Hello Elizabeth CP, after Grandy's lovely reply back to you if I could just answer your thread topic, 'Exposure therapy' could also be called 'desensitisation', where a person is ' gradually exposed to an
anxiety-producing object, event, or place while being engaged in some
type of relaxation at the same time in order to reduce the symptoms of
anxiety.'
In other words, to speak publically in front of an audience can be frightening, so what this technique does is to make you gradually, and at your own pace, be able to talk holding up some paper, then manage to talk with two friends, then it slowly increases to half a dozen people and finally to an audience.
I say this because I have phobias and the same process has been used by a psych or you can teach yourself.
Best wishes.
Geoff.
