Peak performance EMDR: Adapting trauma treatment to positive psychology outcomes and self-actualization

An expansion of the basic EMDR protocol (Lendl & Foster, 1997) has been developed for enhancing performance in the workplace, to aid in the reduction of performance anxiety experienced by creative and performing artists, and for competition preparation and psychological recovery from injury in athletes. The authors, in their Silicon Valley practices, often witnessed the upsetting, even traumatic effect that layoffs and competitive pressures could have on employees in corporate workplaces. They likewise observed the adverse impact that ‘stage fright’ and audition anxiety could have on actors, dancers, and musicians, as well as the emotionally bruising experience for an athlete who loses a crucial competition. Reasoning that a trauma method such as EMDR could be applied to procrastination, fear of failure, and the reprocessing of actual setbacks, the EMDR Peak Performance protocol was created (Lendl & Foster, 1997).

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Sandra "Sam" Foster
Jennifer Lendl

Foster, S., & Lendl, J. (2001). Peak performance EMDR:Adapting trauma treatment to positive psychology outcomes and self-actualization. Portale Italiano de Psicotraumatologia e Psciopteri