Workplace Wellbeing: Silence the fear to amplify your voice and speak publicly

Public speaking ranks among our greatest worries but, with practice and persistence, it’s possible to gain confidence

Sonia McPartland from Gowran, Co. Kilkenny. Photograph: Patrick Browne

Sonia McPartland used to be terrified of public speaking. Whenever the 46-year-old, from Kilkenny, was asked to do it, she would experience classic panic symptoms: dry mouth, knocking knees, and debilitating butterflies in her tummy.

She managed to avoid it in her first career as a duty manager in the hospitality sector. “But when I had my daughter, I realised I needed a job with more sociable hours,” she says. “My brother has a company called JM Safety Training and offered to take me on as an instructor. It was perfect, apart from the fact that I’d have to speak in front of people. I found the very idea horrendous.”