What kind of performer are you?
When it comes to performance, your brain is like a muscle, and therapy is one way to “train it”.
You wouldn’t wait until your body breaks down to start exercising. So why wait until burnout, nerves, tension or low motivation impact on your peformance to train your mind? Peak performance starts with a well-trained mind. The more you train it, the stronger it becomes.
At Mind Lift Psychology, we offer performance psychology sessions from Spring Hill, Brisbane to assist all types of performers. What kind of performer are you?
Academic
Noticing it’s hard to retain new learnt information? Noticing that you go “blank” in exams
Have exam anxiety?
Feel restricted in accessing your logical thinking and problem solving skills?
Learn to quiet the mind and reduce pre-exam and public speaking nerves. Improve your attention and focus so you can study effectively. Enhance critical thinking with brain training and mental techniques.
Arts
Getting stage fright? Finding it hard to access your creative thinking or creative skills? Struggling with your pre-performance routine?
We can help facilitate effective mental preparation for a performance. Access the part of your brain involved in creative thinking and creative skills. Learn how to calm performance-related emotions.
Meditation
Finding it hard to quiet the mind, find stillness, maintain focus and minimise distracting thoughts? Want to reduce mind chatter?
We enjoy techniques such as mindfulness to assist in improving your ability to meditate and optimising your meditation practice.
We offer a mindfulness group. Find out more here.
Sport
Feeling like you let the team down? Finding it hard to manage pre-competition nerves? Noticing that you train well but it’s not reflected in your competition performance? Can’t quite crack it to the next level? Feel you’re losing that competitive edge?
We can help improve your mental fitness to increase your physical performance in the gym and competitive training. High performance techniques are not exclusively reserved for the elites. Recreational and amateur athletes who are looking to improve their mental skills and experience of their sport can also benefit.
Work
Feeling it’s hard to minimise distracting thoughts? Finding it’s hard to multitask? Feeling overwhelmed at work?
We can help you to maximise executive functioning skills. Teach you how to avoid burnout and mental exhaustion. Help optimise mental abilities required to be effective in your professional environment.
What does Performance Psychology involve?
Building mental toughness
Mental toughness refers to an individual’s ability to stay focused, resilient and composed
under pressure. It involves a combination of mental abilities that help individuals push
through obstacles, help maintain motivation and perform at a high level despite difficulties.
Different models of mental toughness exist. Most of them tend to focus on these key
attributes:
Self-belief
People with high mental toughness tend to have an internal locus of control and they
believe their actions and influence outcomes. This belief leads to increase in confidence,
helping individuals maintain their motivation.
Emotional Regulation and Handling Challenges
Mental toughness is underpinned by emotional resilience, this is the ability to experience
and process emotions like frustration, anxiety and fear without letting it impact
performance. As a result of this, they are less likely to be overwhelmed by stress or failure.
Attention Regulation
Mental toughness is also related to the ability of an individual to manage attention and stay
focused on their goals even under pressure. Staying focused in the present moment
increases performance and helps prevent overwhelming thoughts.
Success Mindset
This helps individuals pursue and achieve their goals by focusing on positive thinking,
problem solving and resilience during adverse situations.
Context Intelligence
This is the ability to perceive, understand and adapt to a specific environment of situation
you are in. It involves being aware of external factors that might impact your outcomes and
adjusting your approach accordingly.
Optimistic Thinking
Having a positive mindset and believing in the possibility of success and help maintain hope
in adverse situations. Optimistic thinking is the idea of focusing on potential opportunities
and growth rather than on failures
Cultivating a Growth Mindset
Growth mindset is the belief that abilities, intelligence and talent are not fixed traits but they can be developed and improved through determination, effort, learning and consistency.
Developing a growth mindset requires the following:
- Acknowledging and embracing imperfections
- Being open to new experiences and challenging yourself
- Learning from criticism
- Being process driven and not outcome focused
- Adapting a positive self-talk
- Being surrounded by likeminded people.
How do we work with performance?
Treatment plans are tailored to you and incorporate mental skills and techniques depending on the nature of your goals.
Mental skills and techniques include:
- mental imagery
- resilience training
- confidence building
- values-aligned actions
- emotion regulation
- attention training
- improving self-talk
- managing and accepting setbacks
- purposeful goal setting
- managing relationships (eg. team, colleagues, peers)
- biofeedback training
Frequently Asked Questions
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What does a performance psychologist do?
A performance psychologist helps people strengthen the mental skills needed to perform well under pressure. This includes improving focus, confidence, emotional regulation, motivation, resilience, and the ability to recover from setbacks. We work with athletes, students, artists, professionals and anyone wanting to optimise their mindset, overcome performance blocks, or reach the next level in their field.
How can performance psychology help athletes?
Performance psychology supports athletes by improving the mental side of training and competition. This can include managing pre‑competition nerves, building confidence, sharpening focus, improving self‑talk, developing resilience, and learning how to perform consistently under pressure. Whether you’re an elite athlete or someone who simply loves their sport, mental skills training can help you feel more in control, more prepared, and more connected to why you compete.
Do you offer performance coaching for students?
Yes. We support students who experience exam anxiety, difficulty concentrating, trouble retaining information, or performance blocks during assessments and presentations. Performance psychology can help students improve focus, manage nerves, strengthen study habits, and access clear thinking during high‑pressure moments like exams or oral presentations.
What happens in a performance psychology session?
Sessions are tailored to your goals. We start by understanding the challenges you’re facing and the situations where performance feels difficult. From there, we work with evidence‑based mental skills such as attention training, emotion regulation, mental imagery, confidence building, resilience training, values‑aligned actions, and strategies for managing setbacks. The aim is to help you feel more grounded, capable and mentally prepared in the moments that matter most.
Do you offer online sessions?
Yes. We offer online performance psychology sessions for clients across Queensland and Australia. Online sessions are a flexible and effective way to access support, especially for athletes, students, performers or professionals with busy schedules.
