I read a fairly recent post (longer than 120 days old and it suggested I start a new topic, so I did) where a student was struggling with a fear of stalls. I have prepared several students for all kinds of checkrides and stall anxiety is a common thing I see regardless of whether they are preparing for a private, instrument, or commercial checkride. CFI student's however usually ease up a bit when it comes to stalls after they do their required spin training... but then they sometimes become apprehensive when it comes to spins.
Anyway, there are a few things that I have learned about stall anxiety. In some cases the CFI can be to blame, but more often than not the only thing the CFI is at fault for is not identifying the problem. Heck, even the CFI might be apprehensive to stalls. Not because he/she is afraid of stalling, but because he doesn't know how well the student is going to recover.
Entry
Tunnel vision during the stall maneuver seems to be one of the major players that causes stall anxiety. When a student begins the maneuver, they typically begin to focus either straight ahead out the window or fixate on their airspeed indicator. This causes a loss of situational awareness about the three axis. My advice is to keep your head outside and look toward your wing tips for pitch and bank information (in addition to the occasional glance toward the airspeed indicator). If you fixate straight ahead, all you will see is blue sky and will likely loose whatever ground references you had. (Similar things happen in slow flight.) Let me elaborate just a little further...
Power-off stalls are not so much a problem with anxiety as power-on stalls. In a power-off stall, the airplane stalls at a lower pitch angle (same angle of attack due to flap extension) than a power-on stall. Also, because of the idle power setting the airplane needs less rudder input and is less likely to break in one direction or another (less torque, p-factor, and slipstream). Due to the lower pitch angle, the student can still look straight ahead with his eyes outside of the airplane and see some horizon. That little bit of horizon, or a lot of horizon depending on your training airplane, will still give you enough situational awareness (whether you're aware of it or not) to determine pitch and bank without looking at your instruments.
In a power-on stall, you have full power (or close to it if you're in an advanced trainer), high torque, high p-factor, high slipstream, and a higher pitch attitude (flaps retracted this time) than you did in a power-off stall. If you fixate straight ahead of the airplane, all you see is blue sky. You lose all of your ground references. Keep your eyes outside, use your wingtips as a pitch and bank references, and every now and then peek at your airspeed as you approach the stall.
Stall
One big error I see a lot, is that students tend to release back pressure too early as they approach the stall. This gives them a false sense of the buffet. This is especially problematic in aircraft with subtler stall characteristics such as the Diamond DA20. When the airplane stalls, you should have the yoke/stick aft.
Recovery
This one should be pretty common sense, but I'm going to mention it anyway because I see it all the time. Use your rudder. The airplane will typically break in one direction or another after the initial stall. For example, when I had a fleet of C-152s there was one that had a dent on the leading edge of the right wing. I always knew which way that airplane was going to break in a stall. If a wing drops quicker than the other, use opposite rudder to keep the wings level. You don't have to jam on the rudder as if you're doing a leg press. Just use enough rudder pressure to keep the wings level. How will we know if our wings are level? Look outside. Don't fixate on your instruments... assuming you're doing these in VMC and not under the hood.
Last thing I'm going to mention. If you're suddenly anxious about stalls, or any other maneuver for that matter, as you approach your checkride it may not be anxiety associated with a maneuver. You may have checkride jitters. Take a mock checkride with an instructor you've never flown with before to evaluate your readiness for the checkride. Have the new-to-you instructor meet with your primary instructor to discuss where you need to improve your confidence.
Like I said, these are just a few common things I've noticed students have trouble with when they're performing stalls. Hopefully you'll find them helpful.