Therapy for Athletes

Athletes of all levels (high school, college, and professional) face unique stressors that can pile up to create mental health issues. These stressors may include concern about injuries, body image and body functioning concerns, difficulties navigating relationships with food, work-life balance, performance pressure, scrutiny from coaches, scrutiny or pressure from family and friends, time commitments that leave little room for other parts of life, and race and sociocultural factors.

You Are Not in This Alone, Therapy for Athletes Can Help

Despite these various pressures, athletes are less likely to seek out mental health support than their peers. At Wildflower Therapy, our team of skilled therapists wants you to know that you do not have to go it alone. We have helped many athletes navigate mental health issues. Some of us are even collegiate-level athletes ourselves! (Ok one of us - Sam, our resident athlete expert, was a rower in college.)

Our Experience with Therapy for Athletes

Our therapists have a vast amount of experience helping athletes who also have eating disorders. We recognize that the challenges of recovery from an eating disorder can be different for athletes - and we respect these differences. Our team knows how difficult an eating disorder can make your life as an athlete. How struggling in secrecy with food, and feeling obsessed with weight can create a mounting, simmering pressure cooker experience that can suck the joy right out of your sport.

Our Team Meets You Where You Are

We will work with you and meet you where you are. In some cases, we can work with you to move towards eating disorder recovery without interruption of your training. In other cases, athletes can benefit from time off. However, we understand this can be difficult and can work with you to help ensure that you keep your athlete identity and that you are able to one day return to your sport should you wish to do so.

At Wildflower Therapy, we are here to support whatever path feels best for you right now. We have partnered with coaches in the past and collaborated with dietitians who also specialize in working with athletes. We understand and can tailor treatment to the unique challenges, requirements, and demands of competitive sports.

Student Athletes & Intercollegiate Athletics

Intercollegiate athletics is a culture unto itself. The pressures and demands on student-athletes are incredibly unique. From performance pressure to the stress of daily practices and travel, to the not-so-small stressor of also balancing a full academic load- the demands are intense. We understand and want you to know that we can help. Our team can tailor our work together to make it work for you. We can also refer you to dietitians or nutritionists that are well-versed in sports nutrition (and then collaborate with these dietitians in our work together).

At Wildflower Therapy we have worked with student-athletes around a huge range of concerns.

Some examples of these concerns:

  • Body image struggles

  • Eating disorders

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • General stress related to scheduling or the lifestyle

  • Perfectionism

  • Identity outside of your sport

Asking for help does not make you weak. We are here to support you!

How Can Therapy for Athletes Help?

If you are an athlete and find yourself struggling with mental health, we would be honored to help you address those needs. Whether you prefer in-person therapy or virtual therapy, our therapists are available and ready to help. Below are some steps to follow if you feel overwhelmed and would like to ask for help:

Step One:

Visit our About page to get a better understanding of who we are and what we stand for!

Step Two:

We encourage you to get to know a little bit about our therapists, their specializations, and their credentials. Get to know them here.

Step Three:

If you feel like we would be a good fit for you, please reach out to us to set up a free 30-minute consultation here. We look forward to hearing from you!

Step Four:

Begin your journey to self-healing and understanding!

Mental Health Services Provided by Wildflower Therapy, Philadelphia, PA

Life is a unique journey for each of us and we all have our individual battles to fight. We know there is no one-size-fits-all approach to any of life’s difficulties and we offer many unique perspectives and approaches to help meet you where you are with our Philadelphia, PA Therapy services. In Addition, we offer services for body image counseling, and services for depression and anxiety, and have practitioners who specialize in LGBTQIA+ affirming care. We also offer specialized therapy for college students and athletes. There are even therapists who specialize in perinatal and postnatal support. Reaching out is often the most difficult step you can take to improve your mental health. And it is also the most important step you can take toward recovery. We look forward to helping you on this journey!

We are licensed to provide therapy to clients residing in PA, NJ, DE, FL, MA, VA, and VT, as well as students living in any of these states (even if your parents live elsewhere).