Sports Performance Enhancement
Offering In-Person Sessions
Complete this form and a therapist will contact you within 48 hours (Monday-Friday).
Do You Want to Perform Your Best?
Sidelined by recent sports injury or experience??
Feeling less confident because of criticism from family, coaches, or peers?
Want to improve your performance over your competitors?
Then this is for you!
One of the Most Innovative Uses Of EMDR Therapy
When a seasoned athlete is suddenly unable to perform even simple mundane tasks, It can be very distressing.
This often leads to anger, frustration, anxiety and even depression. The athlete may begin to develop negative core beliefs such as: ‘I am a failure,’ ‘There is something wrong with me,’, or ‘I will never succeed.’ These types of negative beliefs only exacerbate the condition reinforcing the impediment.
Research has found that performance blocks almost always trace back to past traumatic experiences or old sports-related injuries. As such, EMDR has proven to be a very effective treatment for performance related conditions, such as ‘yips’.
EMDR assists the client to release any mental blocks that are interfering with performance, allowing the client to tap into their strengths. This leaves the athlete feeling more empowered and confident in achieving their goals.
Sports Traumas
Performance blocks and anxiety, including the yips, stem from accumulated sports traumas, including sports injuries, failures, and humiliations. Specifically, these could include:
- Verbal abuse and humiliation from a coach
- A sports injury that caused an athlete to have to make changes in their approach, i.e., form
- A sports injury that has caused isolation from their team
- A failure at an important competition which resulted in a loss of confidence
- Placing too much emphasis on sports performance as related to one’s overall identity
- Coaches/parents putting undue pressure on the athlete to win, etc.
- Traumas that are more clinical in nature that are non-sports related that may have been rooted in childhood
EMDR for Performance Enhancement
Perhaps one of the most debilitating sports-related performance issues is referred to as the ‘yips’, a condition said to affect between 32–47% of serious golfers. For reasons unknown, skilled athletes (namely golfers and baseball players) will suddenly encounter a mental hurdle that interferes with their ability to perform easy automatic tasks on the field or golf course. For example, pro-golfers may suddenly be unable to drive the ball straight or baseball catchers are unable to throw the ball back to the pitcher.
Losing, failures, and falling short of reaching expectations can all serve as sources of “athletic traumas” and those memories will often trigger future impairments in performance. The power of EMDR to heal the wounds of athletic trauma can create a fast and reliable treatment option for any athlete who experiences an athletic trauma. For example, a debilitating double bogey on the last hole to lose a major championship can be treated shortly after the event with EMDR therapy, decreasing the intensity of the experience while also installing positive cognitions to prevent any future triggering.
Sports Traumas
Performance blocks and anxiety, including the yips, stem from accumulated sports traumas including sports injuries, failures and humiliations. Specifically, these could include:
- Verbal abuse and humiliation from a coach
- A sports injury that caused an athlete to have to make changes in their approach ie. form
- A sports injury that has caused isolation from their team
- A failure at an important competition which resulted in a loss of confidence
- Placing too much emphasis on sports performance as related to one’s overall identity
- Coaches/parents putting undue pressure on the athlete to win, etc.
- Traumas that are more clinical in nature that are non-sports related that may have be rooted in childhood
Schedule a Free Consultation
EMDR is a powerful therapy backed by years of research! EMDR can often “cure” sports related blocks in as little as 1-2 sessions!