coaching for stage fright

Written By Sophia Adickes

~ how to rewire your brain for confident performance ~

Stage fright isn’t a flaw — it’s a signal. And with the right tools, it’s one you can learn to understand, manage, and even use to your advantage.

As a mental performance coach, I work with artists, speakers, and performers who struggle with stage fright, often after years of training and experience. The problem isn’t a lack of preparation — it’s often a lack of psychological safety and mental flexibility when the stakes are high.

Let’s break down what’s actually happening.👇

For most people, stage fright or performance anxiety occurs due to a stress response — your nervous system goes into overdrive because it senses a threat (judgment of others, worry about making mistakes, etc.). This might result in a combination of physical and/or mental symptoms. This could include (but is not limited to):

  • Shaky hands or voice

  • Rapid heartbeat

  • Inability to focus

  • Racing thoughts

  • Disconnection from the moment/out-of-body experience

  • Mental blanking or “freezing”

  • Negative self-talk

From a neuroscience perspective, this is your amygdala doing its job — protecting you from perceived danger and warning you. Unfortunately, these “dangers” are often unrealistic and based on our own perceptions of how we imagine people might respond, instead of being based on facts. (PSA: we are not mindreaders and often cannot accurately read what people are thinking based on their body language or attitude alone.)

Now most people try to fix stage fright by rehearsing more. But performance anxiety isn’t just a “practice problem” — in fact, performance anxiety can occur no matter your level of experience, practice routine, or technical skill level.

Performance anxiety needs to be addressed on two fronts:

1) Lowering your stress levels with techniques that calm the nervous system, ground your body, reframe unhelpful thought patterns, and make you feel safe in your environment (mentally AND physically).

2) Building your self-confidence, owning your strengths, and knowing what YOU bring to the table so that you can take back control of your career without feeling the pressure to people-please or constantly aim for perfection

Research shows us that stress, confidence, and resilience are not just personality traits, they are mental skills that can be learned, practiced and developed over time. So instead of trying to suppress your nerves, this approach helps you build bravery and resilience to perform at your best in the face of fear, giving you the tools required to walk into any room bulletproof.

If you’re ready to stop white-knuckling through performances and start feeling like yourself again, developing these skills can help. Not by getting rid of fear, but by building a system that works with your brain, not against it.

Sophie Adickes, M.A. Psych, M.M. Vocal Performance, Mental Performance Coach

Sophia Adickes