How do I deal with imposter syndrome before starting a big role?

Ground yourself first with a slow breath or a few seconds of grounding, then pick one specific worry rather than the whole job. Name one concrete piece of evidence you belong there, and add a short round of bilateral stimulation if it helps. Stop if distress climbs past 7/10.

Is it normal to feel like a fraud when you start a new role?

Yes. A 2020 review of 62 studies and over 14,000 people found imposter feelings are common across career stages, not just at the very start. New responsibility is a reliable trigger, since it repeatedly puts your competence up for evaluation.

Why do imposter feelings get louder right before something important?

Researchers describe an "imposter cycle": a new task triggers anxiety, you get through it by over-preparing or a last-minute scramble, then credit the prep or luck instead of your own judgment. The relief never updates the belief, so the cycle restarts.

Can bilateral stimulation actually help with imposter feelings?

No published trial has tested it specifically for imposter feelings yet, so treat it as a supportive practice, not a proven fix. Related research shows eye movements can ease the emotional charge of a distressing thought held in mind, often what a loud fraud feeling is doing.

What if the feeling doesn't ease after a few rounds?

That's a signal to stop, not push harder. Ground yourself, and if distress stays above 7/10 or the feeling seems bigger than this one role, a licensed professional is the safer next step, especially if it traces back further than this new responsibility.

When should I get outside support for imposter feelings?

Consider a professional if the feeling is constant rather than tied to specific moments, if it's bound up with real bias or being underestimated at work, or if it comes with burnout, hopelessness, or thoughts of harming yourself. In crisis, contact 988 (US) or our crisis resources page.

How to deal with imposter syndrome before a big role

To deal with imposter syndrome before a big role, ground yourself first, then name concrete evidence of your competence instead of arguing with the feeling. Keep the target small: one meeting, one first day, not your whole new title. A short round of bilateral stimulation can ease the spike. Stop if distress climbs past 7/10 and won’t settle.

You got the role. Now you’re leading the meeting, signing off on the decision, or walking in on day one with a title that outpaces how capable you feel. A quiet, insistent voice keeps promising that any minute now, everyone will notice the gap.

What’s actually happening when a new role puts imposter feelings front and center?

Psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes first named this pattern in 1978, after watching it repeat across more than 150 high-achieving women they worked with in therapy: real accomplishment sitting right next to a private conviction that it was luck, timing, or charm, never actual ability. It isn’t a diagnosis, and it isn’t rare. A 2020 systematic review in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, pooling 62 studies and more than 14,000 people, found prevalence estimates from 9% to 82% depending on the population and tool used, and linked frequent imposter feelings to worse job performance, lower job satisfaction, and higher burnout.

New responsibility is a natural place for it to fire loudest. Researchers Jaruwan Sakulku and James Alexander describe an imposter cycle: a task or evaluation arrives, anxiety pushes you toward over-preparing or procrastinating, you get through it either way, and then you credit the prep, the deadline pressure, or luck rather than your own judgment. The relief never quite updates the belief, so the next evaluation restarts the whole cycle. A big role hands you a string of first evaluations all at once, exactly the condition that cycle runs on.

If this feeling shows up almost everywhere, not just around new responsibility, it usually has a starting point further back. EMDR’s own theory, the Adaptive Information Processing model, holds that patterns like this usually trace back to earlier experiences stored without being fully processed, according to EMDRIA. Clance and Imes traced this particular pattern to family dynamics that taught you early on to separate achievement from ability. Our deeper guide on why you feel like a fraud goes into where that root tends to start, and our not enough page covers the wider pattern when it travels with this one.

How do you ground yourself before working with the feeling?

Before working with the fraud feeling directly, spend a minute somewhere calmer than the meeting you’re dreading. A slow exhale, feet flat on the floor, naming a few things you can see: that’s simple grounding. It keeps you thinking clearly enough for the next steps to land, instead of arguing with the voice from inside full panic.

Why work with one moment instead of your whole new role?

Pick one specific trigger: the meeting at two o’clock, the first email you send as the person now in charge. “I don’t know if I can run this project yet” is workable. “I don’t belong in this job” is too big to work with directly, and it isn’t actually what’s true. Keep each round short, a few minutes is enough, and resist relitigating your entire career while you’re at it.

What’s your stop point?

If your distress climbs above a 7 out of 10 and doesn’t settle, stop. Ground yourself again, and consider working with a professional rather than pushing through alone, especially if the feeling traces back to something heavier than this particular role.

A short bilateral-stimulation practice for imposter feelings before a big role

With grounding, a small target, and a stop point in place, here’s a short practice pairing bilateral stimulation (BLS), the rhythmic left-right technique at the center of EMDR, with a way of meeting the feeling instead of arguing with it:

Rate it. On a 0–10 scale, how loud is the fraud feeling right now, about this one moment?
Name the exact line. Not “I’m not cut out for this,” but the specific sentence underneath it: “They’re going to realize I only got this because timing worked out.”
Set one piece of real evidence next to it. Not generic reassurance, one concrete fact: the project you actually finished, the specific skill someone hired you for, the call you made that turned out right.
Add bilateral stimulation. Move your eyes smoothly left and right for 20 to 30 seconds, tap your knees or shoulders left-right (the butterfly hug), or use alternating audio tones, while holding the evidence lightly in mind rather than the fear.
Pause and notice. Breathe. Let whatever shifts, a little distance, a fuller memory, happen without forcing it.
Repeat 3 to 5 short rounds, re-rating between each one.

The working theory behind the fourth step: holding a thought in mind while a rhythmic side-to-side task also occupies your attention competes for limited mental space, so the thought tends to surface with less charge afterward. A 2011 study in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders found participants rated a distressing image as noticeably less vivid after eye movements than after simply recalling it, supporting that account.

If you’d rather have the rhythm paced for you, EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, runs the same left-right pattern as a moving on-screen target or alternating tones at app.emease.com. It’s the guided version of the fourth step, not a requirement. Our resource installation exercise walks through a fuller version built for locking in a steadier state. Our primer on feeling confident before a big moment and the “I can handle this” practice are both close companions for the same kind of nerves.

When does this need more than a quick reset?

This practice is built for the ordinary version: nerves before a specific meeting, a title that still feels borrowed, the first weeks of stepping up. Consider more support if the feeling is constant rather than tied to specific moments, shaping decisions like turning down opportunities or staying quiet in every room.

It’s also worth a professional’s help if this is closely tied to real bias or being underestimated at work, where someone familiar with that context matters as much as any coping tool. And if distress during the practice above climbs past 7/10 and won’t settle, that’s a stop sign too. Get support right away if any of this comes bundled with burnout, hopelessness, or thoughts of harming yourself; our crisis resources page is a good place to start, or call or text 988 (in the US).

A new role is supposed to feel a little too big at first. That discomfort is not proof you don’t belong in it. Most days, steadying your ground is smaller than it sounds: one meeting, one piece of real evidence, a few minutes spent finding your footing before you need it.