E4 | Ashley Harmon: Behavioral Health

Welcome to the team behind the teen podcast. I’m your host, Donny, mate. This is the monthly

show focused on building conversations around the team based model approach to ethic, performance.
Strength, conditioning. Sports Medicine. Sport Science. Mental Health and wellness and
sports nutrition.
Welcome back to the show and we are super excited. We have a special guest for
our next episode today. Her name is Ashley Harmon and
she joined our staff in 2016. And currently
her her title role is actually would you introduce yourself, please? I am the assistant director
of Clinical Behavioral Health. That’s a lot to say right there. That’s why I had you to that. So.
Actually, we’re so excited that you took time out of your day to come and be on this podcast and share your
wealth of information. Glad to be here. Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. So we’re going to dove
right into the episode today. And Ashley, as we kind of get into
this again, this is the teen behind the teen podcast. And the
the goal and focus of what we’re going to try to do is just pull back the curtain
on all the different people that surround the team. Right. It surrounds every student
athlete and every team that’s performing on any field and any occasion that Texas
this is the trend that we’re seeing in sports across the whole world. And
this is where it’s at. This is the current environment that we’re
in. And really, you’re seeing that the best teams behind the team
help those big teams win championships. And so that’s kind of the big idea here. So could you just introduce
yourself to everybody? Give us a little history where you’re from, how you got into what you’re doing and
so forth and so. Yeah. So, again, my name is Ashley and I am originally
from a very small town in Texas called Comanche. But I moved to Austin in 2008
for school and I got both my bachelors and masters at the University of Texas
in the School of Social Work. So I’m definitely an alumni from there. I
did a lot of work in the domestic violence sexual assault room and I worked at a crisis center for about
four years. And I have background in medical, social work, some foster
care staff. So I’m pretty well-rounded when it comes to just different
mental health issues that could come up. And I actually just kind of like fell into this role
by accident. Thankfully, I just got my license. Clinical social worker.
That’s the best is the biggest license you can get as a social worker. So which opens up more job opportunities.
And I went on to the CMHC job
Web site to see if they’re hiring, essentially. And instead, what I found was athletics had
a posting that they wanted a social worker to come in and really help
build an adequate mental health program for the athletes. And I was like, that’s super
cool and exciting. So here I am. And I absolutely love it. I’ve been here
for about three and a half years now. That’s yes, I’ve heard you tell that a little bit before. You
just made a question, popped into my head, what or how do you feel like that that job before?
How did that prepare you for the role you’re in now? Because it just seems like you’re doing a tremendous job
here. So how did that prepare you for this time? Well, one thing, you know, I always keep in mind is that
athletes are people, you know, and people. Yeah. We need to remind everybody that. Exactly. You
know, people have problems. And so just because the clients I worked
with before weren’t collegiate athletes, they still struggled with the same things in a relationship,
family issues, depression, anxiety, trauma. And so I was able to build that
just working with, quote unquote, people. And so when I came to athletics, at first I
was nervous because I was like, I don’t know how to work with athletes. I wasn’t a college athlete. What is
this gonna be like? And then I reminded myself, like, okay, wait, like they’re just another person
coming to you with problems that you can work with. That’s pretty cool. So now
in regards to where you’re at now, what kind of services do you provide for all of our student athletes at Texas?
Give us a little snapshot of that. So we have four contracted
therapist. And then we have two Full-Time therapists, including myself. And then we have two contracted
psychiatrist. So we provide therapy and psychiatry appointments weekly.
We average about 130 appointments a week. So it’s definitely like utilized
and it’s grown since I’ve been here. So we do any sort
of behavioral health. A student can request to come in like figure. There’s
nothing that they have to. There’s no assessment. They can come just if they want to. All they have to do
is ask to come in. And then they can be seen as much as they want for free. All of our services are free.
You know, their medication, we help them get their medication if they need that through psychiatry. And then we also do
things like education and team building. And, you know, sometimes I have had a team that’s
like, hey, we want to learn more about mindfulness. Can you come talk to our team about it? So
it’s the individual stuff, but we also try to do a lot of team stuff. To kind of bring them closer.
Yes. I didn’t not realize we had that big with team. I knew we had a lot of people. That’s that’s impressive.
Very big. Yeah, it’s a lot of needs, a lot of big needs. So
talking about the performance model, again, the performance team, if you had to describe
and define that in your own terms, how would you how would you describe
that with your own words in the performance team model? Texas? Well,
team, that is the biggest word. I do think that we do a phenomenal job
of working as a team. It’s really easy to get into your own silos and. True and just
focus on what you’re doing. But the way that the structure is setup at tech says,
you know, we really take the time to interact with each other, whether it’s myself and the nutritionists
or the, you know, physicians, strength coaches. So
it is really nice because, one, it allows us to do wraparound services for the athletes
and we can make sure that we’re taking care of them in all aspects. You know, one aspect may be really good,
but if we’re not talking to other people, we don’t know if there’s other work that needs to be done. So
I think it allows us to set the athlete up for a bigger success here. And I’ll tell you why. That’s
that’s a good point. You talk about the relationships and the cool thing, too, about
everybody listening is that we’re pretty close in proximity. And so I think that’s a big piece.
I mean, I can imagine having there like for everything you needed, you get to drive and go through traffic
and get in the schedule and get back for practice or for academics or stuff like that. So it really helps.
I know, cause that could even make you more stressed right now. Scramble around and you don’t have everything there
close in proximity. So I think that helps. You guys are just right upstairs from us, really close. And
athletes can be can be there quick, too. So. And it normalizes us because whereby
everybody else, aubagio, the sport scientists and the dieticians, we’re just another entity within athletics. We’re
not like the scary building over here away from everyone else.
Yeah. And it’s normal. I mean, people have needs, so. So those are definitely
some of the benefits, too. I think we kind of talked about there. That makes it easy.
Next, kind of this kind of change gears a little bit and get into more of your kind
of specific expertise for the listeners. Talk a little bit
about mental health today. What is exactly what does it mean to have good mental
health? What does that mean? I mean, to put it. Simply,
it really is realizing your own potential and having healthy coping mechanisms to be able
to bounce back from stress and every day. You know,
life events that happen, you know, got some resiliency in there because we all are going
to experience stress. Life is a roller coaster. It’s a lot of things that we can’t predict. So it is our ability to
be able to kind of go with the flow and take care of ourselves through that process. And mental
health is different than mental illness. And a lot of times people will
combine the two. But mental health is an umbrella. And with it under the umbrella, there are
a lot of different entities such as mental illness. And that’s when you actually have like a diagnosis
from the DSM. Otherwise, we all have mental health and we all need to work on mental illness.
Yeah. Know that’s that’s powerful what you just said, because I’ve heard you guys talk about that before and I would have
never until I heard you say that even as a strength coach, I would have never known that there’s a delineation, a difference.
So that’s really cool. What’s the difference between mental health and wellness?
What’s the difference there? Kind of same thing. Yeah, they’re pretty much the same thing. It’s like mental health and wellness.
They go together because it really is. How well are you taking care of your mental health in order to
prevent things like, you know, higher stress levels and depression in those sorts of things?
That makes sense. So talking about that same issue, go kind of talk about
it from your time and experience just in college athletics right now,
what’s kind of the landscape that you’ve been seeing out there, some of the common themes or issues that you’re seeing
that they’re just cropping up just from, you know, normal life? Well, like I said
earlier, you know, student athletes are people and they have the same issues
as non-student athletes. They are in college. So they have the same transitional issues
that college students face. And, you know, it’s important to note that the
millennials right now, they’re essentially the generation of stress. You know, they’re under more pressure.
It’s so true and so true. And it’s so different than all the other generation
that I think a lot of times we forget that. And so you bundle that together. And then
obviously, if you’re in athletics, you know, your sport serves as a protective factor
and a risk factor. So protective factor is something that really helps you eliminate
mental health stressors. So it can be good because you can build support. You have a team, it can build
like self-esteem, it can make you successful, those sorts of things. But then it also
is a risk factor at the same time, because there’s pressure and demands and time management.
And a lot of times if athletes are only focused on their sport and their sports not going
well, then everything kind of crashes below that. So it’s normal
everyday things, plus a little bit of sport mixed in there. Pressures from coaches, parents, pressures from themselves.
I will say probably the most common issues, which really is kind of the same in the general population
is depression, anxiety, sleep issues, some disordered
eating stuff that’s a little bit higher in the athletic community and then substance use. Yeah,
that’s the anxiety is intriguing to me. Not in a not in a bad
way. It just I think as a coach, I’m also a parent of four daughters.
You’re you’re sitting in middle school and high school. These young ladies guys
is having panic attacks in. And when you actually sit down
and ask them what you know, what would you panic and what was the anxiety about? It’s sometimes it’s something so
small and insignificant. And it just makes it look some it’s left me kind of scratching my head
and like, oh, you know, growing up, I don’t recall dealing with this, you know, as much
as we are today. And so there’s like you see, you’ve nailed it on on the head when you said this
is a generation of stress. Yes. And because in a herd of sports scientists talk
about this one time, too, is that the demands
that we’re putting on our athletes, they like pulling on them is so great. Everybody wants their
time, you know, with media, with whether it’s, you know, going to practice
or doing individual sessions and then, you know, whether they have a strong to have a social life. They’ve got all this
stuff demands put on them. And then we just keep trying to put more on them. But they only heathy
call it like this. They don’t have so much budget. Yes. It’s so much margin that you
can push into. Cause if you tap into that, I would imagine in different athletes and people
that they only have certain margins of reserve that you can push into in an hominum
probably overextend themselves. You know, most of them. Yeah, most. And it’s just you in
this like I know I’ve told you, but I was reading the book When Why Zebras
Don’t Get Ulcers. We talked about in that book how, you know, back during
times or we didn’t have TV and media and. You know, your biggest stressor
would be lack of a lion came after you and, you know, you’re you’re you’re nervous system
would fire up hormones, bad stressors with the hit, right? You take off run to save
your life. You lived and you came back down relaxed. Today, most of our student
athletes live in that kind of heightened state. And then that’s you know, that’s probably
I’m sure that’s where a lot of the problems arise from. So it’s the idea of chronic stress. You know, we’ve got good stress,
we’ve got bad stress, we’ve got acute stress. We have chronic stress. And unfortunately, most
of our athletes are functioning in the chronic stress area. Yeah, that’s
good. If you were to give just some traits to
look for that work with either middle school, high school, college, professional,
what are some kind of flags that you would say, hey, keep an eye on this with your athletes if you see
these behaviors or these little things cropping up? What would you say some of those would be?
Yeah. So one thing to keep in mind is that we all will experience
some sort of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms on a spectrum. Right. Because we all
have feelings and emotions and go through events. What’s really important to look at is the frequency.
And like. The intensity of it, so frequency and intensity.
The biggest thing you can do is get to know your students, get to know your athletes, because change in
behaviors are everything. You know, if you have an athlete that usually takes care of their
hygiene really well and then all of a sudden it’s been a week or a couple days of them,
not that may be something you want to check in about, because even something physical like that can be
an indicator that maybe some depression is going on or what. Some people don’t
think about is that if you have a student who the pattern is depression
and then all of a sudden one day they come to school and they are the happiest person and everything’s
great. That’s also an indicator swing. It’s a swing. So
even if it it’s like, oh, well, great, they’re in a great mood. It can actually not be so great.
So you really need to just pay attention to patterns and both physical, emotional, mental
passing comments. You know, sometimes students, people, they’ll just drop
a little passing comment here and there and laugh it off. But sometimes they’re just wanting someone to listen. So the more
that you get to know them, then you can really understand their patterns and when things are different.
I love that you said that because I I believe I completely agree with you.
I think just like our athletes have pressures and demands on them. So do our coaches.
I think what I what I see oftentimes coaches have.
Especially with media stuff and whether it’s fundraising or working with donors
in fans, they’re getting they’re going to have to protect and guard their time
and schedule to make sure they’re spending time with their athletes. Yes. And
that’s where I see when coaches start struggling, they don’t have that connection with their athletes.
They don’t understand why they’re behaving the way are. They still have it. They have. It’s hard to have compassion. Right?
Right. You don’t have context of like, OK. You know, I know even my own career. I’ve
had times where I’ve had conflict with athletes. Once I got to know the storyline better and get to know him, then I had more
understanding, had a lot more patience and grace, you know. And when you get to know them, you
you can learn how best to communicate to them, which will go a long way, not just for them, but for
you as a coach. One analogy I love Ashley was
it’s kind of like working with kids is like bowling if you’ve ever been bowling.
The further away you get from the pins, the harder it is to to have an impact. Oh, yeah.
Right. But if you if you think about bowling, you scoot down on that lane on those pins and bowl, you
pray hit a strike every time. But how many times the ball goes in the gutter, the further away you get from him.
So that’s a killer relationship. Look, here’s a closer in our relationships as professionals
are coaches, then the bigger impact we can have in our kids lives on the field. So
that’s cool. Let’s talk a little bit about one of my favorite topics that again, intrigues me is
this social media today in mental mental health. Now,
I got to tell you, I’ve read some I read a lot of books. And have they’ve done these studies recently own.
Is it true in kids? They look at social media and then they get off.
Are they really everybody that said or some people? Does it not bother them? Let’s give us to give us your
opinion and give us some true today. I mean, social media
can create a lot of comparisons. Yeah, it’s not always great
for someone’s mental health. Now it can be. Right. You know, we can’t say social media is bad for everybody,
but it can actually be really detrimental because a lot of people will go on Instagram and look at all
these pictures and be like, oh, my gosh, this person is live in such a great life. Like, I’m not pretty enough
or I’m not skinny enough or like I can’t travel like that. And that’s just kind of what’s going through their head. It’s always
a comparison because it’s this idea, perfectionism specifically within this generation. And not only
do you have the comparison, but you also have the lack of connection. So now you get to
talk to people through a screen which completely takes away human connection.
But that’s what they’re used to. So that can also create mental health problems, because as people,
we thrive off a human connection. We have to have it. So it absolutely
can be a detriment. And then if you specifically look at athletes, the point you brought
up with the coaches and in kind of the media. I mean, you’re spot on
like these athletes and coaches. I couldn’t imagine being able to go online and
read thousands of comments. And some of them are positive, but some of them
just are belittling and they really just attack you as a person.
So it does also create another space to just have some
kind of more negativity and hatred thrown away like cyberbullying. That’s a real thing. It is in it.
I know I’ve had even recently this year at work and being around
high school, middle school kids, college kids, comments like I
can’t believe the unfollowed me. I’m a I’m I ask. How do you even know they unfollowed
you? I think you know or or though they’ll
have you know, there’ll be a group home that I have a little get together. And they didn’t invite me
because they posted on social media. And it hurts, you know, and you don’t realize it. You
know that me grown up. I mean, if you didn’t invite me to your birthday party, I never knew
because there was no trace of it. Exactly. I might hear about it like a year later. But now you can
see all this stuff and it has it has to weigh on these kids, on their mental health a little bit. You know, it does.
And I mean, yeah, they get their worth from follows and likes. And, you know, sometimes they may post a picture
and it doesn’t get enough likes. And so their whole day is ruined. I mean, those are those are real things.
Yeah, it’s true. It’s definitely a challenging day we live in.
Switch gears again here and talk a little bit about.
Injuries. And this. This is. You know, I’ve definitely
dealt with the injury personally as an athlete. When I was in college, it can be very devastating.
I know I’ve shared with you before I went through a really dark season in my career as a senior
when I blew my ACL in Iowa. I mean, I can still even as we’re talking now, I can remember
being isolated. So I was isolated. I knew I was done playing
sports, had all these different layers I was dealing with, which at the time I just dealt with them by just
hiding. You know, just running, you know, failed some classes, all that.
So I know how it impacted me personally. So I see that in the athletes today. Would you just take a
moment and talk about injuries and kind of how that impacts them mentally? Yes.
Injuries. They’re not talked about enough. I think a lot of times they go under the radar because it’s
like all the athletes injured. Moving on, you know, gotta go to the game. But injury
absolutely affects their mental health because it takes away
their sport. It takes away their like social team
aspect, because most the time, like they’re in treatment versus at practice, for example.
And so when you isolate them and take away their sport. And on top of that,
athletes are so in tune with their bodies. Their bodies are everything to them. They take care of them.
It’s how they are successful. And so when their body breaks down, that’s hard
because there’s you you can’t switch out your body like that’s just what it is. So it can create a lot of depression.
And then so they’re dealing with that. And then there’s just the sport aspect of what
if I lose my starting spot because I’m hurt? Second string is going to come in. And what if I do?
Fantastic. And then my career’s really over. So it’s really important
that you take time to connect with them, see what they need, you know,
engage them with the team when you can. You know, some coaches, I mean,
in their mind, they’re like, well, you know, it’s fine. Let them go get treatment and we’ll do this. And they’re getting back to
being better about it if they don’t have that social emotional connection that really stunts their physical healing as well.
Yeah, I know. It’s, you know, coaches cause this even my own experience when I was in college,
it’s like. If they don’t if you if you’re not able to perform.
They don’t need you right now. Right. When you’re ready again, come on back. And I
think you hit a good point there own. I never thought of that like that, that their bodies it’s
everything to them during this time, you know, and then. How important is it for them to to not
only stay engaged, to stay involved with the team? I mean, are there any. Would you say any
kind of suggestions or advice you could give coaches? There’s people listening out there
today. How could you help those athletes stay healthy and just keep them keep them encouraged?
Yeah. I mean, look for other ways they can participate in practice. They may not be able to physically
go out and run. But can they help you take times? Or
coach the other athletes or being encourager? You know, the more that you can just keep them involved to let them know that
they’re still important and cared about and and part of the team. Then the better they will feel. And then
it also helps them come back from injury easier because we also see a lot
of fear related to return the sport, the you know, a lot of anxiety related to that
of cannot even trust my body anymore. And so if you can keep their healing period
more positive, then they’re going to come back. Also more positive, you know. I mean, the
mental state is such a critical piece of even healing itself. Right.
And the body producing the right hormones and the right and just the
right feelings, even mood. You know, I think sometimes I’ve been studying a lot on mood and just
how it impacts how you feel and in how well you recover. Yeah. And if you’re in a good mood or bad mood,
you know, consistently. So it’s it’s a big predictor of different things. Yeah. I mean, if you’re struggling with high
depression, there is a chance that you will heal slower because
everything is connected. Yeah. So such a big part.
Talk a little bit further to go. So we talked about injury. And
at some point, every athlete stops playing. And their identity
as a person is so wrapped up in either the position or the state took the team
or sport they’re part of. They’ve been doing it for you a lot and probably doing for ten, twelve, fifteen years.
Enough said, the train stops completely and I kind of miss that. I struggle with that. I know
I’ve seen it in my career, my 20 plus years of athletes. I don’t know what to do sometimes. And I’ve
seen some athletes that make that transition. It’s a little rocky, but they make
it eventually. I’ve seen some athletes just beat tragedy. They just cannot
deal with. Now, what I do was celebrated. I was pretty much
worshiped. People looked up to me. Now I’m not playing a sport, whereas my self
worth and value now. Could you kind of speak into that a little bit? Yeah. So the athlete
identity is a very real thing. And a lot of
times it’s called I Identity Foreclosure. And essentially what that
means is that all their eggs are in one basket. You know, their identity is wrapped within their
sport. And so. Ending whether it’s because you’re retired
or because you have an injury, like there is a transitional period where if you
haven’t already built in who you are outside of your sport, then when your sport is taken away,
you have no idea who you are. Like, what is my worth? If your worth is wrapped around in, let’s
say, football and you’re done with football, you’re going to feel like you’re not worth anything more because that’s solely
where it was. And so there definitely should be more attention
around how are we helping these athletes transition out of their sport, whether it’s collegiate
or pro, because it will be rocky. You know, obviously, there are some
athletes where their sport is the main reason for their mental health. So when they’re done with it,
they’re actually excited about it and ready to move on. But those athletes have already built other parts of their identity
within themselves. So we’ve got to do a better job of figuring out who are you outside
of your sport. Yeah, I remember. That’s a good point. I remember. It’s been years now, but
there is a pro player I knew pretty well and what he would do an off season instead of just
working out all the time and just trying to get ready for next season, he would go work at a car dealership.
That’s fantastic because he already had the vision for. Hey, I know this is going to be done
one day. I’m not going to play football my whole life. So I must start working on what will I do
once I’m retired and once I’m done completely. And so I think I feel like we need you know, there needs to be and
I know there are some schools doing that, but just kind of providing whether it’s avenues
or even just teaching, equipping them, like what do you do with football done, you know? Because I know when I’ve we had nothing
like that. It’s like when you’re done, like, OK, you’re good. You can go find a job and just get out of here.
Yeah. And so, yeah, it’s a different today, you know, because like you said, they just wrapped their whole the whole world’s
wrapped up in who they are as it is as an athlete. And that’s why their mental health can fluctuate so much, because
if they’re only viewing success within their sport, if they’re not performing well, then
down goes their mental health vs. If they have other parts of themselves that they appreciate, then
they can say, OK, this one part of my life maybe isn’t going the way I want to, but I have all these other things
going on, too. So I kind of keeps them balanced. Yeah. That’s good. I think a lot of athletes
struggle today to connect whether they’re hurt or whether they’re dumb plan or
they you know, they have to just be done that they have such a powerful platform
of where they’re at and they just don’t. I don’t know if they don’t realize it or understand
the weightiness that they have to build the next step of their career life.
You know, to kind of that it’s all connected is not two separate things, you know, in a
way that goes back. I’ve always heard people say it’s it’s not Costco,
know who you are is not the same as what you do. Yes. Right. You’re who’s different
from your do and who I am is I’m a person of your all our athletes are people
of value in extreme worth. And they got so much potential, like you said
earlier. But they aren’t they do play sports, too, but that’s not who they are. So they get those two
kind of mixed up. And I think that’s why they have trouble with it. Yes, I mean, absolutely. And sometimes within
the sport realm, you know, like I’ve had conversations with athletes around. Okay.
You have to retire from your sport because of injury. You can still accomplish some of the things you wanted
to accomplish. But sometimes it’s well, maybe I’m not going to be as credible because I’m not out
there playing. And so it’s also trying to shift that perspective for them as well, that there’s a lot of
athletes out there that also need motivational speakers around injury and
how to keep going. You know, it’s pretty cool. Definitely. Yes. You know, most take the.
Always try to tell athletes that are struggling that, hey, you’re not going to waste this.
You’re still going to use this to help others if you view it that way. So you’ll be you’ll be a
an encouragement to others. Yes. Got a little different question for you here. As we kind of transition,
the very nature and environment of athletics comes with expectations
and pressure to win. Yes. And it’s getting higher.
It’s not going away. What suggestions or advice would you
give the coaches or even just professionals? How do you balance putting pressure on athletes
to perform and. Balance that with keeping them in
a good mental state. Talk about that a little bit. I mean, it’s definitely a great question
and it’s definitely something that always has to be worked on. You know, there’s definitely not a set formula
of this is how it’s supposed to be. You know, one thing like when I talk to coaches, I’m
like your people, too. You also have things going on outside of this.
And then you’re also under a lot of pressure. And so are you being aware of how your
personal stress is affecting your athletes? Because sometimes coaches aren’t aware, just like everyday people,
and they can project that stress onto their athletes, which makes their athletes more stressed.
And so one just being aware of like, what are you stressed about? Is it coming across your athletes?
And then to going back previous what we talked about. If you take the time to get to know your athletes,
then. They get both. They get the pressure to win because that’s
what sports is about. But they also get the side of like this person cares about me. I enjoy my team. And so
it does help balance that out vs. If you look at athletes that have terrible relationships with their coaches
and they’re not winning. It’s a recipe for disaster because they’re like, what am
I doing this for? I don’t get along with my coach. You know, so on and such. So it helps it balances
itself out when you can really connect to them just on a person to person level. And
you know, if you look at the research, it shows that athletes generally do not
favor like aggressive coaching styles. They want a supportive
approach. Now, that doesn’t mean that you don’t hold them accountable and all of those stuff.
Right. Like that. So part of the sport. But how are you doing that? And the good thing is when you get to
know your athletes, you get to know what motivates them
the best. Some athletes, they want to be motivated by being yelled at
and they’re like, yes, coach, yell at me like, this helps me. You have others that are like, I’m not gonna listen to you if you start yelling
at me. And then they just shut down. So getting to know them is everything. And
also the biggest thing is giving them permission to seek help if
they need it. There is too much of rub some dirt on it, mentally tough,
but mentally tough and mental health are two very different things. Good point. And so I just don’t understand that
a lot. They really don’t. They don’t. You know, it’s like, oh, you have depression. You’re not being mentally tough. And again,
those things aren’t connected. So really understanding that and letting the athletes know
like, hey, you’re struggling, it’s okay to struggle. Like, here’s resources. Here’s here’s how you can get some help.
Yeah. I want to back up just one second. You said something earlier that really kind of got my
curiosity going. Interest. I love one thing I love
doing in any sport is just watching the coach on the bench or sideline. And
you said something there. I think just a second ago about the stress that coaches are under.
They don’t realize how they project that stress on. And a lot of times are athletes
get stressed because the head coaches stress. Yes. And I remember reading about it.
It was a it was a leadership book on just. Managing people, and they
said one of the number one predictors of morale or stress
in a building is the boss’s mood. Yes. And it’s
it’s say the same thing. Oh, and by this mom or dad at home, if the mood is good,
the house has got to give vibes to it, right? If not, then it’s it’s pretty tough in there, you know. So
talk about just I mean. Maybe speak to some coaches out there about just
being aware of, you know, being, you know, they got a win, right? Yeah, but how do you
how do you project that in a different way? How do you how can you do that? I mean,
one, you can be open and have conversations with your athletes. So
I think a lot of times it’s not acceptable for coaches to be vulnerable either.
It’s not acceptable to disclose certain things. Exactly. They they’re the face of the program.
But so they could get so far with athletes if they’re just like, yeah,
I’m going through it, too. Like I’m stressed, like I get it because you’re being vulnerable with them, which
allows them to be vulnerable with you. And it doesn’t mean you have to go through your whole life story. But just those small connections
and like, how is your behavior if you notice that man? I feel like I’ve been screaming at
my athletes a lot more. Can I take a second and think
about do I have any higher stressors lately? And of course, just because I’m a therapist,
I think all coaches because all people benefit from therapy. I mean, anybody
can go to therapy whether you have stuff going on or not. It’s just a way it gives you a safe space to
just be you, because, you know, if you’re a coach at a D1 university, people know your name.
You’re also all over the TV screens. So you’re also wearing an armor of a coach. But if you can mount
a safe space, such as a therapy office, you can take that off and you can just be you, not the coach
at u._t. I’ve seen so many times just in my career
where. A head coach realizes they’re putting too much pressure on our athletes
because they’re feeling it. And they make an adjustment, just a slight tweak
and make practice a little more lighthearted and more fun. Yes. And now all of a sudden
our athletes are performing better because I don’t know, there’s
not many people, not myself, you. I’m sure if people would if somebody came your workmans is breathing down your
neck to do your job. I’d be miserable. Yeah. You’re going to be all tight and wound up. You won’t do a great job.
You still get your job done because that’s what you do. Right. But you just. The level of performance
will drop significantly over time, too. So. So I think, you know, coaches, body
language, the tone they use with their athletes, the words, the verbal words they use, got to be so
careful with that and be aware. I think awareness is kind of what I hear you’re saying to just be really aware
of that. You know, starts with awareness. But like implementing fun is so important
because a lot of athletes started their sport because it was fun. So the more that they
can connect to the idea that they’re doing this because they enjoy it, you’re going to win because they’re
going to love what they’re doing, you know, vs., you know, being out there and everybody’s monotone
and there’s no energy. You know, you have to implement enjoyable things to make them motivated to want to keep
pushing. And the other thing, too, this is a great this is a great topic, Rhône.
We’re talking about pressure and this is a whole nother PRI episode. But pressure from parents today
is insane because you’re getting it from the head coach. All right.
And then at home, not I’m not, you know, hugging. I’m not throwing rocks at parents. I’m
a parent. I have been guilty, first and foremost, putting pressure on my kids to do well
in sport in school. But I think just knowing, you know, underst,
like you said earlier, getting to know your kids and understanding how much pressure
that maybe they’re feeling, more pressure from mom or dad or from uncle or somebody. Yeah. And that
you’re put maybe you need to back off a little bit, be more supportive and they’ll do better on on the field. So I think that’s
important to kind of percent. I mean, that’s why it goes back to people, right? We are we are all part
of different systems and all different systems create different stressors. That’s true.
Good stuff. Ashley. We’re kind of get close to the end here, just a couple of things.
Anything come to mind for the future of mental health? Any innovations, any trends
you see down the road? Coming here in the future for sports and athletes, anything? Absolutely.
I mean, mental health in sports right now is a huge topic. And even just in three and a half years,
like it has grown so much. And I, you know, believe that it’s going to continue to
grow because it’s a huge shopping. More pros are coming out about it. More universities
are starting to implement programs. The NC double play as a part of it. So once you start having these big organizations
being a part of it and implementing policy change, then it’s just going to continue to grow. So I
think it’s who knows what it’s gonna look like an even a year. That’s good. What about
for the listeners? Any journals, books, podcasts,
conferences, anything, any resources for individuals out there that just want
to get more education, more knowledge in equipping own how to do kind of what you’re talking about?
Anything. Any suggestions? Yeah. So if you go to just the NCW Web site, they
have so many great resources around like mind, body and sport.
They have, you know, data and research and they talk about their initiative. So for that specific
area, I’d definitely recommend you check it out. And then just from a
more of a mental wellness standpoint. My favorite book to always recommend is Daring Greatly by
Burning Brown is a good book. I recommend it to athletes, coaches
myself. You we all can benefit from it because it it really targets the idea of perfectionism
and vulnerability. And how can we decrease stress while still being successful?
It’s good. That is a good read. I have to go back and reread that one. It’s an amazing book. I’ve heard you talk about a lot
in your presentations. Well, if the listeners out there, anybody wants to reach
out, connect with you, just learn more about your asks you questions. What’s the best way people can reach
out to you? Ashley So you can either email me at Ashley a S-H l.y
dot Haman H a r M.O. in at athletics dot
u texas dot e._d._u or my office phone is 5
much. Today’s show has been awesome and thank you so much for taking time
out to to teach us. And hopefully our listeners out there will be more aware
that there are some really issues out there and that you’ve given us some good things to think about and be aware of themselves. So,
yeah, thanks for having me. As great as it is. A pleasure. We’ll catch you guys on the next episode
on the Teen Behind the Teen podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Have a great week.
Thanks so much for tuning in. You’re listening to this episode of The Team Behind the Team podcast
for future episodes. Go to i-Tunes Spotify, Google Podcast or
Stitcher. We definitely want to keep having great guests on the show and great content.
So if you have a moment, please go to i-Tunes, leave a rating and review and let us know how we’re
doing. I’m Donny, mate, and thanks so much for tuning in.