While I work with a niche group of athletes, it is important to understand that athlete face the same stressors as anyone else, and these stressors can impact mental focus and physical performance. It is also, mental health awareness month which for some may provide a reason to seek therapy. So, let me point out the top three reasons that people come into therapy.

Financial Stress

The moment we become adults, or become responsible for paying for our own livelihood, finances become an immediate factor in our lives. Financial stress includes, debts, bills, unforeseen expenses, living expenses and everything in between. Particularly for adults males, this is one of the strongest factors leading to suicide ideation and mental health concerns.

Tool:

Having a serious conversation with yourself (or with a therapist) and/or with your partner about financial goal and obligations will typically clear the air. From there, talking about what needs to be done to reach your goals and obligations would be the next step.

Relational Stress

As humans, relationships being important are built into our core and shape our world at a young age. Relational stress incudes our relationships with our parents, our partners, close friends and everything in between. The highlight of mental health concerns focuses is on the romantic relationships from our late teenage years and into your adult years. Often times a loss of a relationship signals a loss of close connection, a foundation of us being human.

Tool:

Take some time to put energy into other relationships that you can get your connection from. A reason therapy is useful is because there is a connection that allows you to feel valued, heard and helps you identify ways around your problems without feeling you are alone in it.

Physical Health and Appearance

Lingering health issues can take a toll mentally, especially if it keeps you from doing things you enjoy or has a pain factor to it. The same goes with appearance, where you have to look at yourself everyday in discontent because you believe you should look a certain way or don’t look how you did before. Neither of these problems have overnight fixes and acceptance is not an easy pill to swallow.

Tool:

Lingering health – discover what can be changed and what is not able to be changed. What can you live with and for things that you can not live with, who can you consult with to help you find solutions?

Body Image – There are a lot of great resources that you can utilize, such as trainers, dietitians and so on. For those who do not want to get into a gym, there are great at home workouts you can do to stay in the safety of your own home and online trainers that can formulate a plan to help you with accountability and plan formation.

Of course, mental health concerns come from a much larger variety of problems, so this is not the limit. Therapy is not only a great resources to process these problems and form a connection but is also a great place to get extended resources. Even without coming into my office, if you need resources I will be more than happy to reach out to my network of people who can help you. Matter of a fact here is one that I know would be great resource for those needing help with body image and food planning:

Javon Taylor – Personal Trainer & Owner of Taylor’d Fit

He is one who does small groups and individual training and has an app to use, with great focus on the client from specialized workouts to throwing out ideas about food choices that can make an impact in your life. He can be reached at:

Javon@taylord-fit.om

Instagram: taylordfitllc

At Trail Blazer Therapy, we focus on care beyond the therapy room and utilizing resources to improve every aspect of life as possible. Need help being pointed in the right direction? Reach out and we can get something figured out to help!

-Malique Taylor

Malique@trailblazer-therapy.com

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