Recently, the Whittier College women’s softball team won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) tournament. They advanced to the NCAA Division III championship tournament where they defeated Claremont-Mudd-Scripps before falling to Linfield College. Their performance earned them 2nd place at the West Regional, which…
CBT SoCal’s Dr. Jason von Stietz, recently hosted an educational event at Whittier College for the Los Angeles County Psychological Association (LACPA) Sport Psychology Special Interest Group. The event was attended by therapists, applied sport psychology practitioners, university administrators, undergraduate and graduate students, and members…
CBT SoCal’s Dr. Jason von Stietz recently appeared on the De La Fit podcast discussing many topics related to mental health and sport psychology. Dr. von Stietz discussed his history as a track and field athlete at Citrus College as well as his experience…
It is becoming more and more commonplace for athletes and performers to tout the benefits of mindfulness meditation. Legendary coach, Phil Jackson, likely played a key role in popularizing mindfulness as a method of performance enhancement when he hired George Mumford to teach mindfulness to…
CBT SoCal’s Dr. Jason von Stietz recently attended a mindfulness seminar led by George Mumford. The seminar, held at Insight LA in Santa Monica, focused on the use of mindfulness in improving not only one’s performance (e.g. sport, career, art) but also life. Mumford gained…
Dr. Jason von Stietz has recently become the new co-chair of the Los Angeles County Psychological Association Sport Psychology Special Interest Group (LACPA Sport Psychology SIG). In his position as co-chair, he will collaborate with Dr. Sari Shepphird, a sport psychologist who founded the SIG.…
On occasion, athletes find themselves in a “flow state” or in “the zone.” During these moments, they effortlessly perform at their best. They lose all sense of time and perform without thinking. If someone can string enough of these moments together it is often referred…
What keeps ballplayers, or athletes of any sport, from playing at their best? At times, they get stuck thinking of past mistakes. Other times, they are worried about what will happen after the next pitch is thrown. In other words, they are not focused on…
When I was a sport psychology intern at the Major League Baseball Youth Academy (MLBYA) in Compton, I had the amazing opportunity to work with high school and college baseball players from all across the country. Some of the athletes were high performers, who went…
In the worlds of baseball and softball, the words sport psychology are synonymous with the name Ken Ravizza. Ravizza was a long-time professor at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) and sport psychology consultant to the Chicago Cubs, the Los Angeles Angels, the Long Beach State…