Mental Skills Coaching for High-Performance Athletes

Mental skills coaching for high-performance athletes is distinct from the services that I provide as a psychotherapist.

Mental skills coaching is goal-driven, action-oriented, and solution-focused. 

Mental skills training and experience is one of the key features that sets my work as a high-performance endurance coach apart from my coaching colleagues. I have had the privilege of spending the past twenty-five years coaching endurance athletes in the US and abroad, including world champions at the Olympic, half, and full Ironman distances. The same strategies and techniques that elevate the mental toughness, focus, and resilience of my athletes are what we put into practice with mental skills coaching. 

Coaching is not psychotherapy, and it is not a replacement for psychotherapy. 

Mental skills coaching includes what is often referred to as psychological skills training: self-talk, relaxation, visualization, and goal setting.

I take a broader view of mental skills training. Drawing from my master's thesis research, we work on developing self-awareness and self-regulation as a route to optimizing athletic performance. We apply practical strategies and techniques within daily training to develop confidence, flexibility, mental toughness, and resilience. 

As your mental skills coach we will discuss your long-term development plan. We will formulate strategies to capitalize on your strengths in races while addressing and working on weaknesses during training. We will work on the specifics of race strategy, fueling, gear selection. We will consider best options for travel and logistics. We will address the delicate balance of training, work, relationships, and family life. And, for some, we will deal with the challenges of injury and the transition into retirement.

As a mental skills coach, I am one member of your high-performance team. That team may only include your primary coach. It may also include others such as a strength coach, nutritionist, massage and physical therapy, and for some, a psychotherapist.

As a mental skills coach, I help you to enhance and optimize the mental side of your athletic performance. Athletes with significant mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, eating disorder, substance abuse, thoughts of self-harm or harming others, should seek the support of an individual therapist.

As a mental skills coach I welcome athletes from all states as well as internationally.

Mental skills coaching sessions are scheduled for thirty-minute or fifty-minute video calls at $150 and $180 respectively. Coaching services are not covered by insurance.

For people living both inside and outside of Colorado, sex and relationship coaching can provide an opportunity to receive guidance, support, and education that is different from psychotherapy, around a range of sex and relationship experiences.

Coaching is not psychotherapy. It is different from psychotherapy in several ways.

In sex and relationship coaching the coach will sometimes take a more directive role. Coaching is often focused on addressing discreet objectives and goals such as developing a better understanding of one’s sexuality, exploring relationship boundaries and structures, dating, and desire.

Therapy is often a longer process than coaching. Although both work toward objectives and goals, in psychotherapy the process is often deeper, drawing connections to broader themes in clients’ relationships and lives.

As with my work in mental skills coaching for high-performance athletes, prospective sex and relationship coaching clients with high-acuity mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, eating disorder, substance abuse, thoughts of self-harm or harming others, should seek the support of a licensed psychotherapist.

As a sex and relationship coach I welcome clients from all states as well as internationally.

Sex and relationship coaching appointments are fifty-minute video calls at a $180 per session. Coaching services are not covered by insurance.