SPORTS PSYCHIATRY

Sports Psychiatry

Fast, private, and always in your corner.

Competing at any real level takes an enormous mental and cognitive toll, the pressure of performing on demand, the split-second decisions, the weight of a season riding on one moment. That load is every bit as real as the physical one, even though it’s far less visible and far less measured.

I grew up playing sports. I love them, the competition, the discipline, the identity they give a person at every level from Little League to elite competition.

Based in Salt Lake City, I’ve also had a front-row seat to major international competitions hosted here, and watching that level of competition up close has only deepened my appreciation for what elite performers carry. As a Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, I’ve treated hundreds upon hundreds of student athletes, watching firsthand how closely mental health and athletic performance are tied together.

Sports psychiatry, done well, addresses that whole picture, not just clearing an athlete to compete, but helping them actually perform better, and helping them recover when a competition doesn’t go their way. Even when you don’t win, the sting of defeat can be lessened, and you can be ready for the next game, the next meet, the next competition, the next practice.

I remain a board-certified psychiatrist in both general and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, with training in Integrative Medicine that shapes how I think about performance as a whole-person question, not just a mental one.

FAST, PRIVATE, AND ALWAYS IN YOUR CORNER

Most major leagues have caught up to the fact that athletes need mental health support, the NFL now requires every team to retain an on-site behavioral health clinician, and the NBA’s Mind Health Program requires licensed mental health professionals for every team. That’s real progress, and we’re glad it exists.

Our role is simply different: whoever we’re working with, our first loyalty is to that individual athlete, not to a roster or a season.

For some athletes, that means care that lives entirely outside their team’s structure, fast access, on their own schedule, with real confidentiality. For others, it means we’re brought in to work alongside a team or organization directly, which we’re equally glad to do, but even then, the individual athlete in front of us stays the priority, not an abstraction.

Athletes and executives share the same underlying fear: that reporting a mental health concern could somehow cost them a roster spot, a contract, or an opportunity. Whatever the setting, removing that fear is the whole point.

SPORTS CULTURAL PSYCHIATRY

Cultural psychiatry, the study of how culture shapes mental health, its expression, and how people seek care for it, is an established field. Applying it specifically to athletes competing far from home is not something we’ve seen offered anywhere else, and it’s a natural extension of the work we already do.

  • INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

    American professional sports are more international than most fans realize, and the trend is accelerating. MLB’s 2026 Opening Day rosters featured 249 players born outside the U.S., 26.3% of the league, representing 16 countries and territories. The NBA opened its 2025–26 season with a record 135 international players from 43 countries across six continents, with every single team carrying at least one. The NHL’s 2025–26 rosters featured players from 20 birth countries. Even the NFL, historically the most domestic of the major leagues, now runs a dedicated International Player Pathway program specifically to recruit global talent.

  • IT STARTS BEFORE THE PROFESSIONAL LEVEL

    This isn’t just a professional-sports phenomenon, it starts well before that. Nearly 25,000 international student-athletes currently compete in NCAA sports, coming from 123 different nations and independent territories. Many of the athletes who go on to compete professionally in the U.S. are already navigating this exact transition during their college years.

  • ACCULTURATIVE STRESS

    Acculturative stress is real and well-documented, the psychological strain of adapting to a new culture, language, and set of expectations, distinct from ordinary homesickness or culture shock. International athletes competing in the U.S. face this on top of the ordinary pressures of competition, often without a clinician who has any context for what that dual burden feels like.

  • THE SUPPORT SYSTEM MATTERS

    The support system that travels with an athlete matters as much as the clinical care itself, family expectations back home, language, food, faith, and community all shape how an athlete experiences pressure and how comfortable they are asking for help in the first place. We build that context into care from the start, rather than treating it as an afterthought.

INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

This work happens on two levels. We treat individual athletes, at every level of competition and every age, from youth sports through elite, professional, and international competition, addressing the anxiety, the pressure, the identity questions, and the clinical conditions that can affect performance and wellbeing alike.

This isn’t limited to team sports; individual-sport athletes, including those competing in international competitions in Utah and beyond, carry a version of this pressure with even less of a built-in support system around them.

We also work with teams and organizations directly, as a consultant helping build a healthy team culture from the inside, because an athlete’s mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s shaped by coaches, teammates, and the environment an organization creates.

Confidential, outside-the-organization support for the individuals on a roster, paired with organizational consulting on the culture surrounding them, is a combination most sports psychiatry practices don’t offer together.

The relationships we build with athletes aren’t tied to a single team or a single season. We can follow an athlete as they’re traded, transferred, or move from team to team, and the relationship doesn’t end at retirement, either.

Athletic retirement is one of the most psychologically demanding transitions a person can go through: a 2024 meta-analysis of more than 24,700 former elite athletes found that anxiety and depression occur at more than twice the rate of the general population after a career ends. That transition deserves the same continuity of care as the career that came before it.

WHO THIS IS FOR

This work is for athletes at every level, youth, collegiate, elite, professional, and international, as well as coaches, executives, and organizations who want to build a culture where mental health isn’t treated as a liability.

We work with adults, teenagers, and children.

Currently, this practice is licensed to see patients in Utah and Virginia. We’re in the process of expanding to additional states, if you’re located elsewhere, reach out and we can let you know if your state is next.

YOUTH · COLLEGIATE · ELITE · PROFESSIONAL · INTERNATIONAL

OFFERINGS

  • Second Opinion Consultation

    On an existing psychiatric or performance-related diagnosis.

  • Medication Management Consultation

    Reviewing medications to maximize results

  • Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation for Athletes

    Integrating clinical and performance factors.

  • Performance-Focused Mental Health Consultation

    Pressure, focus, identity, and recovery from setbacks.

  • Sports Cultural Psychiatry Consultation

    For international and immigrant athletes navigating competition far from home.

  • Confidential Outside-the-Organization Consultation

    For active and retired athletes, coaches, and executives, including support through trades, transfers, and career transitions.

  • Coordination With an Athlete’s Care Team

    Coordination with athletic trainers, physicians, and other members of an athlete’s care team.

  • Team & Organizational Consulting

    Building a healthy performance culture.

This practice does not accept insurance directly. For a practice built around speed, privacy, and confidentiality, this matters more than usual, working outside insurance networks means no claim, no diagnosis code, and no record sitting with a third party your team or organization could ever access.

It also means your care is never shaped by what an insurance company will or won’t approve, and we can spend the time your situation actually needs.

Upon request, we’re happy to provide a superbill, an itemized receipt you can submit to your own insurance company for potential out-of-network reimbursement. Reimbursement isn’t guaranteed and depends on your specific plan, so we’d encourage you to check your out-of-network mental health benefits before your first visit.

Pricing is customizable to your specific situation and available upon consultation.

WHAT DOES THE LATEST DATA SAY?

  • 1 IN 3

    Mental health struggles are common at every level of competition.

    NCAA research involving nearly 9,800 college athletes found elevated rates of mental exhaustion and anxiety, with roughly one in three NCAA athletes reporting significant anxiety or depression.

    Source: NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Study; NCAA.org

  • LIMITED ACCESS

    Specialist sports psychiatry hasn't kept pace with the need.

    A national survey of NCAA Division I academic coordinators found anxiety and depression were the most commonly reported conditions among athletes, while access to sports psychiatrists remains extremely limited.

    Source: Sports Psychiatry journal, 2025

  • 25–33%

    Elite athletes aren't immune either.

    Studies across NFL and Olympic competition have found symptoms of depression in roughly a quarter to a third of athletes, with anxiety and depression rates comparable to the general population.

    Source: peer-reviewed sports medicine research, multiple studies

  • 2×

    Retirement brings its own mental-health challenge.

    A 2024 meta-analysis covering more than 24,700 former elite athletes found anxiety and depression occur at more than twice the rate of the general population after retirement from sport.

    Source: BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 2024

  • 2019

    Formal league support is relatively new.

    The NFL and NFLPA formalized required team behavioral-health clinicians in 2019, while the NBA's Mind Health Program is similarly recent. Ben's point is that this support is valuable, but it remains connected to the team rather than being independent.

    Source: NFL Total Wellness; American Psychological Association, 2019

The honest read: the assumption that being a talented athlete makes someone immune to anxiety or depression is simply wrong, and formal team support, while genuinely valuable, is still new and still tied to the organization providing it. That gap, between how common these struggles are and how much room there still is for care built entirely around the individual athlete, is exactly where this work matters.

Ready for care that’s fast, private, and always in your corner?

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