Skip to main content

Our Services

Peak Performance with EMDR in Singapore

What is Peak Performance with EMDR?

Peak Performance with EMDR is a structured psychotherapy program in Singapore that uses Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy to help people recover from career setbacks, reduce performance anxiety, and reach optimal performance.

The program is based on the EMDR Performance Enhancement Psychology Protocol developed by Jennifer Lendl and Sandra Foster. It adapts EMDR therapy to help business executives, professionals, athletes, performers, artistes, students and others move past psychological obstacles to perform with confidence.

Who is this program for?​

This program is built for anyone whose performance matters to them but who feels something is holding them back. That includes:

  • Business owners, executives, entrepreneurs and professionals who present, lead, and make high-stakes decisions
  • Professionals working in competitive, high-pressure environments
  • Athletes preparing for competition or recovering from injury or setbacks
  • Performers and artistes experiencing stage nerves or creative blocks
  • Students dealing with exam stress, presentations, or interviews
  • Anyone who simply wants to handle pressure better and grow in their career

You do not need a diagnosis or a dramatic backstory to benefit. The program works equally well for people overcoming a specific setback and for those who are already doing well but want to reach the next level.

What can this program help with?

Peak Performance with EMDR addresses the psychological obstacles that get in the way of how you lead, present, conduct yourself, compete, or create. Common concerns include:

  • Procrastination and avoidance
  • Fear of failure
  • Fear of or aversion to negative feedback
  • Self-doubt and imposter syndrome
  • Performance anxiety, including public-speaking anxiety
  • Exam stress and test anxiety
  • Rumination over past mistakes
  • Difficult workplace relationships

By clearing these obstacles, the program helps you raise your performance — whether you are speaking in public, sitting an exam, competing in sport, or leading at work.

Who is this program for?​

This program is built for anyone whose performance matters to them but who feels something is holding them back. That includes:

  • Business owners, executives, entrepreneurs and professionals who present, lead, and make high-stakes decisions
  • Professionals working in competitive, high-pressure environments
  • Athletes preparing for competition or recovering from injury or setbacks
  • Performers and artistes experiencing stage nerves or creative blocks
  • Students dealing with exam stress, presentations, or interviews
  • Anyone who simply wants to handle pressure better and grow in their career

You do not need a diagnosis or a dramatic backstory to benefit. The program works equally well for people overcoming a specific setback and for those who are already doing well but want to reach the next level.

What can this program help with?

Peak Performance with EMDR addresses the psychological obstacles that get in the way of how you lead, present, conduct yourself, compete, or create. Common concerns include:

  • Procrastination and avoidance
  • Fear of failure
  • Fear of or aversion to negative feedback
  • Self-doubt and imposter syndrome
  • Performance anxiety, including public-speaking anxiety
  • Exam stress and test anxiety
  • Rumination over past mistakes
  • Difficult workplace relationships

By clearing these obstacles, the program helps you raise your performance — whether you are speaking in public, sitting an exam, competing in sport, or leading at work.

How does it help you?

  • The program starts with emotion-regulation skills. It focuses on active goal-setting and vivid visualisation of your desired future state, drawing on your strengths and resources.
  • It then uses EMDR therapy to resolve memories of past failures and setbacks, de-escalate panic and anxiety, reduce physical stress arousal, overcome negative self-beliefs, and improve self-confidence.
  • After reprocessing the origins of those obstacles, mental rehearsal and visualisation are reinforced with a view to enhance performance.

Published evidence and case studies

There are published case studies that support performance-enhancement with EMDR therapy. These include:

  • Corporate leadership: helping a business executive manage his sense of failure following a significant business setback. 
  • Commercial pilot: an experienced pilot who had failed a proficiency test and developed avoidance regarding the flight simulator. The protocol was used to help him overcome that fear and return to testing with the simulator.

Make an Appointment

Peak Performance at Acorntherapy is provided by its founder, Miss Wang Yi Shing. Acorntherapy is a boutique mental health practice in Singapore, specialising in EMDR therapy and trauma-focused psychotherapy. It was founded in 2015 by Ms Wang, a Certified EMDR Practitioner, who has been in practice since 2011.

Make an Appointment

Peak Performance at Acorntherapy is provided by its founder, Miss Wang Yi Shing. Acorntherapy is a boutique mental health practice in Singapore, specialising in EMDR therapy and trauma-focused psychotherapy. It was founded in 2015 by Ms Wang, a Certified EMDR Practitioner, who has been in practice since 2011.

References

  • EMDR Performance Enhancement Psychology Protocol, in Luber, M. (Ed.) (2009). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Scripted Protocols: Basic and Special Situations.
  • Foster, S., & Lendl, J. (1996). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: Four case studies of a new tool for executive coaching and restoring employee performance after setbacks. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48(3), 155–161.

Frequently Asked Questions

It is based on EMDR therapy, but with added emphasis that includes detailed goal-setting, visualisation and mental rehearsal to enhance performance

No. You do not need a setback or a diagnosis to benefit. High-functioning clients who are already successful in their careers use the program to minimise any negative factors that may hold their performance back, and to inject fresh energy and vigour into their careers.

Career advancement is one of the most common goals participants set. We begin with an in-depth discussion of what is impeding your progress, which may range from self-doubt, imposter syndrome, fear of or aversion to negative feedback, to the need to strengthen public speaking, media interviews, leadership presence, or the handling of high-pressure workloads and workplace interpersonal tension. By easing the anxiety behind these factors and strengthening confidence, the program supports the kind of performance that moves careers forward.

Yes. The protocol was developed for such professions. Athletes preparing for competition or recovering from injury and setbacks, and performers and artistes facing stage nerves or creative blocks, use it to clear the anxiety and self-doubt behind a block and to rehearse and anchor the performance they want.

The number of sessions varies from person to person, depending on the goals and personal history. It typically begins with emotion-regulation skills and goal-setting, followed by EMDR reprocessing of the origin of psychological obstacles, and ends with mental and physical rehearsal of your target performance. Your therapist will give you a clearer picture after the initial discussion.

Yes if the insurance policy covers psychotherapy. Our clients have successfully claimed from their insurance companies with our receipts. We suggest you first seek your insurer’s confirmation.

No. All sessions are confidential, except where a client threatens to harm themselves or others, or in the unlikely situation where a court orders disclosure of the therapy. Therefore, your colleagues or any other person will not learn of the therapy, unless you disclose that information yourself, or you consent to its disclosure.

Make an Appointment


Contact us

By +65 9023 1691 , or

By Emailcontact@acorntherapy.sg