Sports, stage, test, and work performance anxiety. Choking under pressure, the yips, panic before the whistle. Clinical-grade help from licensed psychologists for what nobody talks about.
Clinically reviewed by Geoffrey Peal, Psy.D., Licensed Psychologist · Updated October 2026
Performance anxiety is not a character flaw. It's a stress response: measurable, predictable, and treatable. FPA Performance provides therapy for performance issues in St. Petersburg, in Trinity, and by telehealth anywhere in Florida, for athletes, musicians, students, and professionals whose nerves show up exactly when it counts. The people who beat it don't have less fear. They have a better plan for it.
This is the clinical side of our practice. Our psychologists are doctoral-level and licensed, so when sports performance anxiety, stage fright, or test anxiety crosses into something more, such as panic attacks, persistent dread, or a full anxiety disorder, you don't need a referral somewhere else. We can treat it here.
Choking under pressure usually happens when anxiety pulls attention onto mechanics that normally run on autopilot. The free throw you've made thousands of times suddenly gets micromanaged, and it falls apart. The fix isn't trying to feel calm. It's a routine and an attentional cue that hold up at full arousal, rehearsed until they're automatic. We dig into this in free throws in the sports psychology era.
The fix isn’t calmer. The fix is a protocol that works at full arousal.
Common signs that performance anxiety is in the driver’s seat.
Racing heart, sweating, GI issues, sleep loss - sometimes for days before.
Finding reasons to skip practice, miss tryouts, withdraw from competition.
One mistake means the whole performance is ruined. Often it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A formerly automatic skill - putt, throw, swing, entrance - has stopped working. The yips.
Tunnel vision, can’t hear teammates, hands won’t respond. The freeze.
Replaying mistakes for days or weeks. Can’t turn it off.
Performance anxiety responds to specific, proven protocols. We use them.
Map the exact moment, trigger, and pattern. No two athletes have quite the same shape.
Breathwork, body cues, and recovery drills that work even when adrenaline is high.
Identify the catastrophic stories your brain runs. Replace them with operational ones.
Practice the high-stakes moment under realistic pressure - with the new protocol installed.
Targeted work for the yips combining motor-learning principles and anxiety treatment.
If we identify a broader anxiety disorder, we treat it. No referrals out, no patchwork care.
Most performance anxiety treatment starts as skill work. Sometimes the assessment shows more: an anxiety disorder, panic disorder, depression, or an adjustment disorder after an injury, a cut, a transfer, a layoff, or a loss. Those are diagnosable conditions, and they change the plan.
We screen for this from the first session. If something clinical is sitting underneath the performance problem, we treat both, using evidence-based approaches like cognitive-behavioral therapy and graded exposure. One psychologist, one plan.
Performance work is fee-for-service. When a client also meets criteria for a diagnosable condition, such as an anxiety disorder, depression, or an adjustment disorder after an injury, a cut, a transfer, a layoff, or a loss, the focus can shift from performance improvement to insurance-based therapy when it is clinically appropriate. That is the key difference on this page: performance anxiety therapy can become insurance-based treatment when the diagnosis supports it. We'll talk through your options before the first session.
Your performance anxiety therapist is a licensed psychologist, not a coach. Both of ours are active members of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).
Doctoral clinical training included rotations at the University of Miami Anxiety Research and Treatment Center. Featured on ABC Action News and 10 WTSP Tampa Bay discussing mental health and pressure in Olympic competition.
An ultrarunner himself. Featured on the Florida Trailrunners Podcast (Episode 65) talking ultra running and sports psychology. Specializes in distance sports, ball sports, and performing arts.
In person at either office, or telehealth for clients anywhere in Florida.
This work is sensitive. Sessions are confidential, paced to the athlete, and built around lasting change - not quick fixes.