Sports mental health focuses on the emotional wellbeing and psychological resilience of athletes and performers. It includes both performance-related challenges (such as motivation, confidence, and focus) and personal experiences that impact athletic identity, such as injury, burnout, anxiety, or systemic pressures.

Unlike traditional sports psychology, which often centers on performance optimization, sports mental health counseling takes a whole-person approach. Therapists address both the external expectations of performance and the internal experiences of stress, identity, and belonging.

Common topics include:

• Balancing athletics with school, work, or relationships

• Coping with injury, recovery, and loss of routine

• Exploring identity and self-worth beyond sport

• Managing pressure, perfectionism, and fear of failure

• Navigating racism, sexism, transphobia, or homophobia in athletic environments

• Transitions out of sport, retirement, or shifting roles within a team

At Resilience, recognize that athletic identity often intersects with race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability. Our team centers anti-oppressive and affirming care, honoring the diverse lived experiences that shape how clients show up in sport and in life.

How We Can Help

We approach athlete mental health through a relational, trauma-informed, and evidence-based lens. Therapy isn’t about “fixing” you; it’s about creating space to reflect, heal, and realign with what matters most to you.

Our therapists draw from modalities such as:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to strengthen self-compassion and values-based decision-making

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to identify and shift unhelpful thought patterns

• Mindfulness-Based Therapy to develop present-moment awareness, emotional regulation, and focus under pressure

• Solution-focused strategies to clarify goals, identify actionable steps, and create momentum toward meaningful change

• Somatic Therapy to help clients reconnect with their bodies, release stored tension, and build safety within physical experience

• Strengths-based approaches to help you recognize and build upon your existing skills, resilience, and inner resources

If you’re looking for a sports mental health therapist in Chicago, our team can help you reconnect with your values, navigate life transitions, and strengthen the connection between mind, body, and purpose.

We invite you to contact us for a free consultation to begin your journey toward healing, self-compassion, and liberation.

You May Be Experiencing

Whether you’re a student athlete, a professional competitor, or someone who loves their sport but feels burnt out by its demands, you might notice that the pressures of performance extend far beyond the game itself. You may be:

• Coping with racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia within athletic environments

• Experiencing anxiety, perfectionism, or loss of motivation

• Feeling intense pressure to perform or a fear of letting others down

• Feeling isolated, tokenized, or unseen in predominantly white or cis-heteronormative spaces

• Grieving a transition out of sport or the loss of a once-stable routine

• Questioning your identity or self-worth outside of sport

• Recovering from an injury or adjusting to changes in your body

• Struggling to balance academics, work, relationships, and training

Therapy offers space to slow down, reconnect with your body, and remember that you are more than your performance. Our goal is to help you build the emotional tools and internal grounding to move through challenges with resilience, clarity, and self-compassion.

Therapists