Therapy for Athletes
Growing up as a competitive athlete can teach us discipline, resilience and focus—but it can also blur the line between self-worth and performance, body image and results.
When an athletic career ends, we can often find ourselves trying to navigate completely unfamiliar territory. What we may have relied on for markers of success and personal satisfaction may now be gone. What remains is often grief, relief, confusion and a loss of identity.
My own experiences leaving competitive athletics led me to become a therapist — not just to help others heal but to be the resource I needed when I was training and transitioning away from competition. Today, I work with individuals who are navigating similar experiences.
If you’re a former athlete, we may focus on helping you recover from perfectionism, anxiety or burnout and reconnect with yourself outside of your athletic career. We will help you gain insight into the patterns that once supported your success in athletics but may now be causing distress—like self-criticism, people-pleasing behaviors or constant striving. Together, we will transform the strengths that helped you succeed in athletics, so these strengths can serve you during the next stage of your life.
If you’re a current athlete, our work will primarily focus on building up an identity that is not tied to your performance. We will focus on helping you maintain mental wellness amid a high-pressure environment.
Our work is collaborative and supportive. The goal isn’t to “fix” you because you are not broken. Instead, we want to make sense of what’s happening inside you, to rebuild trust in yourself and create a life that feels meaningful and fulfilling beyond the competitive arena.
While working together, we will explore and help you navigate challenges, including but not limited to:
Emotional & Identity Transition
Together, we may explore how to:
Process the loss of athletic identity and redefine yourself outside of the arena.
Grieve the end of competition while exploring what fulfillment looks like now.
Navigate who you are without your sport — finding purpose, direction, and meaning outside of athletics.
Mental Health & Stress
Manage anxiety and uncertainty about the future.
Understand and reduce performance anxiety.
Understand your emotions, the role they play in your life and emotion regulation.
Work through perfectionism, fear of failure and self-critical thought patterns.
Address symptoms of depression, burnout or loss of motivation.
Relationships & Communication
Shift dynamics with parents, partners, teammates or coaches.
Learn new ways of communicating outside of the athlete/coach model.
Build healthy relationships in and outside of your sport.
Body Image & Relationship with Food
Heal body image concerns after years in a performance or aesthetic-focused culture.
Relearn how to listen to your body and trust it, as well as give it what it needs.
Explore intuitive eating to reconnect with nourishment and self-care.
Help current athletes maintain a healthy body image and relationship with food in aesthetically focused sports.
Building Life Beyond Athletics
Develop new coping tools for stress and transition.
Explore new routines, passions and ways of setting goals that feel fulfilling.
Find balance between physical activity, rest, career and relationships.
Processing Trauma & Stressful Experiences
Address past experiences that may still feel unresolved — such as injuries, high-pressure performances or difficult coaching dynamics.
Heal from emotional, relational or physical trauma that impacts self-worth or trust in your body.
Use EMDR and other trauma-informed approaches to reduce distress and help you move forward with greater freedom and resilience.
Whether you’re an athlete currently competing, recently retired or processing your time competing years later, our work together stems from the unique language of athletics and will equip you with the tools to find success within yourself. Healing as an athlete is not about leaving your athletic identity behind. It’s about integrating the parts of that identity and learning to direct them toward a life that feels aligned and whole.