COUNSELLING FOR ATHLETES
Counselling for athletes dealing with performance pressure, injury, burnout, confidence, identity, relationships, and major transitions in sport.
Support for athletes at all levels, from recreational and developing athletes to competitive and elite performers.
Sport can be a major source of purpose and identity. It can also bring pressure, uncertainty, physical demands, setbacks, and expectations that can be difficult to switch off.
The emotional side of sport often becomes most noticeable when something changes. Performance drops, an injury takes longer to recover from than expected, motivation disappears, confidence starts to shift, or the future of your sport becomes uncertain.
Counselling creates space to understand what is happening both inside and outside sport, and how the two are affecting each other.
Who do we work with
Counselling for athletes is not limited to professional or elite sport.
It is relevant whenever sport has become difficult to navigate, whether because of the pressure to perform, a period of change, or a growing sense that something no longer feels right.
Athletes come to counselling for various reasons that include performance anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, injury, loss of confidence, relationship stress, body image, major life changes, or the pressure of balancing sport with the rest of life.
Therapy also helps when there is no obvious crisis. Sometimes the issue is simply that motivation has shifted, confidence feels less steady, or you are unsure about what comes next.
Injury and recovery
For athletes who are used to being active and independent, injury creates frustration, fear, boredom, loss of confidence, and a sense of disconnection from themselves.
Recovery itself can bring its own pressure. Even when your body is healing well, the uncertainty around returning to sport can be difficult to manage. You may feel caught between wanting to get back as quickly as possible and knowing that you need enough time to recover properly.
Counselling supports the emotional side of rehabilitation alongside the physical work already happening with coaches, physicians, or physiotherapists.
Pressure and confidence
Performance feels very different when confidence depends too heavily on results. A difficult race or poor season can start to feel personal, which often increases pressure and makes setbacks harder to move past.
You can become increasingly self-critical, over-analyze mistakes, compare yourself constantly with other athletes, or even find that the pressure to perform starts affecting sleep, concentration, motivation, or enjoyment.
Counselling helps you understand the patterns behind that pressure and build a more stable sense of confidence that is not dependent on every result going well.
Identity beyond performance
When sport has been part of your life for years, being an athlete becomes closely tied to how you see yourself.
That can make injury, poor performance, or retirement feel like a much bigger disruption than the sporting change alone.
Counselling helps you explore who you are within sport and outside of it, particularly when your role as an athlete is changing.
Meet Arika Lee
Arika has a background in athletic performance and works with athletes navigating performance pressure, perfectionism, anxiety, burnout, body image, injury, confidence, relationships, and major transitions in sport.
Her approach looks at the person alongside the athlete. Therapy considers what is happening in performance while also making space for the ways sport shapes how you see yourself and the rest of your life.
She works with athletes throughout different stages of their sporting lives, whether they are actively competing or beginning to navigate a change in their relationship with sport.
Common questions about counselling for athletes
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No.
Counselling is available to athletes at all levels. You may compete professionally, play university or club sport, train recreationally, or simply take your sport seriously.
The level you compete at matters less than the role sport plays in your life and what you are currently dealing with.
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Yes.
Therapy helps you understand what happens before and during performance, including the way pressure affects how you think and respond in the moment. It also looks at the patterns that can make competition harder and helps you recover more steadily when things do not go as planned.
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Yes.
Injury can be a particularly useful time to seek support because it often affects routine, identity, confidence, motivation, and relationships with sport.
Counselling can work alongside your physical rehabilitation without replacing medical or physiotherapy treatment.
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You do not need to have made a decision before coming to counselling.
Therapy gives you space to think through what is keeping you in the sport, what is making you consider leaving, and what life might look like afterwards.
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Yes.
Athletes also come to counselling for reasons that have little or nothing to do with sport. Therapy makes space for the rest of your life and whatever may be affecting you outside training and competition.
Sport can be part of the conversation without needing to be the entire focus.
COUNSELLING FOR ATHLETES IN METROTOWN, SERVING BURNABY AND BEYOND
Metrotower II, 4720 Kingsway, Office 2619 & 2620
with easy access for clients in Burnaby, Brentwood, New Westminster, and the Coquitlam corridor. Free parking and reception services are on site.
Virtual sessions are available for clients anywhere in BC who cannot attend in person, no referral required.
We offer a free 20-minute consultation before your first session so you can decide if it's the right fit.