Performance anxiety therapy in Denver
Performance anxiety is the gap between what you can do and what you can do while being watched.
We help you perform at your highest level
My Denver Therapy treats performance anxiety in athletes, musicians, performers, professionals and anyone whose job includes a conference-room spotlight — with therapists who include Cindy Gao, a former NCAA Division I fencer at Harvard who has competed under the kind of pressure her clients live with. Four metro offices, video statewide, teens and adults.
The skill is real. The anxiety is too
Alone, you’re flawless: the free throws drop, the passage flows, the presentation is articulate in the shower. Add an audience and a body takes over — hands that won’t obey, a voice that thins, a mind that goes white at the exact moment it needs to be sharp.
Afterward comes the worst part: you knew the material. Performance anxiety isn’t a preparation problem, which is why more preparation keeps failing to fix it.
What's happening under pressure
Under evaluation, your threat system treats the audience like a predator: adrenaline spikes, fine motor control degrades, and attention turns inward to monitor the performance instead of simply doing it. Skills you’ve automated get dragged back into conscious control, where they’re slower and clumsier. The mechanism is the same whether the arena is a piste, a recital hall, a start line, or a quarterly business review.
Who we work with
- Athletes — from club and high-school competitors to collegiate and beyond: pre-race dread, slumps that started with one bad outing, the yips, returning after injury. Denver’s endurance scene included; a start line is a stage.
- Musicians and performers — audition panic, shaking bow hands, memory blanks, the beta-blocker question.
- Public speaking — the most common performance fear there is, and the one nobody builds real treatment around: presentations, weddings, courtrooms, all-hands meetings. If the fear extends to most social situations, our social anxiety work may fit better; a consult sorts it quickly.
- Teen performers and athletes — where pressure, identity, and parents’ investment tangle early. Cindy sees teens as well as adults.
How treatment works
- Brainspotting — a modality with deep roots in performance work — targets the stored moment the body keeps re-living: the miss, the blank, the fall.
- EMDR does similar work when a specific failure or injury started the spiral. Around that core, you rebuild the attention skills performance actually runs on — task focus instead of self-monitoring — and when the anxiety has spread beyond the arena into the week before it, we treat the generalized pattern too.
What you won’t get: pep talks, visualization worksheets recycled from a 1998 sports-psych paperback, or a therapist who needs the stakes explained.
Why performers pick this practice
A clinician who has stood on a Division I strip with a season riding on a touch brings something no textbook supplies: the knowledge of what it costs to be measured in public.
Behind her, a 20+ clinician team covers what performance anxiety travels with — perfectionism, high-achiever patterns, identity questions — and offices in Denver, Greenwood Village, Lone Tree, and Arvada keep it close to wherever you train, rehearse, or present.
Frequently asked questions
Isn’t this just nerves?
Nerves are energy; most performers use them. Performance anxiety is interference — a measurable drop between practice and performance that repeats. If the gap is a pattern, it’s treatable.
Will treating it flatten my intensity?
The goal is the opposite: arousal you can aim. Competitors routinely find the energy stays and the interference leaves — which is what “clutch” was all along.
What about beta blockers?
They quiet hands, not fear, and they’re a medical decision — we’re glad to coordinate with your prescriber while treating the cause so medication isn’t doing all the work forever.
How fast does this move?
Performance anxiety is specific, which makes it efficient to treat. Many clients feel a difference within weeks — often in time for the season, the audition, or the keynote that’s driving the timeline.
Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all of the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.
Rachel Naomi Remen
Meet our therapists
As a therapist-owned practice, we care about helping you heal, grow, and thrive. We take a client-focused approach to counseling and approach each session with a commitment to your progress and growth.
Availability
We’re always accepting new clients at our conveniently located offices in Denver, Greenwood Village, Lone Tree, and Arvada. All of our therapists can meet with clients online.
We specialize in you
You are welcome here. Because we have a large team with a wide range of specialties and trainings, we work with clients of all ages, backgrounds, and life stages.
We can match you with a male or female therapist who matches your goals, location, and schedule. If you have a preference for gender, age, religious background, or a person with a specific type of training or life experience, we can match you with a therapist you feel comfortable with.
Trained in effective therapy modalities
To support your mental health journey, our team is trained in some of the most effective forms of therapy available today, including EMDR, Brainspotting, CBT, DBT, and IFS.
Whether you’re looking for help with anxiety, depression, trauma, or want to better understand your relationship and attachment styles, we can help.
Insurance information
We’re out of network with insurance and Tricare and are unable to take Medicaid or Medicare.
Unlike many Denver therapy practices, we don’t charge separate intake or administration fees or charge more for your first session or specialized therapy methods like EMDR.
Get matched with a therapist
Contact us today, and one of our therapists will reach out to you directly, usually the same day.