I’ve worked with athletes who can run faster, lift heavier, and train harder than anyone — but still crumble under pressure. Why? Because the body doesn’t care how skilled you are if your nervous system is in survival mode. The Physiology of Pressure When an athlete’s stress...
I often tell my Calgary clients: comparison is the thief of confidence. But for kids growing up in competitive sports, comparison is everywhere — in scores, rankings, highlights, and social media. And it’s exhausting. The Hidden Cost of Comparison When athletes constantly measure themselves against others, their self-worth...
As a coach, I’ve noticed how the tension on the bench among athletes shifts. If the coaches or other adults are too intense and focused on winning, the athletes become tense. They make more mistakes, they talk negatively and criticize their teammates more. They pick up...
As a coach, I’ve seen it many times. An extremely talented athlete with incredible potential, shattered by a serious injury. They’ve put so much time and energy into being an athlete, that they have built their entire identity on their sport. But when that’s gone,...
I grew up in a sports family. My dad never missed a game, and I remember scanning the stands to find his face — more than I watched the scoreboard. Even as an adult and psychologist, that memory stays with me. Because kids don’t just look...
I’ll never forget a teenage hockey player I worked with a few years ago. He’d just been cut from a rep team, and his parents were devastated. But he wasn’t. “It sucks,” he told me, “but I know I’ll be okay.” That single sentence perfectly captured...
When parents tell me their child “just doesn’t seem to be having fun anymore,” I always pause before I answer. Because I’ve heard that sentence hundreds of times in my Calgary practice, and what it usually means is: the spark has gone out of play. But here’s...
Learning to Have Your Own Back Let me be honest — I didn’t learn self-compassion from a book or a workshop first. I learned it after running myself into the ground. There was a time when no achievement felt good long enough. I'd finish something important...
If you’ve ever felt an unexpected wave of emotion during a therapy session—whether sadness, anger, anxiety, or shame—you may have experienced a trigger. Understanding what are emotional triggers in therapy can help you make sense of these reactions and use them as a powerful tool...
Emotional triggers can hijack your thoughts, flood your body with stress, and lead to reactions you later regret. Learning how EFT helps emotional triggers can empower you to respond instead of react, creating more calm, balance, and control in your daily life. Emotional Freedom Techniques...