Effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy on Public Speaking Anxiety of University Students

Public speaking anxiety is a prominent problem in the college student population. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing on public speaking anxiety of college students. The design of research was quasi-experimental with pre-post test type, and control group. The sample consistent of 30 students with speech anxiety that selected base on available sampling and assigned randomly in experimental (N=15) and control (N=15) groups. The experimental group was treated with EMDR therapy for 7 sessions. In order to collect the data, Paul’s personal report of confidence as a speaker, S-R inventory of anxiousness was used. To analyze the data, SPSS-19 software and covariance analysis were used. The multivariate analysis of covariance showed that the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing reducing public speaking anxiety. The one-way analysis of covariance for each variable shows there are significant differences in confidence of speaker (p=0.001) and physiological symptoms of speech anxiety (p=0.001) at the two groups. These results suggest that treatment of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is effective on reducing physiological symptoms of speech anxiety and increasing the speaker’s confidence.