M any music students experience considerable anxiety when they perform. The present article describes a two-session hypnotherapeutic approach combining relaxation, positive suggestion, and symbolic success imagery designed to reduce this performance anxiety. The subjects of the study were 40 second-and third-year music students studying at a conservatoriurn of music who were paired on the basis of their Performance Anxiety Inventory scores. One member of each pair was allocated at ra.ndom to an experimental group and the other to a control group. Further administrations of the Performance Anxiety Inventory (PAl) took place immediately after conclusion of the two-session treatment and 6 months later. At the time of this followup, subjects completed an anecdotal report providing information on their performance over the previous 6 months. Results indicate that the method is likely to assist musicians in the reduction of their stage fright.

It has been suggested that teacher stress might be reduced through cognitive restructuring which is aimed at improving the rationality of their thinking. To test this hypothesis, 40 high school teachers were paired on their level of reasonable thinking, operationalized in terms of scores on the Teacher Idea Inventory (Bernard, Joyce, & Rosewarne, 1983), and allocated at random to one of 2 groups. They also completed the Face Valid Stress Test. The experimental group participated in 4 weekly treatment sessions involving a hypnotic induction and suggestions derived from key elements of Rational-Emotive Therapy. These focused on the reduction of what Ellis (Ellis & Grieger, 1977), the originator of this treatment, calls "irrational thinking." The control group spent the same amount of time discussing stress reduction methods. Both the Face Valid Stress Test and the Teacher Idea Inventory were re-administered at the end of this period and again 12 months after conclusion of the experiment. Results indicated that both the experimental and control groups significantly reduced their levels of irrational thinking and stress, although the former's improvement was more marked, particularly at the 12-month follow-up.

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Many musicians experience stage fright. The present article describes a two-session hypnotherapeutic approach combining success imagery and Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) which is designed to reduce musicians' performance anxiety and so alleviate this problem. Three case studies illustrate how the approach is employed. The first involves a member of a symphony orchestra, the second a final year music student, and the third a rock band guitarist.