Find out if joining the Confidence Booster is for you!

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Below, you read more information about the structure of the course, how you can determine whether the Confidence Booster is right for you (even if you find it scary!), who else is participating, and other useful details.

During the Confidence Booster we work on these topics over 8 weekly sessions. After that, there is a final meeting where, among other things, the group briefly demonstrates some exercises from the lessons. You choose your audience and you decide whether you want to participate actively or just watch. Nothing is mandatory!

Personal development becomes fun

We use theatre as a tool to work on personal development in an enjoyable way. Expect to be personally challenged and to make progress in your growth, while also having a lot of fun. The goal of the Confidence Booster isn’t to “act like a star.” The theatre exercises we do are a means to work on your personal development.

Each lesson starts with a few simple warm‑up exercises to loosen up. This also helps us get to know each other better as a group. In the subsequent theatre exercises we improvise, play different characters, create scenes, and do verbal and non‑verbal games. Every exercise offers something to learn about self‑confidence, authenticity, and visibility. Each session ends with a moment of reflection.

The Confidence Booster ends with a presentation. This is a chance to keep your newly discovered ease and freedom when the outside world watches. It’s a powerful step toward real‑world practice. For this presentation you may invite the audience you’d like to have. Experience the thrill of their applause! Participation in the presentation is optional.

Under the heading “How exactly is the course structured?” you’ll find more details about the course content.

Too scary or too easy?

In this course we aim for the right mix of challenge and enjoyment for you. Do you read the course description and think, “Yes, sounds fun! But this is too scary for me”? Remember that the course is actually designed for you!

There are many participants like you who feel uneasy standing in front of a group, doing theatre and improvising. Especially if you struggle with shyness, blushing, fear of failure, or the fear of losing control and shutting down this can be hard. Many people find it intimidating to join the course. If you’d like to discuss your doubts, feel free to contact me first.

There are also always people in the group who are comfortable expressing themselves in front of others and don’t find it difficult. That might be you. You may already be good at social chatter. Perhaps your challenge lies more in truly showing yourself, daring to take off your mask, learning to feel more, and reacting from your emotions. Then you’ll fit in the group, too!

The program builds up gradually, and almost everyone finds it enjoyable and doable after the first meeting. Each session, the emphasis is on taking on challenges with yourself and experimenting with behavior during the exercises. We foster a learning, daring, and experimental attitude rather than thinking in terms of “good” versus “bad” behavior or performance. If you’re self‑critical or fear failure, this can feel unfamiliar at first, but it always turns out to be liberating.

You can push yourself as far as you like within this program. It deals with deep issues such as self‑worth, confidence, claiming space, failing, and simply moving forward. Topics one can continue learning about as a human being. You may keep it light‑hearted, or you can dive deeper into yourself. Both of these approaches are accommodated. Depending on your goals, you can use the course as an assertiveness workshop, a fear‑of‑failure training, a theatre class with personal benefits, practice for visibility, a presentation training, or a personal leadership course.

Who created this?

Good to know

In the training we work in the here‑and‑now, expanding our current comfort zone. That means we leave the past in the past. We look at confidence and authenticity as a whole, not just a single aspect.

The Confidence Booster works best when we all join each meeting. Then we can create a pleasant flow together. If you already know that your schedule or mind is too full and you’ll miss more than two sessions, another time will probably suit you better.

What makes this training different from a typical theatre, improv, or acting class is that those courses focus on improving acting skills, with increased confidence being a possible side effect. In this confidence‑building training, acting quality is neither a goal nor a priority. You do gain more freedom in playing and standing before groups. Many participants start with the Confidence Booster and later feel brave enough to join a regular theatre class.

THE CONFIDENCE BOOSTER HELPS WITH:

Experiences

Who is this confidence-building course for?

The course is suitable, for example, if you struggle with self‑criticism, insecurity, shyness, or inhibition. Together we’ll loosen up, and become more free and open. If you’ve lost your sense of playfulness and spontaneity over the years, this is definitely the right place for you.

You may actually feel (or appear) quite confident, yet notice that you keep your vulnerability, imperfections, and emotions hidden from others. In other words, you don’t dare to truly show yourself. You tend to over‑perform, try to be liked, or become perfectionistic. This fuels your fear of failure. As a result, you constantly strive to keep up appearances. In the Confidence Booster, we’ll experience that you may present yourself exactly as you are, and that you are good enough.

We’ll experiment with taking up space and tapping into our inner strength so you can become more assertive and stand up for yourself. If self‑sacrifice tends to be your dominant theme, you’ll feel at home here. It’s an assertiveness course, but delivered in a fun way and also on a deeper level. You’ll learn not only to say “no” when needed, but primarily to stay closer to yourself.

How is the course structured?

The Confidence Booster consists of eight 2,5-hour sessions, followed by a ninth concluding session that lasts 3 hours. The group size is capped at 14 people.

Many participants start the course with little or no theatre experience. Therefore, the first session is dedicated to breaking the ice through play. We get to know each other and learn about each person’s learning goals for the course.

The second session focuses on emotional expression. We stretch our comfort zones by exploring how much we can do with sound, movement, and facial expression. We mainly play the “outside” side of emotions. We’ll joyfully exaggerate them to free ourselves from inhibition. We’ll bring out feelings we usually hide.

In the third session and part of the fourth, we use role‑playing as a tool to experiment with different behaviours. If you’re usually very nice, you can now try being the “bitch.” If you’re normally submissive, you can try being super arrogant or even a president. All of this has absolutely no real‑life consequences, because it’s theatre. You can portray someone you admire in the outside world or someone you find terribly irritating. What qualities do these various characters hold that you could borrow for yourself?

In the second half of the course we move closer to ourselves. We take off the masks we normally wear to hide parts of ourselves from the outside world. We practice feeling what we feel and allowing others to see it. This means we’ll work on vulnerability and creating open, sincere contact with ourselves and with others. We also learn to claim space. The space you deserve simply because you exist. We practice setting boundaries. Through various scenes and exercises you’ll experiment with saying “no” and increasing your assertiveness.

In the eighth session you learn to stand in front of the group on your own and be exactly who you are in that moment. You don’t have to make yourself larger than you are, nor smaller. You don’t need to deploy ten protective mechanisms or hold your breath. You are who you are, and you may be seen as such.

In the concluding session of the Confidence Booster, anyone in the group who wishes can present a selection of course exercises to an audience of their choosing. It’s a powerful experiment to retain your newly discovered ease and freedom when the outside world watches. This marks a great step toward real‑world application. For this presentation you may invite the audience you prefer. Feel the rush of their applause! Participation in the presentation is optional.

Unsure whether the Confidence Booster is right for you? Get in touch and discuss it freely!