Welcome Home, athlete
Victory is a safe place for athletes of all stages to come and work through life’s challenges.
Get to know maddie
My biggest passion is helping athletes feel supported in their mental health journey, on and off the field. I desire to do this through helping athletes feel safe and known while navigating some of life’s biggest questions and trials. I believe that we are wired for connection and that allowing someone safe, like a counselor, to be present with us in our pain can change our lives.
I also believe in a holistic perspective, including exploring how emotional, mental, physical, relational, and spiritual factors affect our mental health. My approach draws on the foundational pillars of an accepting, non-judgmental therapeutic relationship, and integrates elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and values-based counseling, as appropriate.
My interests include helping athletes address grief, trauma, career transitions, anxiety, depression, injury, retirement from sport, and helping athletes navigate relationships on and off the playing field.
I earned my Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Colorado Christian University, as well as a post-master’s certificate in Sports Counseling and Athlete Mental Wellness from California University of Pennsylvania.
Sports Counseling v. Sports Psychology
Sports Counseling is counseling that is tailored to the specific needs of athletes as they work through personal and mental health concerns. These concerns can often include depression, anxiety, stress, grief, trauma, injury, and issues in career, relationships, marriage, and family dynamics. Often these concerns can look different in athletes than they do in non-athletes due to the unique nature of sport culture, training schedules, dynamics with coaches and teammates, physiological differences, prevalence and impact of injuries, performance pressures, and issues with career transition and retirement from sport. Because the life of an elite athlete often looks different than a non-athlete, generalized counselors may be unaware of these special factors influencing an athlete’s mental health. Victory Sports Counseling seeks to support athletes of all stages in these struggles through specialized understanding of sport culture and these unique demands placed on athletes.
Sports Counseling differs from Sports Psychology in that Sports Counseling centers on helping athletes who are struggling with personal or mental health concerns get back to a normal or healthier level of functioning, while Sports Psychology focuses on helping develop optimal performance in already mentally healthy individuals. Both of these are important in the life and career of an athlete, but the focus at Victory Sports Counseling is helping athletes walk through personal and mental health struggles through specialized counseling services. While Victory Sports Counseling does not specialize in sports performance, there is a clear connection between good mental health and mental and physical performance. It is the hope that each athlete who walks through the doors of Victory Sports Counseling will leave feeling healthier mentally, emotionally, and physically, as well as more confident in their desire and ability to perform.
Victory Values
Courage - Being vulnerable is one of the most courageous things we can do as humans.
Healing - Victory is a place of hope for healing and growth, even when it seems impossible.
Grit - Healing and growth take perseverance and require us to stick with things when they feel uncomfortable.
Courage in the arena
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Who is Victory for?
Victory was created for all athletes. Whether you are in high school, just beginning your career, navigating life as a collegiate student-athlete, facing the pressures of professional sports, or adjusting to retirement - Victory is here to support you.