Performance anxiety isn't necessarily a lack of preparation, discipline, or talent. Sometimes you can be completely prepared physically and still struggle mentally. You may perform well during practice but become overwhelmed during competition.

You may make one mistake and have difficulty mentally recovering. You may compare yourself constantly to teammates or competitors. Or perhaps your performance is objectively strong, but internally you never believe it's good enough.

Performance anxiety can look like:

• Fear of failure
• Overthinking before or during performance
• Perfectionism
• Fear of making mistakes
• Loss of confidence
• Negative self-talk
• Difficulty recovering after mistakes
• Excessive self-criticism
• Constant comparison with others
• Anxiety before games, competitions, auditions, presentations, or important events
• Feeling overwhelmed by expectations
• Worry about disappointing coaches, parents, teammates, colleagues, or yourself
• Avoiding opportunities because of fear
• Difficulty concentrating under pressure
• Feeling like you have to prove yourself
• Burnout
• Connecting your self-worth to your performance

You may know exactly what you're supposed to do. The challenge is getting your mind to stop interfering with your ability to do it.

Athletic environments have their own culture. There is often an expectation to be tough. Push through.

• Don't complain.
• Stay focused.
• Keep performing.

As a former Division I collegiate basketball player, I understand the discipline required to compete at a high level. I also understand that athletes are people before they are performers. Behind the jersey, statistics, scholarship, starting position, ranking, or expectations is a person experiencing real emotions.

Athletes can experience anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, identity concerns, family stress, and other mental health challenges just like anyone else. Sometimes the athletic environment adds another layer of pressure. Therapy gives you a space where your value isn't determined by your performance.

Student-athletes may be balancing more than people realize.

• Academics
• Practice
• Competition
• Travel
• Coaches
• Teammates
• Family expectations
• Scholarship pressure
• Social relationships
• Future plans

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, you're expected to take care of yourself. That pressure can become overwhelming.

Therapy can provide student-athletes with a confidential and supportive environment to address concerns such as:
 

• Anxiety
• Performance anxiety
• Academic pressure
• Emotional regulation
• Perfectionism
• Fear of failure
• Confidence
• Identity
• Relationship concerns
• Stress
• Burnout
• Life transitions
• Injury-related emotional challenge
• Pressure surrounding recruitment or scholarship
• Difficulty balancing athletics and everyday life

Your sport may be an important part of your life. But you are more than your performance.

When One Mistake Feels Like Everything

Fear of failure can quietly change the way you perform.

Instead of focusing on the moment, you begin focusing on what might happen if something goes wrong.

• Don't miss.
• Don't mess up.
• Don't disappoint them.
• Don't lose your spot.
• Don't make another mistake.

Your attention shifts from performing to preventing failure. And sometimes the harder you try not to make a mistake, the more anxious you become. Therapy can help you examine the thoughts and beliefs underneath that fear, develop healthier responses to mistakes, and learn to approach performance without allowing fear to control every decision.

Wanting to perform well isn't a problem. The difficulty comes when anything less than perfect feels unacceptable. You may have an incredible performance and spend the rest of the day thinking about the one thing you did wrong. You may accomplish a goal and immediately move the standard higher. You may struggle to celebrate progress because your attention automatically goes toward what needs improvement.

That mindset can contribute to anxiety, burnout, procrastination, self-criticism, and difficulty enjoying something you once loved.

Therapy can help you pursue excellence while developing a healthier relationship with mistakes, expectations, and your own self-worth.

Sometimes your biggest critic isn't your coach, parent, teammate, supervisor, or competitor. It's you. Negative self-talk can quickly affect confidence:

"I'm not good enough"|
"Everyone else is better than me."
"I always mess up when it matters."
"I shouldn't be struggling with this."
"If I fail, everyone will know I'm not as good as they think."

Over time, these thoughts can begin to feel like facts. Through therapy, we'll work on identifying those patterns and examining whether they're accurate, helpful, or keeping you stuck. The goal isn't false confidence. It's learning how to develop a more balanced internal dialogue so one mistake, one performance, or one difficult season doesn't determine how you see yourself.

As a CBT Certified Clinician (CBT-C), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an important part of my approach to performance anxiety. CBT helps us understand the connection between your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

For example:

Situation: You make an early mistake during competition.
Thought: "Here we go again. I'm going to have a terrible game."
Emotion: Anxiety and frustration.
Behavior: You begin playing cautiously, overthinking decisions, or focusing on avoiding
another mistake.

That cycle can affect your performance even when you have the physical ability to
succeed.

Therapy may help you learn to:

• Recognize negative automatic thoughts
• Challenge cognitive distortions
• Manage anticipatory anxiety
• Respond differently after mistakes
• Develop healthier internal dialogue
• Strengthen emotional regulation
• Increase tolerance for pressure and uncertainty
• Reduce perfectionistic thinking
• Address avoidance behaviors
• Separate performance from self-worth
• Build healthier coping strategies
• Approach high-pressure situations with greater psychological flexibility

Depending on your needs, treatment may also incorporate DBT-informed skills, grounding strategies, mindfulness, psychoeducation, stress-management techniques, and trauma-informed interventions.

When Performance Anxiety Happens Outside of Sports

You don't have to be an athlete to experience performance anxiety. Pressure can show up anywhere you feel evaluated or expected to perform.

I also work with high-achieving individuals experiencing anxiety related to:

• Public speaking
• Presentations
• Auditions
• Academic performance
• Tests and examinations
• Career advancement
• Leadership
• Entrepreneurship
• Workplace performance
• Interviews
• Creative performance
• High-pressure professional environments

You may appear confident and accomplished while privately experiencing significant anxiety. Therapy can help address both the pressure you're experiencing and the beliefs underneath it.

The transition away from competitive sports can be more difficult than people expect. For years, your schedule, relationships, goals, and identity may have revolved around your sport. Then suddenly, that structure changes.

You may find yourself asking:

Who am I without my sport?
What am I working toward now?
Why do I miss something I thought I was ready to leave?

Former athletes may experience challenges related to identity, loss of structure, motivation, career transitions, relationships, anxiety, or adjusting to life outside competitive athletics.

Therapy can help you process that transition and begin building an identity that honors
your athletic experience without requiring you to remain defined by it.

Christian Counseling for Athletes & High Performers

For Christian athletes and high performers, faith can be an important source of identity, purpose, and strength. But performance pressure can sometimes create a conflict between what you believe spiritually and what you feel emotionally.

You may know intellectually that your worth comes from God while emotionally feeling like your worth depends on winning, succeeding, or meeting expectations. For clients who desire faith-integrated treatment, Christian counseling can incorporate biblical principles, Scripture, prayer, and conversations about identity, purpose, and faith alongside evidence-based therapeutic interventions.

We can explore questions such as:

Where does my identity come from?

What happens when achievement becomes more important than who God
created me to be?

How can I pursue excellence without allowing performance to determine my
worth?

Faith integration is available based on each client's preferences and treatment goals.