Margaret Domka is the Executive Director for the US Center for Mental Health and Sport (@mentalhealthandsport). She is a PhD Candidate at Clemson University where her research focus is mental health and sport. Additionally, she has done work in bringing mental health and sport initiatives to Veterans, individuals with paralysis, and Paralympic athletes. She is an ACT! Mental Health Awareness Certification and Mental Health First Aid instructor and holds the International Olympic Committee’s Certificate on Mental Health in Elite Sport. Margaret is also a former FIFA Women’s World Cup referee and served on the USA panel of FIFA referees for 10 years. She continues to referee blind soccer, for the International Federation of Cerebral Palsy Football, and for Special Olympics. She also serves on the USYS Midwest Region Referee Advisory Committee and the USYS DE&I Committee.

Dr. Skye Arthur-Banning is an associate professor at Clemson University who has been awarded over $1 million in grants to bring mental health and sport initiatives to Veterans, individuals with paralysis, and Paralympic athletes and is a Mental Health First Aid certified instructor. He is the head of officials for the International Federation of Cerebral Palsy Football, on the board of directors for the United States Association for Blind Athletes, a US Soccer National Referee Coach, and a former US Soccer National Referee.

Today on the podcast we discuss the importance of bringing awareness to athlete, coach and parent mental health, the stigma against seeking help when you are struggling mentally, identity and performance in sport, and how to understand the spectrum of ailments ranging from serious mental disorders to the everyday simple struggles in sport that are not signs of declines in mental  health.

Here is a link to the article in the Atlantic that we discuss regarding prevalence inflation.

Website: www.mentalhealthandsport.org

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This week’s podcast is brought to you by our friends at Sprocket Sports.  Sprocket Sports is a new software platform for youth sports clubs.  There are a lot of these systems out there, but Sprocket provides the full enchilada. They give you all the cool front-end stuff to make your club look good– like websites and marketing tools – AND all the back-end transactions and services to run your business better so you can focus on what really matters – your players and your teams.

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