Trading is a Psychological Battle.
EMDR Helps You Win.

From a broader clinical standpoint, EMDR’s efficacy in enhancing emotional regulation is well established. Among individuals with trauma-related stress, EMDR has consistently outperformed other interventions in reducing symptoms of chronic anxiety and physiological hyperarousal. In a seminal study, van der Kolk et al. (2007) demonstrated that EMDR was more effective than fluoxetine in alleviating PTSD symptoms, including emotional numbness, anxiety, and stress reactivity. This has important implications beyond clinical populations. For high-stakes performers—such as athletes, executives, or traders—EMDR can loosen the grip of unresolved psychological stressors, enabling greater composure and more adaptive decision-making under pressure. In this way, EMDR serves as a performance-enhancing intervention by targeting and resolving the internal barriers—fear, trauma, and anxiety—that disrupt focus and undermine execution in demanding environments.

Research highlights EMDR as a powerful tool for enhancing performance. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated that EMDR interventions can reduce performance-related anxiety and improve outcomes under pressure. Notably, a pilot study by Rathschlag and Memmert (2014) found that a brief EMDR-based intervention—lasting just 1–2 hours—led to significant reductions in both state and trait anxiety. Participants not only felt calmer but also delivered superior performance in high-stress physical tasks compared to the control group. These results suggest that EMDR can effectively neutralize the cognitive and physiological disruptions caused by anxiety, allowing individuals to access their full capabilities when it matters most.

EMDR isn’t just for trauma—it’s a cognitive enhancer under pressure. Clinical research has shown that EMDR can significantly improve performance in high-stakes environments like exams and public speaking. In one study, EMDR reduced test anxiety as effectively as biofeedback-based stress inoculation training—far outperforming no-treatment controls. Another case study found that EMDR rapidly eliminated debilitating stage fright when other interventions had failed. By targeting the emotional roots of fear and self-doubt, EMDR clears the mental clutter that sabotages performance, allowing for sharper focus, calmer execution, and more effective decision-making when it matters most.

EMDR has emerged as a promising intervention for resolving performance breakdowns—commonly known as the “yips” or “lost move syndrome.” These phenomena, often involving involuntary motor disruptions during skilled tasks, are frequently tied to anxiety and unresolved psychological stress. Bennett et al. (2017) documented a compelling single-case study of a professional golfer who had experienced the yips during putting for over a decade. Following a targeted intervention combining EMDR therapy with graded exposure, the athlete reported a significant reduction in panic, somatic symptoms, and anxiety. Most notably, he regained the ability to perform the skill in competitive environments. The study underscores how unresolved trauma or emotionally salient experiences may disrupt automatic motor sequences and how EMDR can recalibrate these associations.

Building on this foundation, a 2024 case series in Sports Psychiatry treated seven golfers suffering from the yips with one to two EMDR sessions. Six of the seven demonstrated clinically meaningful improvement, both in self-reported symptom reduction and in quantifiable performance metrics—showing an average performance gain of 20% over the following year. These findings support the use of EMDR not only to alleviate performance anxiety but also to restore fluid execution of automatic skills by reprocessing the psychological content interfering with performance. In high-stakes environments, EMDR offers athletes a direct path to recover confidence, emotional regulation, and competitive readiness.