Sport & Performance Psychology
You spend hours training your body and honing your skills, why not the mental aspects? Don’t struggle on in the field due to lack of endurance or resiliency. A primary outcome is to achieve optimal involvement, performance, and enjoyment in your craft.
Sport & Performance Psychology
Sport and Performance Psychology services involves extending theory and research into the field to educate coaches, athletes, parents, exercisers, fitness professionals, business professionals and performing artists about the psychological aspects of your activity. A primary goal is to facilitate optimal involvement, performance, and enjoyment in sport, exercise and business.
Sessions may involve a combination of individual and or group consulting or counseling depending on your needs. Although there are many specific concepts within applied sport and performance psychology (e.g., goal setting, concentration, motivation, relaxation, imagery), the general goal is to teach mental skills necessary to perform consistently in training and competition, increase adherence to exercise programs, boost performance in business and to help you realize your potential.
Certification as a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC)® demonstrates to you that I have met the highest standards of professional practice, including completing a combination of educational and work requirements, successfully passing a certification exam, agreeing to adhere to ethical principles and standards, and committing to ongoing professional development.
Performance psychology is more than just relaxation exercises. My approach differs because our goal is to increase psychological flexibility and help individuals switch their attention to the relevant task versus internal states, such as anxiety or frustration. Our primary focus together is to enhance your ability to contact the present moment fully and promote thoughts and behaviors that move you closer to your personal values and goals.
In this approach we aren’t always trying to escape discomfort and nervousness but rather understand how to effectively have fun and perform at a high level while acknowledging that we have feelings of discomfort and worry. The presence nervousness or anxiety doesn’t mean we’re going to fail it means we care! We invest significant time and money into our sport and our skills, so of course we want to perform well.
Don’t let your fears, lack of confidence or feelings of inability get in your way of fulfilling your dreams.
My Experience
Leslie Sherlin, PhD is a licensed associate counselor and sport & performance psychology consultant to dozens of athletes, teams and individuals. Dr. Sherlin has had an extensive career in providing patient services, academic research and instruction, and entrepreneurial endeavors in mental health care. He is one of the world’s leading experts and a leader in the research and use of neuroscience for improving human performance. He has led research partnerships with Red Bull North America’s High-Performance Center, USA Track & Field, US military Special Operations Forces, local and federal level law enforcement agencies, Fortune 500 companies and professional teams in multiple sports in many countries. He has published this work in the academic literature and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, Sports Illustrated, CNN, ESPN, CBS, Popular Science, Outdoor Magazine and more.
Dr. Sherlin completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology (2000), Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychology (2003), and PhD in Psychology (2008). In 2013 he completed a PhD re-specialization and post-doctoral fellowship in Sport & Performance Psychology. He completed a PhD in Clinical Pastoral Counseling (2017) and a Master of Arts degree in Professional Counseling with an emphasis in Expressive Arts Therapy (2019). He is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Photography (2022).
Dr. Sherlin is a licensed counselor in the state of Arizona. He is listed in the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology and Mental Training Registry and is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant. He is a National Certified Counselor by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC), certified at the Diplomat level in by the International Board of Quantitative Electroencephalography (QEEG), is Biofeedback Certification International Alliance Board in Biofeedback and Neurofeedback (BCN, BCB). He is certified as an equine certified professional by the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (ECP). He provides services in mental health counseling as well as sport and performance psychology consulting to individuals, families, teams and organizations through his private practice.
In academia, he currently is Assistant Professor of Psychology and the Disability Services Coordinator for Ottawa University Arizona campuses. He is a Senior Doctoral Adjunct Dissertation Chair and Adjunct Faculty at Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, Arizona. He is Adjunct Associate Professor at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Arizona and Adjunct Research Faculty at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona. Previously he was Lead Faculty for the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Associate Dean of Academics at Ottawa University, Arizona. He has served on the board of directors for the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research, the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance and the International Board of Quantitative Electrophysiology in a number of elected positions including the president/chairman.
Beginning in 2000, Dr. Sherlin co-founded his first company, Nova Tech EEG, Inc., a company that continues to operate and provides training, evaluation services and equipment/software for quantitative EEG analysis and imaging. In 2009 he focused his efforts in the domain of athlete and elite performance when he co-founded Neurotopia, Inc (dba SenseLabs). Neurotopia pioneered patented state of the art dry sensor technology and applications for measuring the electroencephalograph in a mobile platform and created psychophysiological algorithms for performance. His team assessed the brains of thousands of professional athletes, Olympians, and Fortune 500 executives to determine how they operated and how they could improve. Using this data, and leveraging the expertise of Sherlin, they designed an effective, engaging, high-performance mobile EEG experience using traditional EEG technologies named Versus and currently distributed by Evoke Neuroscience. He continues to consult to industry leading technology companies around the world.
When not pursuing academic and professional career goals, he is an adult amateur competitive equestrian in the discipline of dressage with his Dutch Warmblood, Electra KF. He is a semi-professional photographer (www.sherlin.photography). He is an instrument rated private pilot and is a PADI scuba diving instructor and co-owner of a retail and training scuba diving store in Chandler, Arizona (www.nolimitsscuba.com).
Reasons for Sport & Performance Psychology Consulting
Stress & Anxiety
Confidence Building
Adherence to Exercise
Coaching Strategies
Attention & Concentration
Competitive Edge
Business Decisions
Reaction Speed
Injury Recovery
Goal Setting
Team Building
Error Resetting
Contact Me
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