Athletes and Equestrians
Utilizing Brainspotting to Expand and Enhance Your Performance

Watch this short video about it – Brainspotting for Performance.

Using Brainspotting to Help Athletes and Equestrians Overcome Mental Blocks and Achieve Peak Performance

When it comes to athletic performance—whether you're a competitive equestrian or a professional athlete—mental and emotional blocks can be just as limiting as physical ones. Brainspotting therapy for athletes offers a powerful, brain-body approach to help you overcome internal obstacles and reach your full potential.

The process begins by identifying two essential elements: what you're currently doing that isn't serving your performance, and what you'd like to be doing instead. Maybe it's tension during competition, hesitation in critical moments, or difficulty bouncing back after a fall or mistake. Once we clarify these patterns, Brainspotting helps the brain and nervous system process and release the underlying causes—whether it's fear, anxiety, past trauma, or performance pressure.

This gentle yet focused approach creates the space for athletes and equestrians to move from survival mode into a flow state, where confidence, clarity, and peak performance can thrive. Whether your goal is to ride with more ease, compete with more confidence, or return to sport after injury or burnout, Brainspotting can help you get there.

Whether a sports related injury happens to us or someone else, it can affect our performance.

Brainspotting therapists help athletic performance by identifying and treating "Sports Traumatic Stress Injury."

The book This Is Your Brain on Sports: Beating Slumps, Blocks, and Performance Anxiety for Good by David Grand and Alan Goldberg goes into greater detail about the use of Brainspotting in sports performance enhancement. Brainspotting therapy works to help athletes or equestrians maximize their abilities.

Brainspotting for Equestrian Athletes: Rebuilding Confidence

In equestrian sports, performance isn't just about skill—it's about connection, trust, and confidence between rider and horse. A single unexpected incident—such as a fall, spook, or witnessing an injury—can leave a lasting mark. Even when a rider doesn’t fall, the nervous system may interpret a moment of fear as a threat, leading to subconscious tension, anxiety, or hesitation in future rides.

Brainspotting therapy for equestrians is a trauma-informed, brain-based approach that helps riders process these “stuck” fear responses held deep in the body and brain. Using specific eye positions and bilateral stimulation, Brainspotting identifies and releases the emotional blocks tied to past incidents—often without needing to relive them.

For example, a rider who begins bracing or “riding backward” when entering a specific corner of the arena may be experiencing a subcortical withdrawal response rooted in an unresolved incident. Brainspotting for equestrian performance allows the brain and body to resolve this fear pattern, restoring trust, fluid movement, and calm presence in the saddle. The result is improved riding performance, increased confidence, and a more attuned connection with the horse.

More on Brainspotting

Brainspotting has been found phenomenally useful in "expanding and unleashing one's infinite potential, passion and performance."

(www. brainspotting.com, 2017)

Watch this short video about it – Brainspotting for Performance.

Podium Sports Journal – Brainspotting

An article about using Brainspotting to treat athletic obstacles.

Brainspotting for Athletes: Overcoming Performance Anxiety, Burnout, and Pressure

Athletes, both Professional Athlete and Amateur Athletes, often face extreme levels of performance pressure—whether it’s the intensity of national competitions, criticism from sports media, or the constant demands from coaches, teammates, and fans. Over time, this high-stress environment can lead to performance anxiety, burnout, or emotional shutdown, impacting focus, confidence, and overall athletic output.

Brainspotting therapy for athletes is designed to target the underlying emotional and neurological stress that may be limiting peak performance. By accessing and processing unresolved fear, pressure, or internalized criticism, Brainspotting helps the athlete’s nervous system return to a place of calm, control, and mental clarity.

Take, for example, a pro basketball player who, after missing a critical game-winning shot during a championship game, begins to experience overwhelming anxiety in similar high-stakes moments. With constant replay of that mistake in the media, negative feedback from coaches, and internalized pressure to redeem themselves, the athlete may subconsciously tighten up during future games—leading to a performance block.

Through Brainspotting, we gently target the emotional charge linked to that moment and any associated trauma stored in the body. The process allows the athlete to release shame, restore their mental focus, and reestablish trust in their body’s ability to perform under pressure. Over time, this translates to more consistent performance, better emotional regulation, and reduced burnout.

Whether you’re navigating sports-related trauma, performance anxiety, or the emotional toll of elite competition, Brainspotting for athletes offers a powerful path back to resilience, motivation, and peak performance.

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