The initial session is 1.5 hours in length. Typically 1 hour is dedicated to understanding your needs and goals and discussing a plan of action to help you reach those goals. The first hour aims to acquire background knowledge about the road-block to optimal performance you are facing, your background, and what drives you in your sport or performance area. The last 30 minutes is spent building your self-awareness of the psychological road-block you are facing, and/or introducing a specific mental skill to address the challenges it presents.

You don’t need to prepare formally for the initial session. Some people like to make a list of things they would like to talk about and we can discuss these things in the initial session.

I recognize doing things for the first time can be challenging. Remember that I want the best for you. It is true that some people feel more comfortable talking about things than others; however, I have much experience helping people feel comfortable and relaxed sharing their thoughts and feelings and I’m sure we can find a way of doing things that puts you at ease.

I customize every progress plan to meet your specific needs and goals. Most individuals choose to purchase a package of 8 or 12 hours of consultation time. These package hours can include a mix of profiling sessions, training or competition observations, and one-to-one consultations and review. Of course, the more time and energy you spend working on your mental skills, the greater the potential for improvement. So it is clear in terms of your expectations, I will discuss your bench marks for progress in your initial session based on your needs, goals, and the number of sessions you can commit to.

Sometimes it is helpful to watch an athlete compete to help the consultant understand the athlete’s sport and competitive environment. The needs of each athlete are different so observing competitive events or training sessions depends on what we discuss during our sessions.

Confidentiality of your information is of utmost importance to us and will not be passed to anyone without your permission (unless it is a rare extreme risk situation which I will mention in our initial session). Most of my clients, find it helpful to let their coach or parent know they are working with a sport psychologist and share the key strategies they are working on so that their number one supporters can help to reinforce these new skills in training and competition. This is also something we can discuss in the initial session.