AbstractWe present and illustrate the major components of cognitive therapy for performance anxiety, focusing on the performance fears of a client treated with a protocol designed for social phobia. The basic supposition of cognitive theory is that a client's thoughts and beliefs about situations maintain distressing feelings, such as anxiety. Changing these beliefs involves detection and disputation of anxiety‐provoking thoughts, as well as testing of these thoughts through exposure to feared situations. Through a process of identifying existing beliefs about performance situations and challenging these beliefs, clients can gain a more realistic and less anxiety‐producing perspective on performance tasks. Specific techniques, along with common difficulties and potential solutions, are presented in a detailed case study. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol/In Session.