Hello

My journey to the intersection of psychologist and athlete has been a long and winding road with many hills and valleys. For many years, I have also been on a journey of self-experimentation to bring out the best in myself academically and athletically, to be a person of moral integrity, and be valued by those with whom I have a relationship. As a clinical psychologist, my work has been motivated by wanting to help others who have reached such a place of despair in life that they miss out on life itself. However, helping people get out of a rut and being in very negative territory for me is only half the story. It is one thing to go from minus 9 to plus 2, but quite another to go from plus 2 to plus 10. Many of us leave a lot of our potential in life untapped for various reasons - self-limiting beliefs possibly being foremost - and to me, it is sad that folks may go to their deathbed with regrets of a life half-lived. My coaching mission is thus to help bring out your A+ game for life, every single day! At a practical level, this means resolving issues such as low motivation, lacking a sense of purpose or direction in life, achieving various health goals such as fitness or weight loss, managing stress, and building healthy relationships.

 

I grew up in South Africa and had a few adversities to overcome to get to where I am now, a process that has been helpful for me to be understanding of others’ personal life challenges, yet also pushing them to also be overcomers. I grew up in middle-class South Africa, which was not too bad but also a few rungs lower on the ladder than middle-class America. I became very competitive in the (definitely-not-mainstream) sport of bodyboarding (see pics on this site or google it if you have never heard of it:) from the age of 12 or 13. Even at that age, I was self-experimenting with cross-training techniques and nutrition, although my resources were quite limited at the time. By age 18, I was 7x South African champion. In my 20’s I emigrated to the US but had a rough start due to financial constraints. There were some stretches early on when I ran clear out of money, and with my last few dollars, had to buy a tent and sleep on the beach for months in Hawaii, the surfing mecca of the world, to build competitive experience and gain exposure. While there are significantly greater challenges that many people face in life, it was still a small taste of the life of the homeless, being without a bed, a bathroom, or hot meals or showers for a few months! Things eventually began to work out and in my first year competing in the US, I became the US national champ. In the years that followed on the bodyboarding world tour, I had a few top 5 finishes and came within a hair of a world title at least once (something I’m still a bit mad at myself for not having done, but if I had known then what I know now, that may have been different!). 

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After my competitive stint diminished, I enrolled in college and eventually pursued my doctorate in clinical psychology from an APA-accredited school with rigorous academic standards. I was quite pleased to graduate with a 3.98GPA, which at the doctoral level is not a bad accomplishment, especially considering I worked part-time during school, along with the 20 hours a week of clinical training that were part of the course for 4 years, and also spent copious amounts of time studying other health-related materials outside of the syllabus of the program to support my dissertation research. 

 

Currently, I am a practicing clinical psychologist, and coaching is my other passion. However, I also try to lead by example, lest my words and counsel appear empty. I hold myself to rigorous health and training standards, and continually push myself to grow my knowledge base, sometimes consuming a book a week. I also try to throw myself novel challenges that test my mental and physical abilities to learn new skills and apply what I know from the scientific inquiry of learning, visualization, and neuroplasticity. After surfing sporadically in life (as in picking up a surfboard now and then, but then going years at a time without touching one), I began surfing in earnest at age 47, just out of curiosity to see where I could take it. Although still a wave-riding activity, surfing is vastly different technically than bodyboarding, and it entailed a substantial learning curve that I still find challenging. At my next birthday and at the time of writing just over a month away, I will turn 50, but mentally and physically, feel much as I did at 17 (and yes I was in great shape at 17, not feeling 50 at the time haha), so it will be interesting to see where this mental and physical training all leads. At a minimum, I hope that with what I learn by doing and experimenting with, I will also be able to help others, especially when it comes to stretching boundaries and going beyond what people think is possible in their lives.

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If you feel like you are not all you can be and have the itch to dig deeper into whom you can really become, please reach out here for your free initial consult, and we can see if this type of coaching is the right fit for you!