Counseling
Have your usual coping skills stopped working?
Help for anxiety and stress management for athletes and performers who want to get back on track.
As an athlete or performer progression is key to your existence.
You have honed your skills since elementary school or younger and you gain confidence from what you can do. You enjoy the process, testing yourself and the many experiences and relationships your sport or performance domain has afforded you. But this new challenge has knocked you off your feet and is all encompassing.
Every issue is a performance issue.
Maybe it is an injury, a new school or team, being cut, changes in your personal life or changes due to the coronavirus, but something is different. Your usual coping skills have stopped working and you can’t seem to sort it all out. The weight of the pain and stress is taking its toll. Your mind is constantly running through the options and no one seems to understand how important this is. And even if they do it’s little solace to the constant chatter of your mind, exhaustion, and general uneasiness that is your existence. The hard work outs, early wake ups, meal plans and training sessions seem like nothing compared to how you are feeling now.
You wish you could go back in time.
You wish for the “easy days” of giving every ounce of what you have to your training. You thought you could handle it alone and it would pass or you would figure it out, but it’s been awhile and it’s still affecting you. The pain, numbness and disconnect from what you know has been going on for too long. It’s not healthy and you are ready to feel different.
You don’t have to go it alone.
Hi I’m Erin and I specialize in the skills and issues of elite youth athletes and performers. As a licensed counselor I help you not only weather tough situations but come out better on the other side.
I can help you increase your awareness to your inner world and learn to better choose your reaction to what life throws at you. I believe that everyone has it in them to make the changes they seek. We will work together to find your strengths and emphasize them to the max. This helps when change feels too hard. You don’t have to feel better to change but it sure helps when you do.
Let's hack your mind using your body.
I teach relaxation skills including biofeedback that can really help you hack your body and mind to transition into healing. Once you find some distance from your overwhelming thoughts and learn to work with big feelings, peace, productivity and joy really can have a foundational role in your life.
Process, evaluate, adapt.
With a non-judgmental partnership, caring support and practice, you can move forward in life with clarity, find peaceful moments again and have the skills to navigate the things that come up. If you are ready to work through it, message me to get started so you can get back on track. I’m with you, and you can do this!
About Online Counseling & Teletherapy
Licensed in Maryland (Annapolis) and Montana (Bozeman).
With teletherapy, generally speaking, you can see any counselor licensed in your state, which helps expand options outside of your living area. I work with individuals currently living in Montana and Maryland. For more information about teletherapy procedures check out my FAQ’s.
Maryland license number: LC10116
Montana license number: BBH-LCPC-LIC-30835
Topics addressed.
Anxiety. Anxiety is just one aspect of physiological arousal regulation (think energy and focus). You might call it worry and it might feel more more focused inward on thoughts you can't let go of, feeling unsettled, over tired or finding it hard to sleep. I approach wellness through the lens of focus. Its not so much about forcefully getting rid of the anxieties, but learning to be less caught up in them so you can better choose your focus in meaningful moments.
Stress. Stress is similar to anxiety but can be seen more in reaction to an event. It may include anxiety. I generally approach stress from multiple sides; attending to the body and physiology using relaxation, meditation and biofeedback among other things, attending to the thoughts as discussed with anxiety, and attending to situation by taking action that alights with your goals and values.
Boundaries/Codependency. Codependency is a set of characteristics that often include feeling responsible for others happiness or feelings and wanting to help others to the extent that it hurts you. I work from the idea that it really is care and genuine concern that helps people stay is situations that end up not being ultimately respectful to themselves and can even help keep other person from making progress. It may seem like you are keeping the peace at the moment but in the long term it may keep the other person from taking steps to improve their own life. That genuine care and concern can be a powerful place to work from when it starts to be felt toward yourself as well.
Approaches I like to use.
Acceptance commitment therapy. One small piece of ACT is making room to experience hard things. Everyone is different but, sometimes no matter how hard you try it doesn’t work for you to stop or change a thought. ACT helps us make room for the things that come up AND focus on living our best life. I have worked with people of all ages who find this approach a great starting point for working with themselves as they make changes in their mental approach. ACT can also be very action oriented which can appeal to athletes and the performance minded.
Cognitive behavioral therapy. In CBT Thoughts, feelings and actions influence each other to create our experience. I have worked with countless youth in how the things we say to ourself influence emotions and ultimately what we do and how we experience the world. And an equally powerful step is seeing how your actions can influence thoughts. For example doing things that you are proud of builds confidence. Understanding how thoughts feeling and actions interact for you can be a game changer.
Mindfulness meditation. I utilize the practical concepts of mindfulness, calling it focus, to teach skills around learning to choose your focus no matter whats going on in your head or in the game. I also utilize more traditional aspects of mindfulness like meditations to practice outside of sport. I have helped break down this seemingly big and abstract buz word for many young people over the years and use mindfulness skills in almost every aspect of my own life from sport to work presentations to parenting.
Skills I teach.
I often start with some foundational skills as we begin to work together. These skills are things that most people I work with find useful no matter their situation and when built up over time greatly strengthen ones ability to discern and then act on areas of pain emotionally speaking. Over time these skills fuel productivity and peacefulness even after your have graduated counseling.
Awareness. Its all about stepping back slightly and seeing how your thoughts feelings and actions interact. When you notice you are upset- ask what is my reaction? What was I thinking before I felt this way? Or, how do I feel now that I did that?
Getting in touch with the breath. Breathing is something we do automatically yet it is a hack to our physiological regulation. Or put another way- regulating our breathing in a certain way can help activate the relaxation response which is opposite the fight or flight response. Often stress and worry can put us into that fight or flight state more often than we think leaving up stressed, fuzzy mentally and disconnected among other things.
Biofeedback. Biofeedback takes breathing practice to a whole new level. It actually uses a sensor (ear clip, chest hr monitor like for workouts etc.) to see the effect of your breath on your physiology so you can learn in real time to “relax”.
Meditation. I utilize mindfulness meditation to practice loosening the hold of intense thoughts and feelings as well as learning to listen to yourself and what is important to you. I also believe in not only sitting meditation but moving meditation and seeing it as a way of thinking and not only a sitting activity.