Meet Eric
I am a former athlete who never truly benefited from the surface level mental advice I received from coaches. While they all meant well, I only spiraled worse into overthinking, anxiety, anger issues and loss of enjoyment and the game I loved became a burden. My goal today is to make sure athletes have access to researched backed, practical, and actual beneficial training for their psychology. My clinical training in mental health allows me to dive deep into the mind of the athlete. I don’t tell athletes what to do or what to think, but rather help them see how unproductive their thoughts and behaviors are for them. I provide them the runway to begin the process of change in order to perform with freedom, composure, and actionable confidence. I have worked with youth athletes to Olympic and Professional athletes. Regardless of age or level I am able to tailor complex aspects of psychology and make them as digestible and usable as possible. Athletes who work with me are expected to train similar to their training in other areas.
Development of mental strength requires persistent observation, learning, application and adjustment over and over again. As a competitive golfer myself, I experiment, implement, and learn more from myself and how to help my clients. I do not have a “blue print” as every single person is different with a unique experience. I allow my clients to take the lead role in their psychology while I shepherd them in the right direction. I have worked with hundreds of clients and parents, dozens of coaches, and other clinicians in my field. Each one has taught me something unique to continue to apply to the next. Each day I continue to grow and improve in my own work to provide athletes the best possible services to allow them to get out of their own way and perform closer to their capability.
Company Mission Statement
Enhance athletic performance and mental well-being through tailored psychological services promoting mindfulness, resilience, growth, acceptance, focus, and confidence.
How it Works
The process of improving one’s mindset can be quite confusing. Each and every client’s experiences will differ depending on their needs. Many potential clients inquire about how mental training works and what do sessions look like? Below you will see an idea of the systematic process Eric will walk his client through to meet their goals:
- Step 1: Personal and sport background information is gathered to gain a holistic perspective of the individual. Exploring goals, strengths, weaknesses and potential barriers is all discussed in the first session or two.
- Step 2: Psycho-Education. Helping the client achieve a basic understanding of how the brain functions and more specifically how their brain functions is the first step in helping the client become the expert of their own psychology. Eric will layout the basic or complex understanding of the human brain, why it can sometimes work against you and what is happening when you are under pressure, get angry, overthink, dwell on the past and more. Eric has concluded over the years that the better the athlete understands how the brain works the more easily they can help it work for them.
- Step 3: Increase the ability for the athlete to improve their awareness with mindfulness-based strategies such as meditation, journaling, self assessments.
- Step 4: Become aware of what their common distractions are keeping them from playing freely in the present moment. Some common flaws in performance psychology are anxiety, perfectionism, high expectations, fixed mindset, needing to validate, hating mistakes, loss aversion, fear of failure. Diving deep into the history of the athletes’ flaws and helping reform a new relationship with each one holding them back ignites the process for change to begin.
- Step 5: This step involves using a multitude of skills and teachings to help the athlete detach from their mental flaws and distractions in the past and the future. Every current and former athlete knows that multitasking with any information that is not helpful or relevant can inhibit performance to some degree. Using the right tool at the right time can help the athlete to get back to the present with a clear intention on what they “want to do” and not what they “don’t want” to happen.
- Step 6: The hardest but most important step is helping athletes learn the power of acceptance. Multiple studies show the key to elite performance under pressure is not deep breathing, positive self-talk and confidence, it is ACCEPTANCE. Here is where athletes will learn what acceptance really means in this context and why the brain loves it when we need and want to perform well.
- Step 7: Once acceptance is applied in an authentic way the brain will now be open to clear intentions given in the present moment. The present moment is where the brain allows for the best communication between the brain and body as shown in brain wave data. Every person can agree they feel and perform better when the only task they are focused on is the one happening right here, right now.
- Step 8: Learning to perform freely. The best feeling for all athletes. This step explores what it feels and looks like for each athlete to perform freely. When an athlete is protecting against mistakes, trying to over control their body movement, and making poor decisions, they are likely not performing in a free and athletic mind.
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