206. Release speaking fears with ERT
Emotions are energy in motion and clearing them from your body takes a somatic process.
One of these is called ERT - Emotion Release Technique.
In this episode ERT Practitioner and Naturopath Gabby Pavlovic explains what ERT is, how it works and why it's an effective way to work through public speaking fears.
She also shares a great hack for calming down immediately in times of stress!
Transcript
Hello, hello and welcome back to That Voice Podcast. Our topic today is a modality called ERT- Emotional Release Technique and I'm chatting to my friend Gabby Pavlovich, who's an ERT practitioner as well as a naturopath. And this is important to chat about because I'm a big believer that change work needs to happen somatically in the body. It won't happen through thinking through the intellect. And I have so many clients tell me they know they shouldn't be afraid of public speaking or that they know they need to show up on their socials for their business or they know there's no reason to freeze up in front of the leadership team. But that doesn't matter if your body is not on board because that's where your emotions live, that's where your emotional memory is stored and that's what will either support you or sabotage you in times of need, so in my practice I use a lot of somatic techniques including breathwork, movement and ECT- Emotional Change Technique. I don't do ERT, which is why I've got Gabby on today. There's value in many modalities and it's about finding what works for you. So Gabby explains what ERT is, how it works and why it's an effective way to work through negative emotions, including fears around speaking. Gabby and I are also both recovered perfectionists, so if you identify as a perfectionist, there's a couple of extra special parts in there for you.
Sally:
Gabby Pavlovich, it is so exciting to welcome you to That Voice Podcast. How are you?
Gabby:
I'm really well, thank you for asking. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks Sal.
Sally:
So Gabby, ERT, it's really fascinated me. Would you like to tell us what that's all about? Yeah,
Gabby:
For sure. So ERT stands for Emotion Release Technique and it is a modality that I use in clinical practice to support people with their nervous systems in a variety of kind of different ways. So just for a bit of context, I have a background as a naturopath and I still practice naturopathy here in the clinic. And I recently incorporated Emotion Release Technique. It kind of helps us to address people's health even more holistically than I would as a naturopath. What I mean by that is we are kind of taught in naturopathic education to look at the body holistically. We are looking at the mind, body, spirit, so many different aspects. But I think the emotional piece and emotional regulation and the real kind of base state of our nervous systems and how we respond to stress is something that maybe needs a little bit more attention.
Gabby:
And I was able to find that in learning emotion release technique. You would've talked in this podcast before about emotions being energy in motion. That's what emotions are. They're actually energy moving through your body. And when we don't process them appropriately, which is often the case in western modern culture, we don't really know how to process emotions. They can actually stay in the body and they can actually cause issues. Whether that's physical issues, emotional issues, mental. So emotion release technique is actually a way to go in there and find those emotions and process them. And it actually helps to support our nervous system and our stress response. You know, there are other terms people might be familiar with, such as subconscious programming or you know, reconditioning our belief systems. All these things can be done when we use a tool like ERT in practice.
Sally:
Hmm. So interesting. And so many people come to me and they say my nervous system can't handle public speaking or after I speak I feel like my nervous system is fried. So have you had anybody in your clinic or otherwise come to you with fears around public speaking?
Gabby:
Yeah, it's, it's funny you say that 'cause a lot of the work that I do is around supporting people who have perfectionist tendencies. And so there tends to be you know, whether they're business owners, whether they, you know, work in corporate or other kind of areas, maybe they're, you know, principles or they work in places where speaking is something that they need to do. Speaking to groups of people, whether it's online or face-to-face. There's this kind of like vulnerability that comes with sharing their voice. And when there's that perfectionism also behind that, that actually kind of adds a whole another layer to it. There's this feeling like I've, if I can't do it perfectly, I'm not gonna do it at all. And that adds to the preexisting fear that most of us already have. Just being vulnerable, sharing our voice and putting ourselves out there.
Gabby:
And I find that a lot of the people who I work with who for example, are business owners, it's something that is quite pertinent for them because they often are the face of their business and they need to actually show like what it is that they're offering, what are their values, what is their, their mission that they want to kind of accomplish with their business and putting their their product or service in the world. And if they feel like they're going to be judged or they're going to make mistakes in how they communicate that, then they just won't try it all. And so actually going into that nervous system and checking what those blocks are, what are those beliefs, you know, those beliefs are, oh, I can't share my voice because you know, this bad thing will happen and it might be based on something that did actually happen in childhood or something.
Gabby:
So a lot of the time this is actually just going and tapping into what's called the autonomic nervous system. So this is the part of you that remembers everything from the moment that you were conceived as distinct from that conscious thinking brain, which we are engaging right now by talking to each other. But there's also in the background, 95% of the show is being run by our autonomic nervous systems, which are also helping us to breathe and regulate our heartbeat and that kind of thing. So ERT helps us to tap into that and be like, all right, it's just a fear of speaking. It's often actually a lot of layers underneath that and not everybody's fear of public speaking is going to have the same origins 'cause we're all very complex and unique.
Sally:
Yeah. And there can be surface-level fixes, but until you get down underneath those layers to work out what's really going on, the same issues will keep recurring. I think you'd find similar to your clients, similar to mine is people know intellectually what they need to do. Yet in my body I'm being stopped from doing that. ERT is really bringing the body into it and processing things that often the conscious mind doesn't even know exists.
Gabby:
Being able to connect the conscious mind with the subconscious or unconscious aspects of ourselves, right? So like you just said, it's very easy for us to intellectualize and be conscious of something. I know like I've gotta do this. Like people won't know that I exist or know what I have to offer unless I can talk about it and put myself out there. And it's another thing to actually embody that within the nervous system that runs your life 95% of the time. And so we don't actually choose that. 'cause The conscious mind is the choice and it's great to have willpower and say I want to do this. But if you have all these subconscious beliefs, thought patterns, behavior patterns underneath that which are counter to what you want, then there's going to be for example, self-sabotage that comes in and actually prevents you from doing the thing that you want to do.
Gabby:
Which is why using something such as ERT, it's just a way that's really efficient of going in there and being like, alright, let's have a look what the trigger is. Let's see how your body responds. If it does trigger, what kind of emotion is underlying that And then I can ask you, does that make sense for you? For some people they're like, yep, this memory has come up and that's why I feel this way. For other people they're like, I have no idea why that emotion has shown up. But the good thing is you don't have to know and you don't have to intellectualize. The good thing about this kind of technique is that you can just go in there and process and integrate that emotion from the nervous system and it's actually quite quick emotions if properly fully felt they should only last about 90 seconds in the body before they kind of dissipate. Yeah. But how often in society do we feel something and we quickly put it down like, No, no, I can't do that. It's not socially acceptable to feel this way or you know, I'll deal with that later. But guess what, if you don't deal with it now later can turn into potentially chronic disease, potentially mental and emotional health issues.
Sally:
Yeah. Well Gabby, that was my next question. What happens if we don't address this emotions energy in motion? It's gotta have somewhere to go. So do you see this showing up physically in the body?
Gabby:
That's why I found ERT such a game changer in my naturopathic practice because it, it's almost like the missing piece for a lot of conditions. You know, I could go in there and say, yep, you've got this nutrient deficiency, let's go correct that, you know, maybe your thyroid hormones are off, let's go. You know, get them up to scratch. You know, maybe there are certain things in your life that we need to tweak in terms of lifestyle practices, you know, let's optimize sleep, mindfulness, whatever, so many different things. But if that emotion or that underlying subconscious driver is not addressed, then we're either gonna come back to the same symptoms or new symptoms are gonna arise somewhere else in the body. In I guess more eastern traditions, like for example, traditional Chinese medicine, there is an association with certain organ systems and certain emotions. For example, fear can often show in the kidney meridians. So when we are doing ERT, we access the meridians via the pulse points in the wrists and if there's a lot of fear it can show up in the kidney or the bladder meridian. It's not always clear cut as to where the symptoms are gonna show up. For example, just because you have fear doesn't mean you've got a kidney problem. You just don't know what emotions are underlying your physical stuff until you go in there and actually have a look.
Sally:
Yeah. And also sometimes it depends what you believe in but your emotions sometimes aren't even yours. It could be ancestral, it could be past lives, it could be even energy that you've picked up from other people.
Gabby:
Yeah, totally. I'm really reading an interesting book at the moment called, it didn't Start With You, I'm not not sure if you've heard that one. It's fascinating, the inter-generational inheritance of kind of experiences that ancestors have gone through and how that manifests physically in people later on down in the generations. So highly recommend that reading, but it's, you're right, there's so many different aspects. It's not just you in your life and the things that you've experienced in childhood. Kids are just little sponges. They soak up everything. So if they see something particularly in that first seven years of life, if they witness something, they see that and know that to be true. So what kind of experiences have you had in your childhood that might suggest that it's not safe to speak, that it's not safe to share that it's not safe to be who you are in your own skin and that's just looking at this life, but that's a whole can of worms when you talk about inter-generational stuff and past lives and all that kind of thing.
Sally:
This is a great spot to remind you it doesn't matter what you say or to who you say it to, if you are not connected to your voice, people could feel it. This is why you need the Magnetic Voice Formula. If you're a Soul Speaker, it's in the portal. If not link is in the show notes.
Sally:
So with the clients you've worked with, have you seen this technique have a great result? Like have you got an example of somebody who presented with something physically going on in their body and you've done this work and they've been able to clear that inflammation or that condition? You mentioned you worked with health practitioners. Have they been able to show up online and and use their voice, for example?
Gabby:
I also help health practitioners with their content and putting out social media as well 'cause Content creation is something that I love to do and part of our work together is there's the option for us to do ERT alongside, you know, the the content kind of strategy. And I'm thinking of one practitioner who really lacked the confidence to actually share about her services and what she had to offer. So she had been out in practice for roughly a year and a half to two years since graduating as an acupuncturist. And she was like, I really, really wanna help more people see more clients. And I was like, okay, let's see what, you know, barriers there are subconsciously to actually attracting those clients. And so there was a lot of stuff around not confident in the self, not being confident in the self part of that was being able to speak and talk in person about stuff.
Gabby:
But then there was also the online piece, like fear of getting up and you know, doing videos and social media or even just posting it all, even if it was just graphics or something, just putting anything out there was a struggle. So we did a few sessions, we were doing group sessions by the way, so we weren't doing one-on-ones, we were actually working in a group and you know, checking in with her again. She's been doing online posts every couple of weeks, whereas she was doing nothing before. And then she was also going and setting up market stalls as well and actually having, you know, products and being able to talk with people face to face and honestly like I didn't expect her to, to go out and do the market thing. I was like, yeah, that's great you're getting on socials. But being able to be like, yep, I can have face to face conversations and talk about exactly what I do, how I can help people and you know, 'cause she's still quite in her infancy in her business. It's still working its way up but she's got a consistent flow now. Whereas before it was like clients weren't coming from anywhere.
Sally:
And what do you think it is about ERT that makes it such an effective technique?
Gabby:
ERT is one of those things that it's just very quick. You just go in there, you find the emotion and then you can just process it. You can decide if the person is open to talk about it. They can. And I often encourage people like, you know, if anything's coming up in the intellect, feel free to share that if those insights are helpful. But for example, if someone has experienced some trauma or there's something coming up and they don't wanna verbalize it, what's really good about this technique is that you can just go and process it. We are treating it like it's a direct communication from me with your body and let's actually just communicate with that and process and integrate things in the nervous system without necessarily needing to engage the conscious mind.
Sally:
How do you do that?
Gabby:
There are a couple of points on the head called emotional stress release points and you know, this is just a snapshot of what it can look like, but we actually get people to hold these places while we're actually holding the particular meridian where we've located the emotion within the nervous system. If you've ever seen someone who's in distress and they do this, it's not coincidence. Like there are stress release release points here
Sally:
And Gabby's just putting her hand on her forehead.
Gabby:
Oh sorry. Yes, we're on a podcast. Sorry, it's funny, I have my own podcast and I still do that all the time. So we are, we're actually putting our hand on our forehead. So if you ever do feel stressed, you can put your hand on your forehead and know that that's gonna calm you down. So we're actually using that in combination with putting out our fingers on particular pulse points and encouraging people to close their eyes and breathe deeply through this. That's actually what I like about it is it's just like a very somatic body experience. We're actually engaging physically the body without having to need to over intellectualize, oh what's this emotion? What does it mean? Like you just go in there and you help process and integrate that into the body. 'cause Sometimes when we are just talking about stuff, engage in the conscious mind, we don't really want to go and revisit stuff. We just wanna actually just clear it from the body 'cause anything you've ever experienced is, is held within the body. There's a memory there and sometimes it doesn't help to actually bring those memories to the surface. But if we can clear the emotions associated with those, then your body's gonna notice those mental, emotional and physical experiences of relief after that. It's kind of one of those things you've gotta experience it to understand it.
Sally:
Yeah, that was my next question. Can you do it on yourself or has somebody done this technique for you?
Gabby:
I do it on myself every day. I honestly think it's been such a great tool for me, not only professionally but personally. I owe a lot of my ting my own issues with perfectionism and you know, fear of speaking to using this technique and just being able to really lean into who I am with any kind of subconscious reprogramming and deconditioning and all that kind of jazz. Whatever words you wanna say. What I find is it's actually shedding all the parts of you that aren't yours. It's all the parts of you that you've picked up over your life. Stuff that you've witnessed seen, had modeled to you so that you can actually strip all that back and learn who you are authentically beneath all the stuff that you've picked up.
Sally:
Oh so great. So Gabby, what other changes have you noticed?
Gabby:
I'm just able to really kind of have this laser focus on who I wanna support, how I wanna support them, and also just having fun in the process because I notice with a lot of people who have perfectionist tendencies, there's this feeling like you can't enjoy anything 'cause you've always gotta be on, you've always gotta be productive, you've always gotta be like ticking boxes that to-do list has to be done, done, done. There's this lack of ability to create space to experience fun and joy. And so I've just noticed that there is so much less riding on things. Life doesn't have to be stressful. Life is quite simple. It can be enjoyable. Like how exciting that I get to have a space in my day with you and record a podcast and get to see some amazing clients after this. And it helps me to be more embodied in everything that I do.
Sally:
Oh, so great. And if people listening to this are like, I want this, I need to meet Gabby, I need to experience this, how can they get in touch with you?
Gabby:
You can email me at gabby@revitalizinghealth.com au. You can also message me on Instagram. I can give Sal the handle for that. It's just revitalizing.health and just get in touch with me. It's easy to do that. We do one-on-ones, so if you're in around the Melbourne area you can come see me in person. Otherwise, I do practice online as well and I do group work and I think group work is probably my favorite thing to do because there's that additional aspect you get of having a community. My group program that I do, I'm currently running my first one, it's called Life Beyond Perfectionism.
Sally:
Life Beyond Perfectionism. I love the name. I am a recovered perfectionist. And working through the perfectionism tendencies have been the biggest thing to enjoy my life, to rest without guilt and to also be able to speak and not spend two weeks beating myself up over how everything wasn't exactly how I wanted it. So I would highly recommend if you do feel like you're a perfectionist to contact Gabby because life beyond perfectionism is a great life can confirm.
Gabby:
How good is it? And I'm so glad that you've said that because people feel like, oh, I can't ever get out of this way of thinking. But if you don't know any different, how do you know that you can't be any different.
Sally:
Exactly. Right. Oh, Gabby Pavlovich, thank you so much for coming on that voice podcast.
Gabby:
Thank you so much for having me Sal.