EMDR for Sports Performance
Helping athletes move through performance anxiety, mental blocks, and fear of mistakes so they can compete with greater confidence and focus.
Athletes spend countless hours training their bodies, developing skills, and preparing for competition. But sometimes the biggest barrier to performance isn't physical—it's what happens mentally and emotionally when the pressure is on.
A mistake. A difficult game. An injury. Being benched. Criticism from a coach. Fear of disappointing others.
Experiences like these can stay with an athlete and begin to influence how they think, feel, and perform. An athlete may know exactly what to do in practice but struggle to access those same skills during competition.
EMDR can help address the experiences, beliefs, and emotional responses that may be getting in the way.
What Is EMDR for Sports Performance?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy approach most widely known for treating trauma and distressing experiences. EMDR can also be adapted to address performance-related anxiety, negative beliefs, and experiences that continue to affect an athlete's ability to perform.
Rather than simply telling an athlete to “think positively” or “be more confident,” EMDR helps identify and process experiences that may be contributing to the current performance difficulty.
The goal isn't to eliminate normal competitive nerves or guarantee a particular outcome. It's to help athletes respond to pressure more adaptively so they can access the skills they've already developed.
EMDR May Help Athletes Struggling With:
Performance anxiety
Fear of making mistakes
Loss of confidence
Overthinking during competition
Perfectionism
Negative self-talk
Difficulty recovering after a mistake
“Choking” or freezing under pressure
Mental or performance blocks
Fear following an injury
A difficult game, competition, or performance
Being benched, cut from a team, or experiencing a setback
Criticism from coaches, teammates, or parents
Anxiety about returning to competition after an injury
Pressure related to expectations or recruiting
When Practice Feels Different From Competition
Many athletes describe performing confidently during practice but feeling completely different once the game begins.
Under pressure, an athlete may become overly focused on mechanics, hesitate, tighten up physically, lose confidence, or become preoccupied with making a mistake.
Sometimes there is a specific experience connected to the change. Other times, the pattern develops gradually through repeated pressure, criticism, injuries, mistakes, or disappointments.
EMDR allows us to look beyond the immediate performance problem and explore what may be driving the response.
From the Last Mistake to the Next Moment
One of the most important skills in sports is the ability to recover.
Great athletes make mistakes. They miss shots, lose possession, strike out, fall, receive criticism, and have disappointing performances.
The difference isn't never making a mistake. It's being able to stay present and return attention to what happens next.
In sport-performance work, we can use EMDR alongside strategies for emotional regulation, confidence, attention, and mental rehearsal to help athletes develop a healthier response to pressure.
Instead of:
“I can't mess up.”
The goal may become:
“I can make a mistake and recover.”
Instead of:
“Everyone is judging me.”
It may become:
“I trust myself and my training.”
And instead of staying stuck on the last play:
Reset. Play the next moment.
Preparing for Future Performance
Sport-performance work isn't only about processing what has already happened.
Athletes can also mentally rehearse future situations that typically create anxiety or self-doubt—walking onto the field, facing a difficult opponent, returning after an injury, receiving feedback from a coach, taking an important shot, or recovering after a mistake.
The goal is to strengthen the athlete's ability to remain present, regulated, and confident when those situations occur in real competition.
For Teen and Adolescent Athletes
Young athletes face a unique combination of pressures.
Sports may involve competition for playing time, expectations from coaches and parents, social dynamics with teammates, recruiting, comparison with other athletes, and increasing pressure to perform.
For some adolescents, their athletic performance can also become closely connected to their sense of identity and self-worth.
Our work helps young athletes develop skills that extend beyond sports—including resilience, emotional regulation, confidence, flexibility, and the ability to handle mistakes and setbacks.
When appropriate, we can also work with parents to help create an environment that supports both performance and emotional well-being.
Is EMDR for Sports Performance Right for My Athlete?
Every athlete is different. We begin by understanding what is happening, when the problem occurs, and whether there are particular experiences or triggers connected to it.
EMDR may be incorporated when clinically appropriate as part of an individualized treatment plan. Other therapeutic and sport-performance strategies may also be used depending on the athlete's needs and goals.
You do not need to have experienced a major trauma to explore whether EMDR could be helpful.
Get Started
If you or your athlete feels confident in practice but struggles under pressure, has difficulty recovering from mistakes, or feels stuck after an injury or difficult performance, therapy can help identify what may be getting in the way.
Contact Isetta Psychotherapy to schedule a consultation and learn more about EMDR for sports performance in Hermosa Beach and throughout the South Bay.