The Mindful

Let me count the ways! Let me start with a story. Over the past several years as a sport psychologist, I’ve seen how injured athletes get physical training plans filled with plenty of PT exercises. The individual clients I’ve worked with have always had some sort of physical protocol. But what about the mental one?! I searched far and wide, scanned through journal articles and textbooks, and aside from the basic resources like online blog posts or book chapters behind payrolls, I came up with nothing. As a former professor who still does research in the field, and as someone who has an OVERWHELMING COMPULSION (for real…) to fill gaps in the field, I got to work. I gathered over 40 subject matter experts in the field of injury recovery and I asked them one question: “What are the actions, thoughts, and feelings that injured athletes need to optimize their injury rehabilitation process?” This resulted in a list of 200 items. I cleaned the data, got it down to 100 items, and then went back to my subject matter experts and asked them to do the following:

Sort the 100 items into categories based on similarity in content

Rate each item based on how important it is for athletes to do

Rate each item based on how challenging it typically is for athletes to do

What did I find? 8 core clusters that athletes need to focus on. And what did I do with those clusters? I turned them into a course. VOILA! I’m writing up that research for publication now, but research isn’t helpful when it’s limited to the ivory tower of academia. So I also turned it into a course. That is this course.

From there, I compiled some of the best tools from evidonce-based approaches to mental health therapy. I then tweaked and customized each and every one so that it was specific to injury recovery, and then created a module around it.

So, to sum it up, this course is different because the information comes from an interdisciplinary team of physical therapists, orthopedic physicians, dietitians, sport psychologists, coaches, and more. I made sense of all of the information so that it’s easy to read and digest, and then created specific exercises designed to tap into all of this great info. This course is special to me, and I’m super proud of it. You quite literally can’t find anything else like it–especially in traditional talk therapy (This is coming from a therapist. I get it! I do sport psychology for a reason!)

Honestly, the more stretched and pulled you feel, the more important it probably is for you to enroll. We know stress can negatively affect the injury rehabilitation process for a number of reasons.

So here’s the thing… the more you put into this course, the more you’ll get out of it. Revamping your mental skills so that they start working for you instead of against you takes time, patience, and persistence–just like the physical recovery process. Each lesson has about 15 minutes of content between the videos and the readings. Each at-home exercise will probably take another 15 minutes, depending on how serious you are about it. For real tangible results? The more consistent you are with these skills when applying them to your day-to-day life, the more they’ll help those stress levels.

I know you’re maxed out, and that might sound scary, but it’s only overwhelming if you stay on this side of the fence.

If you know right now that your current patten is unsustainable and a one-way-ticket to burnout or re-injury, then I’ll be the first to tell you that you need to find a way to block off the time.

On my end, I PROMISE to spare you from any impractical fluff and lay out exactly what you need to do to feel improvements. If you put in all of the work and you think it was a complete waste of time, email me, and we’ll figure out how to move forward in a way that feels good to both of us.

As long as Skadi is in business! And I have no plans on going anywhere :) If for any reason I changed online hosting platforms or my business model (which I do NOT see myself doing), I’ll make sure all of my students receive archived content and material. I care deeply about this community and I will not leave you high and dry. In fact, the course will just continue to get better and better–and YOU, my friend, will get all of the updates and improvements along the way.

Want some details? Here’s what we’ve got in store for you!

We first start with the getting started module, which includes a welcome lesson, instructions on how to navigate the course platform and join the online community, a bit about your instructor (me!), and an outline and objectives. You’ll then take a 15 minute assessment about your injury rehabilitation experience AND you’ll get personalized feedback on what your scores mean. These scores conveniently line up with the following course lessons. Each lesson below includes a coaching video, a reading, and a follow-up exercise for you to apply the content you learn:

-Lesson 1: Leaning into your social support network (and what this actually looks like)

-Lesson 2: How to create a robust team of healthcare providers who can guide you through your journey

-Lesson 3: Active recovery participation and what it means for the ATHLETE (you!) to take ownership over your recovery experience

-Lesson 4: How to listen to your body, understand your injury, and stay motivated to get your rehab exercises done

-Lesson 5: How to optimize nutrition and sleep (and why this is important for injured athletes)

-Lesson 6: Unpacking resilience, self-advocacy, and the skills needed to maintain an optimist mindset

-Lesson 7: Leaning into self-compassion, focusing on the bigger picture, and separating your athletic identity from other parts of your identity when needed

-Lesson 8: How to optimize your stress levels via a stress audit, prioritize mental health, and embrace holistic recovery.

And then, we’ve got the applied skills:

-Taking Goal Setting to the Next Level: Values serve as guiding principles that direct your actions and decisions, especially during injury recovery. In this lesson, we will explore the concept of values, reflect on your experiences, and identify your top three values to better navigate the journey of injury recovery.

-Coming to Terms with Self-Sabotage: We dive into the concept of “toward moves” and “away moves,” behaviors that can either help or hinder progress toward your recovery goals. Recognizing these behaviors is crucial for developing healthier coping mechanisms and ensuring a holistic recovery.

-Dealing with Unpleasant Thoughts: In this lesson, we talk about how you can combine physical rehabilitation with cognitive defusion techniques to overcome setbacks with resilience and determination.

-Dealing with Unpleasant Emotions: Learn to get curious about your feelings, question your assumptions, and control impulses for successful recovery.

-Dealing with Unpleasant Situations: Face reality, understand causes, & accept your injury rather than trying to ignore it or override it.

-Fear of Reinjury: In this lesson, we dive into the nuances of fear during injury rehabilitation, noting how self-acceptance can fuel resilience. By discussing potential fear traps and practical techniques, athletes can walk away feeling more equipped to use fear as a powerful driver for growth and determination in their journey toward recovery.

Given the digital nature of all of this amazing content, we do not offer refunds for courses or products, including The Mindful Comeback.

I recommend these materials for athletes 14 and older.

✔️ You're a dedicated athlete facing the challenging road of injury rehabilitation, with your main focus on a sustainable and effective recovery.

✔️ You've been trying to navigate your way through various rehabilitation programs for months (or even years) but haven't been able to find a method that truly resonates with you or provides lasting progress.

✔️ You're ALREADY investing extra time and energy doing things like researching recovery techniques, experimenting with different exercises, compensating for your injury in day-to-day activities, and seeking advice from various professionals... and you're concerned this cycle will continue until you either burn out or your recovery stalls significantly, unless something changes.

✔️ You care deeply about your sport and your return to it, and you're skeptical when you hear generic rehabilitation advice that seems outdated or irrelevant to modern understanding of sports science and psychology.

✔️ Despite past disappointments, you're currently feeling a surge of optimism, knowing that by this time tomorrow, you can start integrating a straightforward yet surprisingly effective strategy for enhancing your rehabilitation.

Nope! This course is designed for the everyday athlete. The weekend warrior. The student athlete who just got the news regarding their first major injury and now they're unsure where to turn.