Therapy for Athletes and High Performers in Massachusetts

Support for anxiety, burnout, and relentless pressure

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For athletes, students, professionals, and high performing individuals

People probably think of you as disciplined, motivated and successful. While that might be true, you also feel anxious, exhausted, disconnected from yourself, or stuck in the pressure to keep achieving more. From the outside, you may appear disciplined, capable, motivated, and successful. For athletes and high-achieving people, it can become difficult to separate your worth from your productivity or accomplishments — especially when slowing down feels uncomfortable or impossible.

At Sandstone Counseling, we work with adolescents and adults navigating anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, body image concerns, disordered eating, and the relentless pressure of high-performance environments. Our approach is compassionate, collaborative, and grounded in curiosity, helping clients build a healthier relationship with themselves beyond achievement alone.

When Achievement Starts Affecting Your Mental Health

Many athletes and high performers are used to pushing through discomfort, staying productive, and holding themselves to high standards. Over time, though, constant pressure to achieve can start to affect your mental health, relationships, self-esteem, and ability to feel connected to parts of yourself outside your sport, academics or career. 

You may notice yourself feeling constantly performing, overly self-critical, exhausted, or anxious about slowing down. Even accomplishments start feeling less fulfilling because the pressure to keep achieving comes back so quickly. For some people, rest can feel uncomfortable or not in line with their identity.

These struggles are often easy to miss from the outside — especially when you continue functioning well academically, professionally, or athletically. Therapy can offer space to step outside cycles of pressure and reconnect with who you are beyond what you produce or accomplish.

Therapy for Athletes Navigating Anxiety, Burnout & Performance Pressure

High-pressure environments can intensify anxiety, perfectionism, overthinking, and fear of failure. Whether you are currently competing, adjusting to life after sports, or trying to find a better relationship with exercise, therapy can help you better understand the emotional impact of constantly feeling the need to perform.

Some clients we work with experience:

  • relentless self-criticism or perfectionism

  • loss of identity outside of sports

  • anxiety before performances or competitions

  • burnout and emotional exhaustion

  • difficulty taking days off

  • fear of disappointing others

  • over-identifying with achievement or productivity

Our work is not focused on “optimizing performance” at the expense of wellbeing. Instead, therapy can help create a more sustainable relationship with your sport and the role exercise plays in your life. 

Relationship With Food, Exercise & Body Image

For many athletes and high-achieving individuals, pressure around appearance, discipline, or performance can begin to shape their relationship with food, exercise, and body image. Behaviors that may initially appear “healthy” or praised by others can gradually become rigid or compulsive.

You may find yourself:

  • feeling anxious or guilty when unable to exercise

  • tying self-worth to appearance or physical performance

  • struggling with food rules or control

  • feeling preoccupied with body image

  • minimizing concerns because they’re normal in your sport or achievement-focused environments

  • questioning whether your relationship with movement or food still feels supportive

We understand that struggles with body image, exercise, and food often overlap with anxiety, identity, perfectionism, and the pressure to maintain control.

Our Approach:

We take a collaborative, non-shaming approach to therapy that recognizes the complexity of high-achieving environments. Depending on your needs, therapy may include support around:

  • Anxiety and stress management

  • Perfectionism and self-criticism

  • Identity development outside achievement

  • Relationship with food, exercise, and body image

  • Navigating transitions, injuries, burnout, or changing goals

  • Building more sustainable coping strategies and balance

Whether you are currently involved in athletics, adjusting to life after sports, or simply relate to the pressure of constantly needing to achieve, therapy can provide space to slow down, feel more connected to yourself, and build a healthier relationship with performance and self-worth.

Questions you might have about therapy for athletes and high performers:

  • Definitely! We work with current, former, and recreational athletes, as well as folks simply looking to have a better relationship with exercise.

  • We love working with college athletes. Some therapists on our team have been collegiate athletes, and we also have a therapist with experience providing mental performance coaching for college athletes.

    We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with coaches, athletic trainers, and any other members of the athlete’s care team.

  • You do not need an eating disorder to get support from our practice. While that is a specialty area, we also see a lot of clients without difficulties with food.

  • We view a high performer as anyone who seeks out and spends a lot of their time in high pressure environments, including sports, academics, or work.

  • You can contact us here to schedule a free consult. We’ll chat for about 15 minutes about your therapy needs and ensure we’re a good fit before scheduling.