What you can Expect

As a performer in various domains of life (e.g. sports, school, music, business) you encounter many different demands, challenges, and rewards. Perhaps you experience pre- performance anxiety or have difficulty bouncing back from mistakes. How can you harness your anxiety and prepare for mistakes in manners that are advantageous to you?

Your strengths and skills lie within! Now is the time to unleash them, to tap into your thriving tools! 

Mental performance coaching is an individualistic form of training that takes on a personalized approach with each performer and team to discover, practice, and apply. In these sessions you can expect to actively engage in awareness building, strategy development, and resource improvement towards unleashing your potential. 

Performance enhancement sessions may include:

• Assessment of areas of growth, strengths, and needs


• Education and practice of mental skills and strategies such as:
  
  
  
  • Pre-performance anxiety
  
  
  • Imagery
  
  
  • Self-talk
  
  
  • Goal setting
  
  
  • Communication
  
  
  • Relaxation strategies
  
  
  • Recovery-stress balance
  
  
  • Motivation
  
  
  • Burnout
  
  
  • Mindfulness
  
  


• Creation of practice and competition plans and routine-development

*These services are performance optimization-based and are not counseling psychology or mental health services. 

Your Coach

Maile Sapp '17 is a former 4-Year Letterwinner on the Harvard Nordic Ski Team and recently completed her master's in Counseling with a concentration in Sport and Performance Psychology at Boston University, Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. Currently, she is running a private practice, S.A.P.P Skills (Sport and Performance Psychology) and is pursuing her doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Her research centralizes in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) interventions to address anxiety, burnout, and recovery-stress balance in healthcare workers and student-athletes. 

Maile has an array of experience working with professional, DI, DIII, and youth athletes from individual and team sports. She also has experience working with performing artists and musicians and was selected to present her research on recovery-stress balance at FEPSAC, the world’s largest international sport and exercise science conference. 

As a former DI student-athlete, she is passionate about holistically working alongside performers during their journeys of self-exploration, growth, and personal well-being optimization. She seeks to create an inclusive space that promotes authenticity and an egalitarian alliance, grounded in each performer's individual experience. Maile takes a client-led approach to support individuals in uncovering and strengthening their thriving tools that lie within. Throughout your time together you will engage in developing an understanding and processing of your current needs, create plans, and develop strategies for you to implement during practice, competitions, and everyday life.