Read articles, stories, and announcements about the activities and achievements of the Center for Sport Psychology and Athlete Mental Health's faculty, staff, and students.
The Society for Sport, Exercise, & Performance Psychology, APA Division 47, Cornerstone Committee has selected Stephanie Barrett as the recipient of the 2022 Society for Sport, Exercise, & Performance Psychology Dissertation Award. This award recognizes outstanding student research that...
Derek's study, The Effects of Coach-Created Motivational Climate on Teamwork Behaviors, explored the relationship between the environments coaches create and teamwork behavior. Specifically, how task-involving and ego-involving climates related to teams: understanding of their purpose...
Jessica Renteria, who is in her first year in the counseling/sport psychology doctoral program, was recently elected to a four-year term for the USA Gymnastics Board of Directors. Our congratulations to Jessica on this incredible accomplishment! ...
A list of the world’s top researchers was just published and Dr. Petrie was one of three faculty members from the UNT Psychology department to receive this honor. Dr. Petrie is among the most cited researchers within his specialty area throughout his career. To read more, check out UNT’s news...
It is with great excitement that we share that Megan Drew’s thesis project was selected by the Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology, APA Division 47, Cornerstone Committee for the 2021 Thesis Award! This award recognizes “outstanding student research that has the greatest...
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery. Their senseless killings are only four of the countless racial injustices that have taken place in the history of this country. We, the Center for Sport Psychology and Performance Excellence, acknowledge the pain and suffering that...
When we work with athletes and teams, we often ask them that question…what is your why? We do so to help them find meaning again in what they are doing, to reconnect with what motivates them internally, to possibly make different choices in what they choose to do…it can be easy in a busy,...
Even physically distanced, we can listen to music. Although music can spark many different emotions, we often just have it on in the background, not fully attending to or engaging with it. For this Mindfulness Monday, we invite you to bring yourself fully to a song or piece of music of your...
On Wednesday, we looked at how expressive writing can help us work through our thoughts and feelings in constructive ways and lead us to feeling better physically and psychologically. Today, we want to introduce a variant of that process, something that also may be healing, but also just simply...
Expressive writing is a form of communicating our inner thoughts and feeling that has been pioneered by social psychologist Dr. James Pennebaker. Through scientific study, Pennebaker and colleagues have demonstrated how the process of expressing our feelings, more so than describing what has...
As we continue to shelter in place and the effects of the virus continue to ripple outward, we may experience higher levels of stress and an increasing potential for the people closest to us to be effected, either directly or indirectly by the virus. These circumstances could include becoming...
For some, the idea of self-compassion can seem a little odd…like a shoe that does not quite fit. But, when we work with athletes, we frame this idea from the perspective of becoming your own best teammate, which seems to fit perfectly.
Even if you have never played sports, you have...
David Kessler is an expert on grief and dying and has applied his work to what we currently are going through. Kessler defines grief as “the death of something, a death of a loved one, a marriage, a relationship, a job loss” and believes that we are now experiencing a collective loss in our...
As we discussed before, sleep is one of the pillars of health. Yet, for many of us, sleep also is something that can be hard to achieve…at least as much, or at the quality, we want. With increasingly busy schedules, caring for children, work-life imbalance, interruptions of normal sport...
Every day there seems to be something new we are being asked to manage, navigate, cope with…perhaps from work, school, family, or just what is going on around us in our society. And, in these moments, we may have thoughts and feelings and even physical sensations that can seem overwhelming. We...
We are living in stressful and uncertain times…new demands, new situations, and new emotions, such as fear or grief. Yet, with a solid foundation of health, we will be better able to cope and function, perform and even thrive in this new “normal.” This foundation is based on four key pillars: 1...
Last Monday we helped you connect to your environment in a present-focused state. Today, we will go over benefits of writing down thoughts and feelings.
Adults have between 50,000 and 70,000 thoughts per day. Although most are filtered out or do not become part of our conscious awareness...
For athletes, exercise (or physical training) is just part of their lives…although it differs a bit by sport, athletes eat, breathe, live their workouts. Not only does it prepare them to be their physical, technical, and strategic best when they compete, it also can give a general boost to...
For athletes, routines are a key part of their success…whether that’s in how they train/practice (what they do each day), how they fuel their bodies, or how they prepare themselves to compete. Their routines define what they will do each day, what’s important to them…they provide direction and...
In sports, and in our work with athletes, we talk a lot about controllables vs. uncontrollable. We want athletes to learn how to pay attention to, and focus their energy on, the things over which they have some control (and can do something about). Great athletes understand that things like...
In Friday’s tip, we discussed how being outside is good for our mental health and we want you to do so in ways that are safe and socially responsible! Today, we are going to build off the idea of getting outside by integrating mindfulness into this activity. Here is simple mindfulness exercise...
Yesterday, I was doing my weekly trip to the grocery story…physically distancing and being careful…when I overheard a woman talking to the cashier as she was checking out ‘I have not been out of my house for two weeks now.’ I thought…two weeks??? I knew right then I wanted to write about...
Kelzie Beebe traveled with the UNT Track and Field team to the University of Houston for the Houston G5 & Super 22 Invitational. The men’s and women’s teams each finished in the Top 7 against very competitive fields. See more here: ...
Kelzie Beebe traveled with the UNT Track and Field to Texas A&M on January 17th for the Ted Nelson Invitational. The men’s and women’s teams had successful outings. For more information visit:...
Dr. Trent Petrie, the Director of our Center for Sport Psychology, shared his insight on weight pressures experienced by male athletes with the Washington Post. “For a lot of these young men, there’s more desire to become big and lean, as opposed to just become big,” Petrie said. “So there’s a...
