Evolve Family Counseling and Sports Psychotherapy

08/15/2025

07/28/2025

We are offering a Back-to-School Social Skills Group for High School aged boys. Please contact Clinical Director, Dave Edwards, LPC with questions, or to sign up. (703) 309-2075 daelpc@protonmail.com

06/23/2025

The head coach looks on and grimaces. His star player is at it again.

Lethargic, flat…feet that look heavy-laden!

One week this ‘star player’ floats around the pitch, making himself available, lending the ball and demanding it back. Influencing in the middle of the park, a world be**er, seemingly irreplaceable.

The next…
.sack-race constriction, an apathetic look, space uncovered, a lack of urgency, an apparent unwillingness to seek out the ball. As replaceable as a TV/DVD combo!

Players who enjoy a great deal of skill in their feet, or an ability to see the game in a way others can’t, don’t always enjoy the same type of gifts with their mindset. Mental skill doesn’t necessarily follow technical skill

At the elite level of the game, the intuitive response is to shout at this player. It’s to allow your frustration to spill into your communication with this player. It’s to drive your point home firmer, louder, harder

But this often makes the situation worse. Insistence often leads to resistance

Why?

Because the inconsistency this player is showing is unlikely to be his or her fault. Sometimes it is, but often it’s not

Human functioning is complex. This player is probably experiencing this behaviour rather than ‘doing’ this behaviour. Through brain and body connections this player is probably experiencing powerful sensations, feelings, emotions, and thoughts that cause them to feel lethargic and flat, and not quite in the frame of mind conducive to the kind of speedy anticipation and decision-making required for top-flight games

Lethargy happens to players
Doubt happens to players
Worry happens to players
Anxiety happens to players

A drop in confidence happens to players.

This player doesn’t need a louder voice next to him or her (necessarily!) This player needs skills…mental skills! Aptitudes that help them to deal with the inner sensations that disconnect them from the game and the task at hand.

They need to know their optimal mental state and have triggers to help them return to this all-important state of mind. They need to be able to flex their attention using self-regulatory
techniques to take them away from these bodily feelings and onto task-relevant cues in their environment.

And that’s just for starters…As a coach it’s imperative to adopt the attitude: “My players will have enormous mental challenges when they compete. They will be distracted. They will drop in intensity or rise too high. It’s very likely they will experience inhibition at some point.”

That’s not being negative. That’s adopting an attitude that players will be challenged and thus they require tangible solutions, and an ability to execute those solutions when need be

And this is where you probably need to find a way to help players to develop mental skills. You probably need to introduce these skills into your coaching processes within your coaching practice.

Players rarely need stern words thrown in their direction. But they always need mental skills

05/30/2025

Congratulations to The Hull Boy, who became the youngest person to run the length of the UK at just 17 years old. 1347KM Ran (837 miles) Doing so he managed to raise £111,000 for Mind charity,

"I’m an emotional mess tonight but I just want to say, no matter how dark a place you are in. It can and WILL get better. 2 years ago I was in the darkest place in my life, 2 years later we have made history.

Thank you to everyone who believed in me. I love you all very much. I’ll do a post when I’m able to process what’s just happened. Mental health matters ❤️"

05/14/2025

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/videos/c4g3w8dlpq7o

Former Bradford City striker Dean Windass opens up about dealing with mental health.

01/23/2025

We are pleased to again be presenting this weekend at the Loudoun County Public Schools 7th Annual Mental Health and Wellness Conference at Watson Mountain Middle School, Leesburg. Our presenting session will be on Resilience in Teens.

We will also have an exhibitors table, so stop by and see us any time from 8:30am-2:30pm.

41480 Steeplechase Loop Drive, Leesburg.

Send a message to learn more

01/23/2025

Our owner and clinical director, Dave Edwards, is passionate about volunteering with the amazing The Ryan Bartel Foundation, a local non-profit teen su***de prevention and wellness organization. They are currently accepting applications for the next cohort of Teen Facilitators for this spring. If you might be interested in becoming a Teen Facilitator, please reach out to Dave at daelpc@protonmail.com, or (703) 309-2075.
Details can be found at https://www.ryanbartelfoundation.org/tmw-facilitator...
Get involved!!!!

Send a message to learn more

11/25/2024

10/31/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/7g6QGSVctHmzQRnN/

The Ryan Bartel Foundation, started in 2014 after the su***de of its namesake, has helped over 10,000 youth in Loudoun County through its various programs.

10/28/2024

09/04/2024

Well-being and mental health care for sports participants and competitors can start with...

-Psychologically Safe Environments: where the thoughts, feelings, experiences and personalities of its participants are considered when striving to understand behaviour (and when considering every policy, every practice, and every process).

“Who is the person and why do they behave in this way...and how can we best behave and interact with this person.”

-An attitude that every person counts: if they’re here, then we care!

-Psychological safety: giving participants a voice in policy, practice, and process...and where participants are given a safe space to express vulnerability (while appreciating individual differences in attitude towards such safety)

-Motivational climate: leaning towards a mastery orientation (a focus on developmental and performance tasks), while appreciating individual differences in motivational patterns, from internal (feeding intrinsic rewards) to external (feeding extrinsic rewards).

-Safe uncertainty (thanks Dr Suzanne Brown): providing safety with the above approaches, while providing an environment that stretches (a balance between stretch and support).

-Coach-athlete relationships that are close, committed, co-operative, and co-orientated (see work of Professor Sophia Jowett)

-Optimal coaching engagement: a range of coaching practices from free play through deliberate practice through conditioned activities

-Coach with strong teaching skills to enhance learning: a strong knowledge of cognitive architecture of the brain (working memory and long term memory) helping players to enjoy the process of learning

-Teaching that encompasses decision-making: a strong knowledge of decision-making models

-Comprehensive player development plans: what, how, why...providing players with greater certainty as to where they are with their game

-Mental skills frameworks for all...shared!

-Leadership and teamship development on and off the pitch (court): simple, practical ideas that give players the opportunity to experience leadership and develop both task and social cohesion

-Incorporation of positive psychology practices including gratitude, optimism etc where possible

Mental health and well-being in a sports setting starts with helping players have an adaptive, flexible, and positive relationship with engagement, development and performance (that isn’t to suggest that it is highly recommended that clubs with resources offer access to appropriately trained clinical professionals for mental health education and intervention, but it is to say that coach practice and coach environment matter!)

It’s so important that our biggest sporting organisations/clubs sit with complexity, and strive to understand the dynamic sporting environment their participants are engaged in (and avoid making isolated and arbitrary decisions around their mental health strategies)

Performance, development, mental health, and well-being are heavily integrated

09/04/2024

👇 Get a link to our FREE WEBINAR on Helping an Anxious Child. Type: ANXIETYWEBINAR in the comments below to get a link 👇

During this free webinar, ICP Co-Founder and Registered Psychologist Tammy Schamuhn will explore anxiety in children and teens.

Parents and caregivers will learn about the neuroscience of anxiety, teach you how to better communicate with your child, and to implement a variety of emotion regulation strategies to calm a child or teen who is struggling.