, fix it, and get you moving again.
ART makes this possible by targeting the specific experiences that created the anxiety at the neurological level — resolving in as little as one day what traditional therapy and coaching take months or years to address.
Contact
Contact
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