One Integrated System

I developed Dialectical Sports Skills (DSS) as a unified approach to mental health and athletic performance. DSS brings together a broad range of evidence-based treatments, performance principles, and practical skills within a single, flexible framework that can be customized to individual goals and circumstances.

Three Pillars of DSS

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps people identify and change patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior that contribute to psychological problems. It is extensively researched, goal-oriented, skills-based, and measurable. DSS incorporates established CBT treatments, including the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (Barlow et al., 2018).

2. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based, present-focused treatment that extends CBT by balancing acceptance and change strategies. It teaches skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and dialectical thinking. DBT helps clients change what can be changed, accept what cannot, and respond effectively under pressure. DSS draws on Linehan’s DBT Skills Training Manual (2014).

3. Sport Psychology applies principles and methods related to motivation, attention, mental agility, physiological arousal, self-regulation, execution, teamwork, and sustainability. Together, these contribute to performance capacity.