Mental Skills Every Performer Should Practice
Ashley Lanaux
Sport & Performance Director
Performers spend countless hours honing their craft. Whether you’re training for competition, preparing for a concert, or delivering high-stakes presentations, you know what it means to push your body and mind toward excellence. But technical skill and repetition are only part of the equation. The mental side of performance is just as critical, and often overlooked.
Mental skills are what help you stay grounded under pressure, recover from setbacks, and show up with clarity and confidence when it matters most. They are not just for elite athletes or professionals at the top of their game. These are tools that anyone who performs, creates, competes, or leads can benefit from. And like any skill, they can be learned, practiced, and strengthened over time.
Whether you’re performing on a field, a stage, in a boardroom, or in a classroom, therapy can help you cultivate these internal resources with intention and support.
Emotional Regulation
When performance stakes are high, your nervous system takes notice. You might feel your heart race, your thoughts speed up, or your body tense. Learning how to recognize and respond to stress in the moment is foundational. Therapy can help you:
Identify personal signs of overwhelm or anxiety
Build self-awareness around emotional triggers
Develop calming strategies to stay focused and steady
Work with your nervous system rather than against it
Regulation is not about avoiding emotion. It’s about staying present enough to perform with intention.
Visualization and Mental Rehearsal
Your brain responds to mental imagery in powerful ways. Practicing a routine, a speech, or a performance in your mind helps reinforce neural pathways, build confidence, and reduce performance anxiety. In therapy, you can:
Explore guided imagery practices
Strengthen focus and internal cues
Use visualization to mentally prepare for stress or challenge
Create personalized mental scripts to increase confidence
Mental rehearsal does not replace physical practice, but it complements it in meaningful ways.
Self-Talk and Inner Narrative
How you talk to yourself matters. Negative self-talk can quietly erode confidence, while compassionate and realistic self-talk can improve resilience and motivation. With therapeutic support, you can:
Recognize unhelpful internal narratives
Challenge perfectionism and harsh inner criticism
Develop affirming, grounded internal language
Shift from fear-based motivation to values-based motivation
Your inner voice can become a source of strength, rather than a source of pressure.
Focus and Attention Control
Distraction, comparison, and self-doubt can creep in even for seasoned performers. Therapy offers space to practice:
Grounding techniques to stay in the present moment
Strategies to reorient your attention under stress
Tools to navigate distraction and maintain flow
Mindfulness practices to build cognitive flexibility
Strong focus is not about shutting everything out. It’s about choosing what to tune into.
Recovery and Reset
Sustainable performance requires more than peak moments. It also depends on your ability to recover between them. Therapy can help you:
Recognize signs of burnout early
Normalize rest and integrate it into your routine
Build rituals for recovery after high-output events
Reflect on performance in a way that fosters growth, not shame
The ability to reset is one of the most powerful tools a performer can develop.
We Are Here For You
At Nashville Therapy Group, our team of clinicians is here to help you work through what’s hard and move toward meaningful change. Connect with us today to get started. We’d be honored to help you heal.
