Performance Anxiety Therapy for Professionals, Athletes & Public Performers
Specialist support for when your body stops trusting what your mind already knows.
Performance Anxiety: Under Performance GazeWhether you're speaking on stage, competing, presenting to clients, performing in front of a crowd or working in the public eye, performance anxiety can make even the most experienced people question themselves.
My approach goes beyond confidence-building techniques. Together, we'll work to help your nervous system feel safe when being watched, so you can stop fighting yourself, come back to presence, and focus on what matters.
Hi, I'm Sophia!
I'm a specialist accredited therapist helping you develop the the ability to belong wherever you are and succeed without fear.
This work is designed for people whose career or identity involves performing under pressure, including:
Executives, professionals and senior leaders
Doctors and healthcare professionals
Athletes and elite sportspeople
Public speakers
Musicians, actors, journalists and performers
Broadcasters and creatives
Founders and entrepreneurs
Anyone whose work involves being watched, evaluated or judged
Many clients appear calm and successful externally while privately wondering why performing feels so much harder than it should. There is nothing to be embaressed about.
A Three-Part Approach to Overcoming Performance Anxiety
-
Interrupting the thought patterns that fuel performance anxiety before, during and after high-pressure situations.
Challenging perfectionism, catastrophic thinking and the fear of making mistakes under pressure.
Reducing self-monitoring so you can stay focused on the situation rather than how you're coming across.
Breaking the cycle of anticipatory anxiety, over-preparation and post-performance rumination.
Identifying and changing safety behaviours that unintentionally maintain performance anxiety.
Learning evidence-based techniques to work with anxiety rather than fighting against it.
Developing a calmer, more flexible mindset so you can perform consistently, even when nerves are present.
-
Understand how your brain responds to status, hierarchy and evaluation under pressure.
Performance anxiety isn't just about what you're doing, it's also about what your brain believes is at stake.
Human brains are highly attuned to status, hierarchy and social evaluation. Whether you're competing against a higher-ranked opponent, presenting to senior leaders, performing for selectors or speaking in the public eye, these systems can amplify feelings of pressure, self-consciousness and threat.
Together we'll explore:
Understanding how your brain responds to hierarchy, status and evaluation in high-pressure environments.
Recognising when your nervous system has shifted into a social threat state and how that affects your performance.
Understanding why rankings, authority figures and high-stakes audiences can disproportionately increase pressure, even when you're well prepared.
Learning how self-monitoring, perfectionism and fear of judgement interact with your brain's threat systems.
Exploring how earlier experiences may have shaped your relationship with competition, authority, visibility and success.
Developing practical strategies to regulate your nervous system so you can stay present and perform under pressure.
-
EMDR may help you to:
Process distressing performance experiences, such as freezing on stage, panic during a presentation, choking under pressure or receiving harsh public criticism.
Reduce the emotional intensity of memories that continue to trigger anxiety before performances.
Reprocess experiences that have led you to doubt your abilities, despite your competence and experience.
Break the link between being visible and feeling under threat.
Reduce anticipatory anxiety before important performances, competitions or presentations.
Help your nervous system learn that being seen, evaluated or under pressure no longer means danger.
Perform with greater presence, flexibility and trust in your abilities, rather than constantly managing fear.
EMDR is particularly effective when performance anxiety can be traced back to specific experiences that your mind has moved on from, but your nervous system hasn't.
But why do I have performance anxiety?
Performance anxiety is generally understood within psychology as a form of social anxiety, but the difference is that the perceived threat isn't simply being around other people, it's being evaluated. The feared consequence isn't usually social interaction itself.
It's what your performance might communicate about you.
For professionals, athletes and people in the public eye, these fears often centre on competence, credibility and reputation.
The higher the stakes, the more your brain begins to monitor for signs that something might go wrong.
For some people, this develops after a specific experience, perhaps freezing during an important presentation, choking in competition, forgetting lines on stage or receiving harsh public criticism.
For others, there isn't one defining event. Instead, years of perfectionism, high expectations or learning that mistakes carried significant consequences gradually taught the nervous system that performing under observation wasn't entirely safe.
Over time, the brain begins anticipating threat before every important performance. Your body responds as though you're in danger, even when you consciously know you're prepared.
The goal of therapy isn't simply to eliminate nerves.
It's to help your nervous system learn that being evaluated no longer has to feel threatening, so you can access the skills and abilities you already have when they matter most.
Related Blog Posts
Options for CBT/EMDR for Performance Anxiety
-
-
Single Session (90 min)
One tailored 90-minute EMDR session to target a specific fear, anxiety, feeling, belief or memory. Ideal if you have one thing to focus on, or want to try out EMDR without committing to ongoing therapy.
3-6 Sessions (90 min each)
Three to six 90-minute EMDR sessions to target a specific fear, anxiety, feeling, belief or memory with thorough depth. Working in an intensive way, we may schedule these across 10 days (or longer as you prefer). Experiencing rapid healing and change at a deeper level, without committing to ongoing sessions.
Payment plans available to spread the cost and make EMDR intensives accessible.
You can read more on fees and payment plans for EMDR intensives here.
Not sure what’s right for you?
No problem! In our assessment we will discuss which is the most likely to access the best outcome for you. Packages are designed so that payment plans can be provided for the level of care you need and to make EMDR more accessible, rather than fixed options that you need to choose before we have had an assessment.
Prices shown in GBP - payment available in your local currency at the current conversion rate.