How is my coaching different from others?

My coaching is supported by hypnotic techniques as well as neuroscience and NLP principles. My approach is pluralistic and holistic, embracing science and spirituality in equal measure. My methods are informed by Positive Psychology, Solution Focused psychotherapy, Buddhist Philosophy and Esoteric Western practices such as the Enneagram and Psychological Tarot. I use creativity and intuition to provide an individually tailored path to create results fast.

What has been the single most important thing that has contributed to my success as a coach?

Here's a few things you should know about me: 

• I am a Holistic Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner, Presentation and Performance Mindset Coach and Author as well as a Musician and Actor. 
• I was born in Italy but I left my native country when I turned 18 to travel the world. I subsequently lived in Ireland, England, America and Scotland and am now based in New Zealand. 
• My love for music, writing, and performance has grown alongside my therapy, teaching and coaching practice and I became particularly interested in helping people overcome stage fright and presentation nerves after suffering and recovering from it myself using hypnotherapy.
• My extensive travels around the world as well as my background in philosophy and comparative religion have meant my approach is open to different cultures and non-judgemental. My deep interest in the arts as well as do-it-yourself business mean you can expect both deep empathy and a no-nonsense approach. 
• As a hypnotherapist and coach I work with a pluralistic and integrative model, because I believe you are the expert of your life and the answers you seek lie within you. 

How do I work?

I will offer suggestions and facilitate practical exercises that can help you resolve your difficulties in your everyday life.

This results in highly personalised therapy and coaching that will empower and engage you in a way that you find motivating. My aim is to facilitate self-change by aiding you in your personal evolution so you may empower yourself to fulfil your true potential.

What issues can I help you with?

My struggle with Performance Anxiety and how I have overcome it

I’m telling you this, because every time we hide a part of ourselves for fear of rejection or embarrassment, we suffer and find less of that acceptance that we crave. Luckily, my commitment towards integrity, wholeness, and a sense of authenticity kept demanding I bring these two aspects of my life together—but for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out how.For many years before becoming a full-time therapist, I had tried to ‘make it’ as a musician but suffered from a bad case of the not-good-enough.

I never felt comfortable with both self-promotion and public performances. This is because both have as their foundation a firm belief in our worthiness of being seen and heard. I never entirely gave up on my dreams, but when it became clear to me that I had “failed” at my goal of achieving fame and fortune, I decided to shift focus, and my passion for psychology and healing led to starting my own business.

Having a successful clinical practice helped me a lot in terms of developing a healthy dose of self-esteem, but after many years of dedicating myself to the business of serving others, I still felt a lack of balance in my life. I needed to rediscover my creativity so I could overcome my fears and limitations.

Fish don’t know they are in the water, and in the same way, I could not see the obvious solution to my performance anxiety problem. Although I had been helping people with anxiety using hypnotherapy for years, it just never occurred to me that I could try it to overcome my performance anxiety. 

Instead, I went about it in all the wrong ways: I tried to drink wine before a gig, but it only made me feel sick and forget the chords of my songs. I tried Beta Blockers, but they made me feel strangely dissociated from my performance and my audience. Improv classes worked to keep me a little more ‘in the moment’, however I still felt like a wreck whenever I had to play my own songs.

I realised I needed to understand the mindset of those who were able to perform well despite their nerves. Would they feel nervous or distracted while playing? Would they always be thinking about the mistakes they could be making? Were they ever worried about what they imagined others were thinking of them? Or would they not be concerned at all with how they came across? Wouldn’t it be more likely they just cared about the piece they were playing or the speech they were giving and were wholly immersed in its feeling and message? They seemed to be enjoying themselves, and that joy seemed to pass over onto the audience. I needed to feel the same way they did, and to do that, I needed to think the same way.

I knew that was something hypnotherapy could help with, so I sought the assistance of a colleague. A couple of sessions with him helped me realise that anxiety was at the core of my distracting thoughts, and that could be reduced by a mindset focussed on staying in the present. The sessions also addressed my concern with trying to focus on the enjoyment of the moment, rather than to fixate on perfectionism and judgment.

Although this approach helped, it didn’t ‘fix’ me completely. I decided to get back to studying so I could approach the issue from every angle and find the best ways of resolving it. After doing a lot of research and helping many clients with this problem, I ended up developing an entire system that addressed all aspects of the question to make sure that even the most complex cases could be successfully treated.

At this point, I started thinking about writing a book and preparing an online course to teach others what I had discovered so that as many people as possible could benefit from it, but something kept stalling me. A question at the back of my mind demanded: who was I to write a book about performance anxiety?

I had not entirely overcome my fear, so I was just a fraud! I would be found out and publicly shamed! I hoped the problem would vanish in time, but of course, that didn’t happen.

Finally, one day the obvious answer came to me: I had helped hundreds of people successfully deal with their issues in this area, and I already had all the tools I needed to leave my problems behind, but I just refused to use them, because I wanted someone else to save me.

The solution would be to actually practice the techniques outlined within my book. By taking responsibility, doing the work, and walking the talk, I could stop feeling like a fraud and transform into the performer I wanted to be. I would also be able to merge my two identities back together, revealing who I was and risking judgment, but becoming whole in the process.

I want this to become your success story, too. Because it is possible not only to be on stage and feel calm and confident, but also to look forward to it as an opportunity to be seen, heard, and to share your light with the world. 

How to Choose your Holistic Life Coach

It is important that you feel you can trust and have confidence in your hypnotherapist or life coach. I am very aware that as a client you are in a vulnerable position and you might feel a bit nervous about disclosing personal information to someone you don't know well.

That is why you should only trust a coach or hypnotherapist that can provide you proof of qualifications, training professional registration as well as long-standing experience in the field. For details about my qualifications please visit the"Elisa Di Napoli" section of this website.

How can you tell which coach or therapist is for you?