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Understanding Therapy for Athletes | Meet Kim | Who are the Clients I See | FAQs
Mental Health Counseling & Therapy for Athletes
In-person therapy in Pasadena, serving the greater Los Angeles area, and online therapy for athletes in San Francisco and throughout California.
For high school, college, competitive, and former athletes navigating pressure, performance anxiety, injury, burnout, identity, grief, and life transitions — with support for parents and coaches, too.
Athletic Identity & Mental Health: When Being an Athlete Becomes Part of Who You Are
For many athletes, sports aren’t just something you do. They become part of how you know yourself.
You may be known as the soccer player. The swimmer. The runner. The basketball player. The volleyball player. You may be the person who works hard, pushes through, competes, stays disciplined, and doesn’t quit.
There can be a lot of good in that.
Sports can give you community, structure, confidence, discipline, friendships, purpose, and the experience of working really hard toward something that matters to you. But when so much of your identity becomes connected to being an athlete, it can be hard when that part of your life starts to change.
You might find yourself wondering:
Who am I if I’m not competing?
What if I’m not as good as I thought I was or I used to be?
What if I don’t make it?
What if I don’t want this anymore?
We don’t have to rush to answer those questions. We can get curious about them together. Because there is a whole person underneath the athlete.
Grief & Loss in Sports: When Things Don't Go the Way You Hoped
Sometimes you love your sport. You worked hard, sacrificed, and spent years imagining where it might take you.
And then it doesn't happen.
Maybe you didn't get recruited or make the team. Maybe your body couldn't keep up with what the sport demanded or an injury changed things. Maybe burnout took away some of the love you once had for competing. Maybe you had all the skills but you did not have access to resources you need. Maybe you were good—but the next level required something you simply didn't have.
Or maybe life took you somewhere else.
People around you might say: "But you still have so much ahead of you." And that can be true.
You can have a future and still grieve the future you thought you were going to have.
We don't have to rush past that grief. In therapy, we can make room for what the sport meant to you, what you're losing, what you're keeping, and who you want to become next. The goal isn't to convince you that your sport didn't matter.
It mattered. And your story still has more than where your sport takes you.
Sports Injuries & Mental Health: Healing Beyond the Physical
An injury can change things very quickly. One day you’re training, competing, and moving toward your goals. Then suddenly you’re watching from the sidelines.
You may be dealing with pain, rehab, uncertainty, missed opportunities, changes in your body, or fear about whether you’ll ever perform the same way again.
And sometimes the emotional part catches you off guard.
You might feel angry or restless. Disconnected from your teammates. Jealous watching other people compete. Afraid of reinjury. Guilty for struggling when people keep telling you to “stay positive.” Or unsure of who you are when you can’t do the thing that usually makes you feel most like yourself.
Your body may be the part that was injured, but that doesn’t mean your body is the only part that needs care.
Performance Anxiety, Perfectionism & Athlete Burnout
Athletes get very good at pushing through.
One more rep. One more practice. One more game. Keep going. Don’t complain. Be coachable. Work harder.
Sometimes that mindset helps you do things you didn’t know you were capable of doing, but other times the same ability to push through makes it harder to notice when you’re exhausted.
One mistake can stay with you long after the game is over. You might constantly compare yourself to teammates, feel like you have to prove you deserve your spot, or worry about disappointing your coach, your family, your teammates, or yourself. Even resting can come with guilt.
And sometimes, you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do while quietly wondering:
“Do I even enjoy this anymore?”
Burnout doesn’t mean you stopped caring. Sometimes you’ve been caring—and carrying—a lot for a long time.
Therapy can help us understand what’s underneath the pressure, rather than simply finding another way for you to push through it.
Who We Support: Athletes, Parents & Coaches
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There can be a lot going on when you’re a student athlete.
School. Practice. Friends. Family. Playing time. Coaches. Recruiting. Your body changing. Trying to improve. Trying not to disappoint anyone.
And somewhere in all of that, you’re also trying to figure out who you are.
Maybe your sport is the place where you feel most confident.
Or maybe something that used to be fun is starting to feel like pressure.
We can talk about both.
Therapy can be a place where you don’t have to perform, prove yourself, or have the right answer.
You just get to show up as you.
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You worked hard to get here.
And sometimes getting here doesn’t feel the way you thought it would.
Maybe you’re not getting the playing time you expected.
Maybe the competition is different.
Maybe you’re injured, exhausted, questioning whether you still love your sport, or trying to balance being a student, an athlete, a teammate, a friend, a partner, and an actual person.
And eventually, there may be another question sitting in the background:
“Who am I when this is over?”
We don’t have to rush to answer that. We can make room for where you are now while also getting curious about who you’re becoming.
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When you’ve spent years training, competing, and pushing yourself, it can be hard to separate how you performed from how you feel about yourself.
A great performance can make everything feel right.
A bad one can make you question everything.
Therapy can help you understand what happens inside you when the pressure gets high—what you feel, what you tell yourself, how you react, and what happens next.
We can work on performing while also remembering that there is a whole person underneath the athlete.
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Sometimes you decide you’re done.
Other times your body decides for you.
Sometimes you graduate, don’t get recruited, don’t make the team, don’t reach the level you hoped for, burn out, or realize that you just don’t love the sport the way you used to.
People may tell you:
“But look at everything you accomplished.”
They may be right.
And you can still be sad.
You can be grateful for what your sport gave you and still grieve what you lost.
We don’t have to immediately jump to “Okay, so what’s next?”
Sometimes we need to make room for what happened first.
Then, when you’re ready, we can start figuring out what you want to carry with you into the next part of your story.
When the dream changes, your story isn’t over.
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Being the parent of an athlete can be a lot. You’re watching someone you love work incredibly hard for something that matters to them—and often rearranging your own life to support them along the way.
And emotionally, you’re along for the ride, too.
Their wins can feel exciting. Their disappointments can hurt. When they’re injured, struggling, losing confidence, or questioning what comes next, you may find yourself carrying more than you expected.
Sometimes you’re so focused on “How do I help my child through this?” that there isn’t much room to ask, “How is this affecting me?”
Therapy can help you think about what your athlete may need from you while also making space for you—the person behind the parent role.
Supporting your child doesn’t mean your own feelings stop mattering.
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Coaches carry a lot—performance, development, team dynamics, parents, competition, and the needs of their athletes. You may also be the person athletes turn to when they’re struggling with injury, pressure, disappointment, or life outside the sport.
And underneath the title of Coach, you’re still a person.
The pressure to lead can follow you home. You might replay decisions, feel responsible when an athlete is struggling, or realize that coaching is affecting your relationships, stress, or even how you feel about a sport you love.
Therapy can make room for the challenges of coaching—but also for you outside of that role.
You care about your athletes. You’re allowed to have a place where the focus is on you, too.
Sports can shape more than performance. They can shape how we see ourselves. And that doesn’t only happen to the person competing.
Athletes can become so focused on performing that it’s hard to separate what they do from who they are. And what’s happening outside the sport—family, relationships, school, work, identity, or other pressures—can affect how they feel and perform within it.
Parents can become so focused on supporting their athlete that they may not notice how much the experience is affecting them, too. Coaches can spend so much time leading, caring for, and carrying a team that there isn’t much room left to ask how they’re doing.
That’s why therapy makes room for the whole person—not just what’s happening in the sport, but the life happening around it.
Athletes are more than athletes. Parents are more than parents. Coaches are more than coaches.
Whether you’re competing, parenting, supporting, or leading, there is a person underneath the role. And that person matters, too.
Meet Kim: Mental Health Therapist for Athletes
Hi, I'm Kim Agramon (Agramon-Bai), AMFT, APCC, and I provide therapy for athletes in person in Pasadena, serving the greater Los Angeles area, and online in San Francisco and throughout California as part of Table Family Therapy.
I really love working with athletes. I'm interested in the person underneath the performance—the part of you that exists beyond your stats, playing time, ranking, scholarship, injury, or what happens next season.
I have a particular heart for athletes whose dreams have changed. Maybe the path you imagined for yourself didn't happen because of injury, burnout, pressure, opportunity, or circumstances outside your control. There can be real grief in that. I don't want to rush you toward "What's next?" before we've made room for what this meant to you.
And therapy won't only be about your sport. We'll talk about your life outside of it, too—your relationships, family, school, work, identity, or whatever else you're carrying—and how those parts of your life may be showing up in the way you compete, perform, and experience your sport.
I also care about the parents and coaches supporting athletes, who may be carrying more than anyone sees.
My own experience as an athlete helps me understand parts of this world. But your story is still your story. I want to learn it.
Yes, we can talk about the sport. But I also want to know the person sitting in front of me.
Let’s Understand the Pattern—and Practice Something Different
A big part of how I work comes from Restoration Therapy. Athletes are already familiar with something like the following:
Notice what’s happening. Understand it. Practice. Adjust. Try again.
We can bring that same curiosity into therapy — Maybe you make a mistake during a game → You feel embarrassed → Your mind immediately says: “I’m not good enough” → So you start pressing harder → You overthink → You get frustrated → You make another mistake → And suddenly one moment has turned into an entire story about who you are.
Instead of judging the reaction, we slow it down.
What am I feeling? What am I telling myself? What do I tend to do when I feel that way? And what happens next?
Once we understand the pattern, we can disrupt it and practice something different.
That might mean learning how to regulate yourself when the pressure gets high. Separating a bad performance from your worth. Communicating differently with a coach, parent, athlete, or teammate. Setting a boundary. Letting yourself rest. Making room for grief.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s noticing the pattern sooner and having more choice about what happens next.
How Mental Health Therapy Can Help Athletes
Retirement or leaving sport
Career and life transitions
Relationships with coaches, teammates, parents, or athletes
Family stress related to sports
Parent stress, worry, and expectations
Communication between parents and athletes
Coaching stress and burnout
Leadership and boundaries
Balancing sport with relationships, school, work, and family
Anxiety and depression
Therapy can support athletes, former athletes, parents, and coaches with things like:
Figuring out what comes next
Performance anxiety and pressure
Perfectionism and self-worth
Burnout
Injury and recovery
Fear of reinjury
Confidence
Athletic identity
Grief and loss
Not being recruited or making the next level
Why work with Table Family Therapy?
At Table Family Therapy, we believe every part of you deserves a seat at the table.
For athletes, that means bringing more than the competitor—the part that loves the sport, the part that’s tired or disappointed, the part that wants more, and the parts of you outside the sport.
The same is true for parents and coaches. You don’t have to come to therapy only as the parent or the coach.
You get to come as a whole person, too.
FAQs About Mental Health Counseling & Therapy for Athletes
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No.
You don’t need to compete at a particular level for sports to matter deeply to you.
I work with high school, college, competitive, and retired athletes, as well as people whose athletic journey may not fit neatly into one of those categories.
If your sport is affecting your identity, emotions, relationships, or life, we can talk about it.
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Yes.
Coming to therapy doesn’t mean something is wrong or that you need to stop competing.
We can work on pressure, confidence, emotional regulation, relationships, burnout, identity, and whatever else is happening while you continue participating in your sport.
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You are especially welcome here.
Not getting recruited, not making the team, losing your spot, being injured, or realizing your athletic career isn’t going where you hoped can bring real grief. And I would love to be of support for you in this.
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Yes.
Sometimes our work may involve how you support and communicate with your athlete.
But therapy can also be about you—your stress, relationships, worries, expectations, disappointment, and identity outside of being the parent who is holding everything together.
There’s room for both.
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Yes.
We can talk about leadership, communication, boundaries, difficult team situations, athlete concerns, or burnout.
But you don’t have to spend the entire session talking about coaching.
You’re a person outside of that role too.
Therapy can make room for whatever is happening in your life.
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Injury can affect much more than your physical health.
Therapy can support you with uncertainty, frustration, identity changes, fear of reinjury, isolation
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We can talk about that without immediately deciding whether quitting is right or wrong.
We can slow things down and get curious.
Are you burned out?
Are you afraid?
Are you done?
Do you need rest?
Has something changed?
Is this still your dream—or are you holding onto a version of yourself that doesn’t fit anymore?
We don’t have to know the answer before we start talking about it.
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Yes. I offer in-person therapy in Pasadena, serving the greater Los Angeles area, and online therapy in San Francisco and throughout California.
Mental Health Therapy for Athletes in Pasadena, Los Angeles & Across California
At Table Family Therapy, we offer in-person therapy for athletes, parents of athletes, and coaches in Pasadena, serving the greater Los Angeles area, and online therapy in San Francisco and throughout California.
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Athlete Mental Health
Rice, S. M., Purcell, R., De Silva, S., Mawren, D., McGorry, P. D., & Parker, A. G. (2016).
The mental health of elite athletes: A narrative systematic review. Sports Medicine, 46(9), 1333–1353.Injury, Recovery & When Sport Changes Unexpectedly
Furie, K., Park, A. L., & Wong, S. E. (2023).
Mental health and involuntary retirement from sports post-musculoskeletal injury in adult athletes: A systematic review. Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, 16(5), 211–219.Athletic Identity & Life Beyond Sport
Giannone, Z. A., Haney, C. J., Kealy, D., & Ogrodniczuk, J. S. (2017).
Athletic identity and psychiatric symptoms following retirement from varsity sports. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 63(7), 598–601.Roberts, K., Kuhlman, K., Byrd, M., & Hunt, T. (2023).
The influence of athletic identity on mental health symptoms during retirement from sport. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 32(5), 630–634.Transitioning Out of Competitive Sport
Haslam, C., Lam, B. C. P., Yang, J., Steffens, N. K., Haslam, S. A., Cruwys, T., Boen, F., Mertens, N., De Brandt, K., Wang, X., Mallett, C. J., & Fransen, K. (2021).
When the final whistle blows: Social identity pathways support mental health and life satisfaction after retirement from competitive sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 57, 102049.