If you are addicted to revenge, or might be, getting to a full recovery might best be accomplished with therapy. Working with a psychologist you are in a safe space to work through issues. A professional can help you develop coping skills that will enable you to enjoy sports again regardless of the inevitable appearance of a ‘bad’ call.
Therapy helps you learn to manage stress and emotions, recognize and change unhealthy patterns, and build resilience through strategies like mindfulness, journaling, and problem-solving. Following a treatment plan, practicing skills between sessions, and being honest with your therapist are crucial for long term success.
You can find a local therapist by speaking with your healthcare provider. There is also an option for selecting a mental health profession who meets with you via online sessions. Regardless, before starting with a therapist, be sure that they are with your health care provider’s network.
Lynn Cormier-Sayarath, a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with more than two decades of experience, is also a faculty member at William James College in Newton, Massachusetts. In 2023, she launched a program called TEAM, which stands for Tackling Every Athlete’s Mental Health. The program grew out of her long career in coaching and counseling, where she worked closely with student athletes who were struggling emotionally, both in their sport and in their personal lives.
Cormier-Sayarath spent 20 years coaching high school field hockey. During that time, she began to notice a consistent pattern in her athletes. Even those who appeared confident and composed were often carrying heavy emotional burdens. In her private practice as a licensed clinical social worker, she began to hear similar stories. She worked with young athletes facing depression, anxiety, eating disorders, post-concussion symptoms, and suicidal thoughts. Some were survivors of suicide loss. In 2022, five NCAA athletes died by suicide. This statistic, paired with what she was seeing in her own practice, pushed her to take action. TEAM became her way of bringing attention to the emotional cost of sports.
The TEAM program combines education with personal stories from athletes who speak openly about their mental health. It is designed to raise awareness and reduce stigma. Cormier-Sayarath believes that the pressures of athletic performance and a long-standing culture of silence make it hard for athletes to ask for help. There is often fear of judgment, not just from peers, but also from family members and coaches. Cormier-Sayarath has seen firsthand how hard it is for athletes to carry the expectation that they must always be tough, focused, and unaffected.
As a coach, she watched some of her most talented players fall apart under the weight of sideline criticism. Parents often shouted across the field, criticizing their own children, the coaches, and the officials. For many athletes, this was a source of deep embarrassment. They had no control over their parents’ actions, but they felt the consequences. On more than one occasion, players asked her to have a parent removed by a site administrator. These requests were quiet but urgent, and they reflected the emotional impact that adult behavior was having on the players.
In her counseling work, Cormier-Sayarath met athletes, from youth recreation players to collegiate athletes on scholarships, who were emotionally overwhelmed. For some, the pressure came from their own high expectations. For others, it came from parents and coaches who prioritized performance above all else. Cormier-Sayarath believes that when adults model aggressive or disrespectful behavior, especially toward officials, it creates an unsafe emotional environment for young athletes to take risks, make mistakes, and ultimately grow both personally and athletically.
After she retired from coaching, she became an official with the Boston Field Hockey Umpires Association. Her background as a player, coach, and clinician gave her a unique view of the game. From behind the whistle, she continued to witness the same patterns of adult misbehavior. She has had to remove parents from games for their treatment of officials. In some cases, she needed to be escorted off the field by an athletic director to avoid post-game retaliation from angry parents. These experiences left her asking important questions about what kind of environment is being created for young athletes and what messages are being sent by the adults in their lives.
As a mother of two competitive athletes herself, she stays aware of her own role in the stands. She sees herself first and foremost as a parent, not a coach or an official. Her job is to support her children, not to control the game. She believes that more parents need to recognize the influence they have and the responsibility that comes with it. Leave the coaching to coaches, the officiating to officials, and “stay in your lane” as your child’s most enthusiastic and supportive fan.
Cormier-Sayarath emphasizes that athletes must be taught to care for their mental health as much as they train for the physicality of their sport. The intensity of competition is not likely to change, but the way adults support young athletes can. She advocates for programs at all levels that teach emotional resilience, help athletes manage pressure, and encourage honest conversations. She points to athletes like Simone Biles and Michael Phelps, who have helped bring mental health into the spotlight. But public awareness is only the beginning.
For Cormier-Sayarath, the message is clear: mental health is not a sideline issue; it’s at the heart of every game.
OF POSSIBLE INTEREST...
https://www.thehiddenopponent.org
https://michaelphelpsfoundation.org
https://mentalhealthfirstaid.org
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2016/5/2/mental-health-best-practices.aspx
https://www.sarahshulzefoundation.org
https://www.childrenshospital.org/programs/female-athlete-program
https://mentalhealthandsport.org/athlete-ambassadors