Counselling for mental performance
I offer counselling for mental performance for athletes, performers, students and professionals navigating high-pressure environments, including sports, music, theatre, dance, academics and the workplace.
Sessions are available in person in Kitsilano and online across BC and Saskatchewan.
Learning to manage stress and anxiety can help you direct more of your energy towards what matters most.
By taking care of your mental well-being alongside your performance goals, you can create more space to focus, grow and excel.
Who I work with
I work with a range of athletes, including those who are competing, dealing with injury. I work with those who are just retiring from sporor those that have long been finished but resonate with the identify of high performance.
While the settings differ, the questions underneath them can be similar: how to perform when it counts, how to recover, and who you are when the performance stops.
Common concerns folks bring to this work:
pressure, nerves and a body that will not settle before a big day
perfectionism and self-criticism
injury, and the return to play
retirement from sport, and identity after it
team dynamics, conflict and communication
constructive feedback, and how to take it in
goal setting, motivation and burnout
balancing training or work with relationships and the rest of life
How I work
Performance lives in the body as much as in the head, so we build awareness of what your nervous system is doing under pressure, and what helps it return to a state where you can do your best work.
From there we look at the story around the performance: the expectations you carry, the beliefs about what a result says about you, and the values underneath why you do this at all. I draw on ACT, narrative therapy, mindfulness and somatic approaches, and I adjust them to the way you learn.
Sessions vary. We might work through a specific competition, practice a pre-performance routine, talk through a difficult season, laugh, or celebrate a win.
Common questions about counselling for mental performance
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Mental performance counselling helps people manage performance anxiety, perfectionism, self-doubt and difficulties with motivation or concentration. It also provides support for navigating setbacks, building confidence and developing a healthier relationship with achievement and success.
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No. Many people seek mental performance counselling because they want to manage pressure more effectively, strengthen their confidence or improve their relationship with achievement. You do not need to be experiencing a mental health condition to benefit from psychological support.
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Yes. Counselling helps you understand what contributes to performance anxiety and develop strategies to manage it. This may include working with anxious thoughts, physical symptoms of stress and the expectations you place on yourself before important events.
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Mental performance counselling overlaps with sport psychology but is not limited to sport. I work as a counsellor, so we can address performance alongside anything else in your life that affects it.
Meet with me
Finding a good fit and relationship with a counsellor is a part of the process; Booking a consult is a low-pressure way of meeting to see how we might work together.