Mental Health & Sports Performance Programs
The demands placed on an athletes to balance sports performance with academic work and their personal relationships can create a lot of pressure, anxiety and overwhelm. Now more than ever, it's important to learn practical, efficient and generalizable skills from mental health experts who know firsthand what it means to be a competitive player.
Our goal is to support the whole athlete and family system by providing tangible skills that increase wellness and improve performance both on and off the field.
About The Growth & Resiliency Model©
The Growth & Resiliency Model© was created and copyrighted in 2021 by Simply Bee CEO Audrey Grunst, LCSW. It is the foundation of the work we do with athletes, coaches, and parents. This comprehensive five-step model is designed to fuse theory, skill, and knowledge into people's understanding of their personal growth and emotional development. By using this model throughout all of our mental performance resources, we aim to create shared understanding and language amongst all participants. Through this model, we focus on the whole athlete and family system in an effort to shift organizational mentality to be mental health inclusive.
The theory behind this model is that a growth mindset occurs when you are aware of your internal world, can observe it without judgment, know how to respond instead of react, and can integrate all of that information into the external world effectively. The final step is to reflect on the process, celebrate what went well and learn from what didn't. Through the use of this model, we believe you can learn to intuitively overcome life's daily challenges and appreciate them as opportunities for positive change.
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What We Solve
Mental health is growing in the sports world as more professional athletes like Simone Biles, Dak Prescott and Naomi Osaka break their silence and share the reality of anxiety, depression, fear of failure, worry, pressure and isolation. As the stigma around mental health in athletes continues to be broken, it's more important than ever to provide resources and skills that help in the reduction of anxiety and depression amongst all performers.
What We Achieve
A mentally and emotionally well athlete is a stronger, better, and healthier performer. Our goal is to help athletes recognize their whole identity beyond their sport and to shift organizational mentality to be mental health inclusive. Through our programs and resources, we provide athletes with the coping skills they need to not only perform better on the court/field, but to succeed in their lives at home, school and beyond.
Programs & Offerings
2023-24 Campus Catalog
Athlete & Family Program
The Mental Growth & Resilience Sports Program is a 5-step program that streamlines the natural connection between performance and mental health. This allows athletes, coaches and parents to quickly leverage a growth mindset to optimize physical ability and mental capacity to compete at a high level.
Individual Team Clinics
We offer workshop-style clinics for athletic teams to provide hands on learning experiences. Based on our Growth & Resiliency Model© curriculum, these workshops provide teams with an opportunity to practice experiential exercises to foster team connection and grow their mental health toolboxes.
Consulting Package
This consulting package for coaching professionals is built around the idea of top-down learning. Simply Bee experts will work directly with coaches and team leaders to teach them skills and strategies so that they can in turn teach their athletes. This package is offered separately or as part of a bundle.
Professional Speaking
Our sports performance experts provide presentations on a variety of topics with a focus on providing athletic communities with skills they can utilize both on and off the court/field. Example topics are Introduction To Sports Psychology and Building A Cohesive Team.
The Mindfulness Center
The Mindfulness Center is a place for athletes 12+ to learn & practice mental health and resiliency skills to grow at their own pace. With on-the-go accessibility on any mobile device, this solution-based program is built specifically for athletes with busy schedules. Our carefully curated content covers a wide range of mental health topics in an effort to develop the whole athlete. With new posts every week, athletes will have a consistent flow of resources and ample opportunity to build resilience in both their sport and in life overall.
Learn More & PurchaseTestimonials
Simply Bee also offers 1:1 therapy-style sessions for individual athletes with specific performance needs. We see athletes for issues such as pressure, fear of failure, setting expectations, lack of confidence, parental and coach expectations injury/loss of season, overcoming mental blocks, difficulty balancing sports with other areas of life and perfectionism. To schedule your 15-minute intake call, click here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the topics for professional speaking?
How long are speaking events?
Are your programs virtual or in person?
Ready to Learn More?
Schedule a quick discovery call with our Director Of Operations & Communictions, Kate Kelley, MSW to learn more about how to bring these programs to your club or school.
Get In TouchMeet The Experts
Audrey Grunst, LCSW
Audrey Grunst is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and CEO of Simply Bee. Simply Bee focuses on mental health for all people to achieve and sustain personal wellness through therapy, education, consulting and more. She is the author of the published Growth & Resiliency Model© and 5-part planner series. Audrey has presented this model and more to over 100 different schools and families across Illinois.
Audrey is a former D1 volleyball player at Loyola University Chicago and was the mental performance coach for the Northwestern Women's Volleyball Team. She has a passion for helping athletes with their mental performance. You can find some of her work featured on local news outlets and radio airwaves such as 670 The Score and national media articles such as USA Wrestling.
Eric Stevenson, LCPC, CMPC
Eric Stevenson is a Licensed Professional Counselor who earned his Master’s degree in Counseling with a Specialization in Sport and Health Psychology from Adler University in Chicago. Eric is also a certified mental performance coach with the Association for Applied Sports Psychology (AASP). Eric specializes in working with athletes and performers of all ages and levels, helping them overcome a lack of confidence, fear, and perfectionism. He also works with athletes transitioning out of sport or recovering from injuries.
Eric has presented to and worked with many high school and collegiate sports teams, introducing them to mental performance strategies and techniques they can utilize to improve as performers. Eric is former collegiate baseball player at Elmhurst College and current competitive golfer.
Check Out Some Of Our Past Work
Schools & Public Speaking
Private Clubs
Space Is Limited!
We are now booking into the Fall 2024-2025 calendar. Grab a spot now and we'll help your shift the culture of your club to be mental health inclusive.
Contact our Director Of Operations & Communications, Kate Kelley today.
Thank you for all you do for the athletes of our community!
Every athlete can remember that one coach or mentor who believed in them not only as an athlete but also as a person—the one who took extra time to make sure they were happy and healthy in all areas of life. To all the coaches and mentors out there: thank you for being an integral part of the development of so many members of your community. We want to give back to you and help you continue to go the extra mile for the athletes and families you work with everyday.
Learn From Our Experts
4 Ways To Cope When The Game Is Done
Whether due to a pandemic, an injury, or other life circumstances, one of the hardest experiences as an athlete is coming to terms with the end of sport. Audrey Grunst, LCSW created this e-book to give athletes coping strategies for managing this difficult transition and their future ahead
Values Exercise Tutorial
As an athlete, knowing your values is crucial. Your values are your "why"—the bigger purpose or reason you do what you do. These values help you when motivation is low and the days are challenging. This tutorial and exercise will help you define your top 10 values and encourage you to lean on them everyday, whether in practice, at games, or at home or school.
The Psyche Of Sports Talk
From an early age we start to develop confidence and emotional resilience, deal with failure, manage expectations, and cope with high pressure situations through sports. Listen in to this panel of experts on the 320 Festival, including Audrey Grunst, LCSW & CEO, to discover how to apply what we learned as kids to our lives now.
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