Unit3d w/ B1G Team at Indiana University

As a football player for the University of Michigan, Joe Taylor knew he had so much going for him. As he was challenged by depression, he realized that no matter how great your life is, depression is an illness that can happen for anyone. He reached out for help and learned that people care more than he realized. His experiences made him stronger, and he encourages others to be courageous in askin...

Bella Fiorenzo experienced struggles along her way to playing soccer in college, and utilizing sport psychology resources as a collegiate athlete helped her establish a space of support.  As her confidence grew, so did her leadership skills and she was named captain of her team her senior year.  She experienced her use of sport psychology performance-related services as preventative and inspired h...

Representation matters, and representation can be vital when it comes to mental health professionals available for student-athletes. The fit in the relationship between an athlete and a therapist is vital to healing, and being able to have a therapist that shares a cultural perspective and experience can facilitate that road to optimal mental wellness. Dr. Marcus Dumas (Dr. Du) discusses the impor...

During the holidays the Unit3d team will be taking a break. Because holidays can be hectic and even stressful, the Unit3d team is once again bringing you a series of guided meditations, relaxations, and visual imageries recorded by various mental health professionals to help give you some peace. We will be back with great new episodes mid-January. The last in our relaxation series for this holiday...

During the holidays the Unit3d team will be taking a break. Because holidays can be hectic and even stressful, the Unit3d team is once again bringing you a series of guided meditations, relaxations, and visual imageries recorded by various mental health professionals to help give you some peace. We will be back with great new episodes mid-January. Our thoughts often take away from our feelings of...

During the holidays the Unit3d team will be taking a break. Because the beginning of a new year can be hectic and even stressful, the Unit3d team is once again bringing you a series of guided meditations, relaxations, and visual imageries recorded by various mental health professionals to help give you some peace. We will be back with great new episodes in a couple of weeks!  Bella Fiorenzo, pre-d...

During the holidays the Unit3d team will be taking a break. Because holidays can be hectic and even stressful, the Unit3d team is once again bringing you a series of guided meditations, relaxations, and visual imageries recorded by various mental health professionals to help give you some peace. We will be back with great new episodes mid-January. With the holidays coming to a close and the new ye...

During the holidays the Unit3d team will be taking a break. Because holidays can be hectic and even stressful, the Unit3d team is once again bringing you a series of guided meditations, relaxations, and visual imageries recorded by various mental health professionals to help give you some peace.  We will be back with great new episodes mid-January. The first of our meditations for the holidays is...

For the last of our 3-part series on gratitude, Dr. LaTisha Bader returns to the Unit3d podcast to discuss the mindset of gratitude. Gratitude as a practice seems simple but can be difficult to engage in consistently. LaTisha discusses the neurology around gratitude, the difficulties in maintaining a practice that supports that mindset, and the benefits that having that mindset can facilitate.

Gratitude is a practice known to improve mental health as well as performance, but Dr. Kate Bennett proclaims gratitude as a lifestyle she has lived for over 20 years. The path to success, particularly for athletes involves suffering, and gratitude can help us thrive through the difficult times we experience both on that path as well as in our life. In this second part of our 3-part pre-holidays g...

As we head into the holiday season, Unit3d is doing a 3-part series on gratitude. Gratitude has been researched a great deal and has been shown to have wonderful benefits to our mental health, but also can improve our performance in sport. To kick off the series, we have Dr. Jeff Ruser, CMPC, talking about his perspective on the benefits of gratitude, the ways to practice gratitude, and the mental...

Growing up with a professional athlete as a father, Harlee Walker and her siblings grew up with an idea of what it meant to be. “mentally tough”. When Harlee moved across the country to play softball, she began to experience feelings of sadness and emptiness that she couldn’t explain. Hearing the Hilinskis bring their story to the athletes at her school, she was able to realize that it’s OK to not...

Often athletes don’t think of themselves as creative people, but it takes creativity to perform at our best. Dr. Breigh Jones-Coplin developed a relationship with her creative side in 2020 when she began exploring flower arranging. Having found her creative venture to be therapeutic, she opened her business, Black + Blossomed, LLC. In this episode of Unit3d, Dr. Jones-Coplin talks about tapping in...

Ali Weisz competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, has earned 12 international medals, an individual World Championship Gold and currently holds the World Record in Women’s 10m Air Rifle.  Despite success, she has experienced burnout, anxiety, and other mental health challenges.  On this episode of Unit3d, Ali shares what it is like to fight through periods of burnout, the importance of leaning on a c...

Paris Hilinski is the niece of Mark and Kym Hilinski.  Her rise to professional golf was very fast: she started playing golf when she had just turned 14 and a year later, after her 8th tournament, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open.  During covid she realized she needed to see herself as more than a golfer and more than her performance so she began to build a brand and venture in to the influ...

It is not uncommon for athletes to question themselves and feel as though what they are doing is not good enough. When the feeling that we are not good enough is pervasive and results in us feeling as though we are an imposter and that someone will find us out it is called imposter syndrome. Challenging the thought that we don’t belong is vital for believing that we are enough and right where we a...

Ole Miss Athletics Counselor D’Jenne Egharevba (Dee Dee) grew up with the message “we don’t talk about your feelings” in her family.  As a first generation American the anxiety she experienced was channeled into running.  Despite her success as an athlete, she still struggled to enjoy her sport.  As a student-athlete, she decided to pursue a career in mental health counseling to help other athlete...

Awareness has increased in the past few years about the importance of representation in the realm of mental health. When an athlete sees someone who looks like them in the role of a clinician, it increases the comfort level that athlete may have in seeking support from mental health professionals.  Dr. Chelsi Battle, our very own Unit3d editor, talks about the value of building bridges between ath...

Edose Ibadin is a professional runner who attributes his improvements in his sport to mental training.  He recognizes how vital training the mind is to success in sport, but also sees how little time is dedicated to building mental skills.  In this episode of Unit3d, Edose discusses how mindset and mental skills can help athletes excel in their sport, but also how it can help athletes get through...

Professional soccer player Jack Beer wanted to fit in with his team and thrive as a person when he began his college career at Georgetown University.  After his freshman year however, he began to question whether he wanted to keep playing and doubt and injury took a toll on his mental health.  He was able to talk with his coaches and take a step back from the game.  When he returned the support he...

Fueling our bodies is so important for athletes for performance, but it is also important for our mental health.  We often worry a great deal about what we are eating but we often disregard how nutrition impacts our mood.  How we think about food as well as our relationship with food also can affect our mental health.  Kate Callaway, Director of Performance Nutrition for the Carolina Panthers disc...

Classes are rolling as the semester rolls on.  Athletes have likely lost the initial idea of getting ahead, and it seems like there’s enough semester left to leave some tasks for later.  Well, avoidance is common.  We avoid in our relationships, in academics, and personal growth.  Joining us for this UNIT3D episode is Dr. Tom Golightly, who gives tips for recognizing avoidance and strategies for o...

Transitioning out of sport often has a negative impact on an athletes mental health. Similar to losing the athlete uniform, transitioning outs of the military can be difficult as one’s identity shifts. Nate Boyer knows both of these journeys as he played Division I football, and then spent a year in the NFL after having served as a Green Beret deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.  He has taken his pa...

When student-athletes come together to support each other, meaningful change can happen.  At Duke University, there are several groups that support different aspects of student-athlete mental health.  Dr. Shawn Zeplin talks about how student-athletes can start a mental health group on their own campus and the benefits to the entire department/community that can come from student-athlete involvemen...

Improv may be an unexpected topic for our Unit3d listeners, but there a many similarities between the sports world and improv.  Athletes can learn a great deal from those who perform improv, whether it’s thinking quickly on your feet or responding to changing situations.  Similar to athletes, improvisers conquer fears to put themselves out there, take risks, and succeed by failing.  Improviser, ac...