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RhythmLife Psychotherapy
WHEN TRAINING DOESN'T TRANSFER

Sports performance anxiety

In training it's automatic. In competition something intervenes — a hesitation that wasn't there, a movement you've done ten thousand times that suddenly requires thinking about. Athletes often describe it as their body being taken over.

Blocks, yips, and the thing you can't un-think

Sometimes it attaches to one specific movement — the serve, the throw, the dismount. That kind of block rarely responds to more repetition, because repetition isn't what installed it. Usually there's a moment underneath: an injury, a failure with an audience, a coach.

How we work

EMDR and Flash process the originating moment so it stops firing in competition. Brainspotting works with where the activation lives in the body — it came out of work with athletes and performers and it suits this well.

EFT gives you something to use in the warm-up.

Realistic

I'm not a sports psychologist and I don't do performance coaching. What I do is the trauma and anxiety layer underneath a block. If what you need is technique or mental-skills training, a coach is the right call — sometimes both together is.

Fit

Athletes come in for

  • A block on one specific movement
  • Training form that vanishes in competition
  • Return-to-play anxiety after an injury
  • A public failure that still replays
  • Pressure from selection, scholarships, or a coach

More reps haven't fixed it because reps aren't the issue.

Book a free 15-minute consultation.