Minding Your Mind Creates Mental Health Education Program for Athletes

With the loss of seasons, practice, the gym, connection, comradery, and structure due to academic and league shutdowns during the pandemic, student-athletes have been struggling with the loss of identity that often comes with a team experience. In response, Minding Your Mind created a program that promotes conversations around resilience and specifically addresses coping with these changes.

 

Led by director of corporate programs and young adult speaker Andrew Onimus, “This is Hard: Finding Your Way” is a conversation about finding hope and building resiliency during a time of individual and collective struggle. A former Division III student-athlete himself, Andrew is able to share his story through this common experience. This program has been in high demand for college athletic departments as well as middle school, high school, and club teams. To date, Andrew has presented more than fifty programs to athletic departments and teams, and spoken to student-athletes and staff at nearly 30 colleges and universities. “It is not a weakness to need help,” emphasizes Onimus. “Sharing relatable stories to encourage others is a powerful way to start the conversation. Participation in these workshops is typically voluntary, yet I’ve seen huge turnouts and amazing interaction. That reaction is extremely validating to what Minding Your Mind is trying to accomplish in filling this need.”