EMDR and Performance
Why Unblocking Psychological Stuck Points Will Allow Athletes More Freedom to Perform at Their Best
When we think about athletic performance, the conversation often revolves around physical training, nutrition, recovery, and mindset. Rarely do we dive deep into how unprocessed psychological experiences directly limit an athlete's ability to perform at their highest potential. Yet, these unseen barriers are often the difference between someone consistently excelling under pressure and someone who struggles despite immense talent.
This is where EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — becomes a game changer. Originally developed for trauma therapy, however I am looking to provide EMDR for athletes as a powerful way to move past the invisible walls their nervous systems have erected over years of experience. In the same way a physical injury requires targeted rehabilitation, psychological stuck points require intentional reprocessing to fully heal.
And when those stuck points are cleared? Freedom, both mental and physical, follows.
What Are Psychological Stuck Points?
Every athlete has moments burned into their memory: the critical mistake in a championship game, the injury that took them out of a season, the coach who criticized them publicly, the unrelenting pressure to be perfect. Even seemingly "small" moments — a parent's disappointed glance, an offhand comment from a teammate — can lodge themselves into an athlete's nervous system.
Psychological stuck points are the unprocessed moments when the mind and body didn't fully digest an experience. Instead of the memory being placed neatly into the past, it remains active, creating low-grade (or sometimes high-grade) anxiety, self-doubt, fear of failure, or even chronic overthinking.
This can look like:
Freezing or blanking out in high-stakes situations.
Overtraining to cope with underlying fears of inadequacy.
Feeling emotionally numb or disconnected from passion for the sport.
Overreacting to mistakes or setbacks in ways that don't match the situation.
These aren't just "mental blocks." They're physiological patterns, wired into the nervous system, that continue to run until they're addressed at the root.
How EMDR Works for Athletes
EMDR works by helping the brain reprocess those unresolved experiences. Through guided bilateral stimulation — usually rapid eye movements, tapping, or sound — the brain is encouraged to access stuck material and move it toward resolution.
Think of it this way:
When a computer freezes, it’s not because the entire system is broken — it’s because one program has stalled and jammed the rest. EMDR helps reboot that specific stuck program without having to dismantle the whole system.
During EMDR sessions with athletes, the focus often falls on specific memories:
The moment confidence was shattered.
A career-threatening injury.
Early experiences of not feeling good enough.
Internalized narratives of perfectionism or failure.
As these memories are reprocessed, the emotional charge drains out of them. The body stops reacting as if the event is still happening. The brain updates its files: this happened, it's over, I'm safe now.
What follows is often a profound sense of clarity, confidence, and mental freedom — not because the athlete "thought" their way into feeling better, but because their nervous system believes it's safe to fully engage again.
Why This Matters for Peak Performance
Athletic performance isn't just physical. It's deeply tied to our internal world.
When psychological stuck points are active, an athlete’s performance is compromised — not because they lack skill or effort, but because their mind and body are busy managing invisible stress signals.
Here’s what happens when those signals are cleared:
More Access to Flow States: Flow requires full presence. Fear, self-criticism, and overthinking block that. EMDR helps remove these barriers so athletes can enter the zone more effortlessly.
Quicker Recovery from Setbacks: Instead of spiraling after a mistake, athletes are able to stay grounded and recalibrate quickly.
Greater Emotional Resilience: Pressure doesn’t feel as overwhelming when the nervous system isn’t already carrying unprocessed trauma.
Stronger Identity Beyond Performance: Athletes who resolve deep-seated fears often reconnect with why they started their sport in the first place — reigniting joy, passion, and meaning beyond external validation.
In short, EMDR helps athletes stop performing against their past and start performing for their present and future.
The Science Behind It
EMDR is heavily backed by research, especially in the field of trauma therapy. Studies show it significantly reduces symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression. More recently, its applications have expanded into performance enhancement for professionals in high-stakes fields: first responders, military personnel, executives, and yes — athletes.
In one study published in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, athletes who underwent EMDR for performance anxiety reported not only a reduction in anxiety but also measurable improvements in performance outcomes. They weren't just feeling better — they were playing better.
This fits with what we know about the nervous system. When we’re stuck in fight, flight, or freeze responses — even subtly — we aren’t able to access the full range of our physical or cognitive abilities. Calm, regulated athletes make better decisions, adapt faster, and recover quicker — all essential components of elite performance.
A New Standard for Mental Training
Mental skills training — visualization, positive self-talk, goal setting — has become increasingly popular in sports psychology. These are great tools, but they often operate at the conscious level. EMDR works deeper.
Rather than layering new strategies over old wounds, EMDR clears the wound itself.
It offers athletes a way to truly clean the slate, creating space for genuine, sustainable confidence to take root.
Imagine a high-performer who doesn’t have to constantly wrestle with fear of failure.
Imagine an athlete who doesn’t have to armor themselves with perfectionism just to feel "good enough."
Imagine competing from a place of wholeness, not survival.
That’s the power of integrating EMDR into performance work.
Final Thoughts
Athletes train their bodies relentlessly, but often leave their deepest mental and emotional blocks untouched. EMDR invites a different approach — one that honors the full complexity of being human and high-performing.
By clearing the stuck points that have long dictated how they show up under pressure, athletes unlock a deeper well of freedom, creativity, and excellence.
Not by working harder.
Not by thinking more positively.
But by healing — fully, at the nervous system level.
True performance isn’t about fighting our past.
It’s about being fully available for the present.
And EMDR is one of the most powerful tools we have to make that possible.