Evolve Family Counseling and Sports Psychotherapy

11/21/2025

11/16/2025

It was again a privilege to lead and sponsor another fantastic The Ryan Bartel Foundation event on Saturday. The event encouraged young boys to ‘take off the mask’ and connect for their mental health. It was an honor to have former NFL player, Marcus Smith II, as our guest speaker, inspiring the boys with his stories of success and struggle.

11/12/2025

11/11/2025

Even the toughest players struggle off the pitch 😔

This is the raw truth from Tomáš Souček revealed in his new autobiography “Suk”👇

🗣️ ”Two years of horror. I was ashamed to talk about it for a long time. Even my parents, until I decided to write my confession, had no idea that something bad was happening. Something that bothered me so much that I thought about ending my career.”

🗣️ “Insomnia. Depression. Fear of the future. My thirteenth chamber. You don’t believe it, do you? I don’t really understand it in retrospect either. Where others won’t put their foot because they’re scared of the pain, I jump headfirst. I can’t count the scars on my body, I finish matches with my head bandaged, but this hurt my soul.”

🗣️ “At first it was only slightly annoying, but after a few months it became unbearable. I was at the bottom, I would run into every match without sleep. Every match! Can you imagine? I was afraid of failure, I was afraid of reactions, I was afraid of everything.”

Mental health is just as important as physical health. If you’re struggling, speak up. Share it. Seek support. You’re not alone, and strength comes from acknowledging the fight inside as much as the fight on the pitch. ❤️

10/13/2025

Jude Bellingham has opened up on his mental health:

“With the development of social media and technology, there’s more ways to attack someone, to make them feel down – and I think there’s still a stigma around talking about mental health.

“I know there’s been times where I’ve felt vulnerable, doubted myself and needed someone to talk to – and, instead, I’ve tried to keep up this macho athlete image of, ‘I don’t need anyone’.

“The truth is that I do, everyone does. And you’ll feel a lot better from talking about your feelings and emotions.”

09/17/2025

Well-being and mental health care for sports participants and competitors can start with...

-Psychologically Safe Environments: where the thoughts, feelings, experiences and personalities of its participants are considered when striving to understand behaviour (and when considering every policy, every practice, and every process).

“Who is the person and why do they behave in this way...and how can we best behave and interact with this person.”

-An attitude that every person counts: if they’re here, then we care!

-Psychological safety: giving participants a voice in policy, practice, and process...and where participants are given a safe space to express vulnerability (while appreciating individual differences in attitude towards such safety)

-Motivational climate: leaning towards a mastery orientation (a focus on developmental and performance tasks), while appreciating individual differences in motivational patterns, from internal (feeding intrinsic rewards) to external (feeding extrinsic rewards).

-Safe uncertainty (thanks Dr Suzanne Brown): providing safety with the above approaches, while providing an environment that stretches (a balance between stretch and support).

-Coach-athlete relationships that are close, committed, co-operative, and co-orientated (see work of Professor Sophia Jowett)

-Optimal coaching engagement: a range of coaching practices from free play through deliberate practice through conditioned activities

-Coach with strong teaching skills to enhance learning: a strong knowledge of cognitive architecture of the brain (working memory and long term memory) helping players to enjoy the process of learning

-Teaching that encompasses decision-making: a strong knowledge of decision-making models

-Comprehensive player development plans: what, how, why...providing players with greater certainty as to where they are with their game

-Mental skills frameworks for all...shared!

-Leadership and teamship development on and off the pitch (court): simple, practical ideas that give players the opportunity to experience leadership and develop both task and social cohesion

-Incorporation of positive psychology practices including gratitude, optimism etc where possible

Mental health and well-being in a sports setting starts with helping players have an adaptive, flexible, and positive relationship with engagement, development and performance (that isn’t to suggest that it is highly recommended that clubs with resources offer access to appropriately trained clinical professionals for mental health education and intervention, but it is to say that coach practice and coach environment matter!)

It’s so important that our biggest sporting organisations/clubs sit with complexity, and strive to understand the dynamic sporting environment their participants are engaged in (and avoid making isolated and arbitrary decisions around their mental health strategies)

Performance, development, mental health, and well-being are heavily integrated

09/17/2025

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08/20/2025

Today we recognize our amazing Intern, Amanda Johnson, who is close to completing grad school at Liberty University, and will soon enter Residency. Amanda enjoys work with children and families and is deeply passionate about work with our Veterans and First Responders.

Later this year Evolve FCSP will begin the process of establishing a non-profit practice alongside our current one that will offer needs-based services to uniformed services/veterans, as well as lower-income families. Amanda will be an important part of our team when we offer these services. Please join us in celebrating the great work that Amanda does in our communities!! We will continue to profile each of our providers over the next few months.

PLEASE NOTE: our intern rates are just $35/session and are a valuable and cost-effective way to secure mental health support for you or your family.

08/15/2025

07/28/2025

We are offering a Back-to-School Social Skills Group for High School aged boys. Please contact Clinical Director, Dave Edwards, LPC with questions, or to sign up. (703) 309-2075 daelpc@protonmail.com

06/23/2025

The head coach looks on and grimaces. His star player is at it again.

Lethargic, flat…feet that look heavy-laden!

One week this ‘star player’ floats around the pitch, making himself available, lending the ball and demanding it back. Influencing in the middle of the park, a world be**er, seemingly irreplaceable.

The next…
.sack-race constriction, an apathetic look, space uncovered, a lack of urgency, an apparent unwillingness to seek out the ball. As replaceable as a TV/DVD combo!

Players who enjoy a great deal of skill in their feet, or an ability to see the game in a way others can’t, don’t always enjoy the same type of gifts with their mindset. Mental skill doesn’t necessarily follow technical skill

At the elite level of the game, the intuitive response is to shout at this player. It’s to allow your frustration to spill into your communication with this player. It’s to drive your point home firmer, louder, harder

But this often makes the situation worse. Insistence often leads to resistance

Why?

Because the inconsistency this player is showing is unlikely to be his or her fault. Sometimes it is, but often it’s not

Human functioning is complex. This player is probably experiencing this behaviour rather than ‘doing’ this behaviour. Through brain and body connections this player is probably experiencing powerful sensations, feelings, emotions, and thoughts that cause them to feel lethargic and flat, and not quite in the frame of mind conducive to the kind of speedy anticipation and decision-making required for top-flight games

Lethargy happens to players
Doubt happens to players
Worry happens to players
Anxiety happens to players

A drop in confidence happens to players.

This player doesn’t need a louder voice next to him or her (necessarily!) This player needs skills…mental skills! Aptitudes that help them to deal with the inner sensations that disconnect them from the game and the task at hand.

They need to know their optimal mental state and have triggers to help them return to this all-important state of mind. They need to be able to flex their attention using self-regulatory
techniques to take them away from these bodily feelings and onto task-relevant cues in their environment.

And that’s just for starters…As a coach it’s imperative to adopt the attitude: “My players will have enormous mental challenges when they compete. They will be distracted. They will drop in intensity or rise too high. It’s very likely they will experience inhibition at some point.”

That’s not being negative. That’s adopting an attitude that players will be challenged and thus they require tangible solutions, and an ability to execute those solutions when need be

And this is where you probably need to find a way to help players to develop mental skills. You probably need to introduce these skills into your coaching processes within your coaching practice.

Players rarely need stern words thrown in their direction. But they always need mental skills

05/30/2025

Congratulations to The Hull Boy, who became the youngest person to run the length of the UK at just 17 years old. 1347KM Ran (837 miles) Doing so he managed to raise £111,000 for Mind charity,

"I’m an emotional mess tonight but I just want to say, no matter how dark a place you are in. It can and WILL get better. 2 years ago I was in the darkest place in my life, 2 years later we have made history.

Thank you to everyone who believed in me. I love you all very much. I’ll do a post when I’m able to process what’s just happened. Mental health matters ❤️"