What types of athletes do you serve?

All types. I work with athletes that compete in individual and team sports, sprint and endurance events, adventure races, martial arts, and most every other sport you can imagine.

Because I am life/performance coach I do not need to know the intricacies of your sport. We will leave that to the skills and team coaches. I often teach clients to distinguish between skill set, mind set, and heart set… and our work focuses on the latter two.

Do I have to be a professional athlete to work with you?

Nope. I work with professionals, amateurs (including Olympic level), collegiate and high school athletes.

What is your favorite sport?

I was a team sport athlete all the way until I discovered endurance sports and trail running. A good day for me is 6 hours of traversing mountain ridges on single track. That said, I’ll always have a warm place in my heart for basketball (March Madness is a bit of a holiday in my house). Baseball in October is hard to beat. So are major golf championships. In winter I get creative with my schedule so I can be on the mountain skiing as much as possible

How is coaching different from therapy?

As a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Washington I serve therapy clients through my private practice (www.matthewasmithcounseling.com).

When I am working in a coaching capacity I do not utilize clinical tools like assessment and diagnosis, and coaching is not covered by insurance.

While I do employ concepts and skills from the field of clinical mental health, I do not function as a therapist for coaching clients. If I assess during our work together that you would benefit from mental health care I will do my absolute best to get you connected to a mental health provider.

Can I work with you as a coaching client and a therapy client?

No. For all of our well being I keep client rosters for coaching and therapy separate.

What is Deep Performance?

I love that question, and dare you to find out. It’s the ability to play with your fear and limitations so that your deepest/wisest self emerges, ready to compete with confidence and play with purpose. Sounds exhilarating, right?