
Essential Speaking: The 7-Step Guide to Finding Your Real Voice

There are those who avoid leadership roles at work, cower in group settings, and can’t seem to put their feelings and ideas into words—even with loved ones. As a result, their true potential remains unrealized.
As a Psychologist, Founder of Essential Speaking, and Training Director for Speaking Circles® International, I once suffered from stage fright. I set out to conquer my fear and discovered…being centered in one’s true self is the key to relaxed and confident public speaking.
Essential Speaking: The 7-Step Guide to Finding Your Real Voice takes you beyond scripts and techniques, the mainstays of conventional public speaking classes.
By following the 7 practical steps outlined in my book, you will learn to:
- Speak without fear in any situation
- Be fully present in front of groups
- Create real connection with listeners
- Access your wise inner voice
- Live a full and authentic life
5 Star Testimonials

This marvelous handbook is one of the clearest guides I have seen to claiming your authentic speaking voice in public. Read More

The book focuses not on what the speaker says, but who she is– i.e., her essential self, her core, her inner voice– Dr. Downing literally transforms the paradigm for authentic speaking which makes “Essential Speaking” nothing less than evolutionary. Read More

“Essential Speaking” delivers practical tools from many perspectives to release the true self as speaker. Dr. Downing shows us how to become the open hearted, connected persons we all long for but are afraid of becoming. Read More



Like its author, this book is wonderful, warm, and wise. Reading it, I became more aware of my own anxiety about speaking publicly and my own partially effective strategies for coping, such as over-preparing. Read More

I found “Essential Speaking” by Doreen Downing to be a very elegant publication – a calmly accessible, masterful weaving of life experience and applicable lessons. Read More
Doreen Downing, Ph.D., is a Psychologist, Founder of Essential Speaking, and Training Director of Speaking Circles® International. She specializes in the treatment of anxiety caused by the fear of speaking. In addition to her authentic communication workshops, private and group coaching, she leads Speaking Circles® in Berkeley and Marin, CA, along with E-Courses and seminars throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. To contact Doreen, Click Here.