Mental performance work for high school, college, and pro athletes across team and individual sports. Drilled, not lectured.
Clinically reviewed by Geoffrey Peal, Psy.D., Licensed Psychologist · Updated October 2026
The athletes we work with already train their body for hours a week. Sport psychology is the same kind of training, for the part of the game between your ears.
That means concrete, repeatable skills: how you walk to the line, what you say to yourself between points, what you do with a bad call, how you recover from a turnover, how you sleep the night before a championship.
At FPA Performance, every athlete works directly with a licensed sports psychologist, in person at our St. Petersburg or Trinity office or by telehealth anywhere in Florida. We see athletes from all over Tampa Bay. When pressure shows up as performance anxiety, the yips, or a confidence slide after an injury, we build a plan for the skill and check whether something clinical is sitting underneath it.
Basketball, baseball, softball, football, golf, swimming, track and field, distance running, soccer, hockey, volleyball, wrestling, tennis, plus a long tail of others. Our psychologists are active members of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).
The kid with the better mental game wins the close ones.
Want to see how we think about it? The FPA Performance blog covers burnout, perfectionism, the yips, motivation, and more.
Common signs an athlete would benefit from sport psychology work.
Looks elite in practice. Disappears when the lights come on.
A single error becomes a quarter. A bad inning becomes a bad week.
Sleep wrecked, stomach in knots, hands shaking warm-ups.
Physically cleared but not playing the same. Hesitation, fear.
Used to love it. Now dreads practice. Considering quitting.
Communication, role clarity, the bench, parent-coach dynamics.
Every athlete leaves with concrete, drillable skills. No vague self-help, no inspirational quotes.
A repeatable sequence - physical and mental - that gets you into the right state before every game, set, or attempt.
Train your focus like a muscle. Pick your cue, hold it, recover it when it slips.
Identify what you actually say to yourself under pressure. Rewrite the lines that cost you points.
Use mental reps to install the skill, the situation, and the response - before you arrive.
A 5-second reset for after any miss, error, or bad call. Stops one rep from becoming five.
The fundamentals nobody trains. We make them part of the plan.
Sport-specific protocols for the mental side of your game - high school through college.
Two licensed psychologists, both active members of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).
Featured on ABC Action News and 10 WTSP Tampa Bay discussing mental health and pressure in Olympic competition. More than twenty years as a competitive gamer, so he bridges traditional sport and esports.
An ultrarunner himself. Featured on the Florida Trailrunners Podcast (Episode 65) talking ultra running and sports psychology. Specializes in distance sports, ball sports, and performing arts.
Both a sports psychologist and a mental performance coach teach mental skills: routines, focus, self-talk, imagery, and how to reset after a mistake. The difference shows up when the problem is bigger than a skill gap.
A licensed psychologist can also assess and treat clinical issues that show up in athletes: anxiety, depression, disordered eating, fear after an injury, and adjustment problems after a cut, a transfer, or a season-ending loss. The work is confidential under the professional and ethical standards that govern licensed psychologists.
Most important, we know when a performance problem is really a clinical one. An athlete who freezes in big moments may need a better routine, or may be having panic attacks. We can tell the difference, and we can treat what we find.
Performance work is fee-for-service. Sometimes an athlete also meets criteria for a diagnosable condition, such as an adjustment disorder after an injury, a cut, a transfer, or a season-ending loss, or anxiety or depression. When that happens, the focus can shift from performance improvement to insurance-based therapy if it is clinically appropriate. We'll talk through your options before the first session.
In person at either office, or telehealth for athletes anywhere in Florida.
Sessions are confidential and tailored to the sport, level, and athlete. Most work begins with a 50-minute consult.
More from our psychologists on the mental side of sport. See all posts.