You're sitting with the laptop open, waiting for the call to connect. Your hands are a little cold. Some part of you is bracing for it, like you're about to get taken apart and shown everything wrong with you. Then the call connects, and it's just a coach asking how your week has been going.
Almost every athlete feels that same flicker of nerves before a first call. It usually comes from not knowing what mental performance coaching actually is. So here is the plain version, no guesswork required.
This article covers:
- What a session is not
- What happens on the free call, before you book anything
- What a first real session covers, step by step
- How the work continues once the call ends
- Who this is built for, and when you need a different kind of help
What This Is Not
It is not therapy. Mental performance coaching is not a clinical service, and Ashleigh is a Mental Performance Consultant, not a licensed therapist. She's a Mental Performance Consultant with a master's in sport and exercise psychology, trained to work on performance skills: focus, confidence, composure under pressure. If something comes up in a session that looks clinical, like ongoing anxiety that shows up everywhere, not just in competition, that gets named honestly and referred to a licensed provider. That's not a failure of the process. That's the process working correctly.
It is not a pep talk. Nobody is going to tell you to believe in yourself and send you on your way. A session is built around one real moment from your game, taken apart piece by piece, so you leave with something specific to practice.
It is not a personality test. You won't get sorted into a type or handed a label. Every athlete brings a different moment and a different pattern, and the work starts from what actually happened to you, not from a quiz.
The First Twenty Minutes
Before any of that, there's a free call, about twenty minutes, booked directly on Ashleigh's calendar. This isn't a sales pitch dressed up as a consultation. It's a real conversation about where your game is stalling right now.
On that call, expect Ashleigh to ask direct questions: what's happening in the moments that keep tripping you up, what you've already tried, what a good week actually looks like for you. By the end, she'll tell you plainly what she'd train first, and whether 1-on-1 coaching, a group cohort, or the app fits your situation best. Sometimes the answer is one of those. Sometimes it's a mix.
You don't need a polished story for the free call. Show up with the moment that's actually bothering you, even if it feels small. That's the most useful information you can bring.
A First Session, Walk Through
Once you move into 1-on-1 coaching, sessions run thirty minutes online. Here's what a first one actually looks like.
The Moment
You bring one specific situation. Not "I get nervous," but the exact moment: the pass that got picked off, the missed opportunity, the mistake that made your teammate look at you a certain way. Specific beats general every time, because specific is trainable.
The Reaction
Next, you walk through what your body did automatically in that moment: the chest tightening, the heart rate spiking, the flinch. That's your reaction. It happens without your permission, and naming it accurately is the first skill, because you can't train what you haven't named.
The Response
Then you look at what you actually did next, the part you chose. Maybe you rushed the next play. Maybe you went quiet. That choice is your response, and unlike the reaction, it's something you have control over and can build on purpose.
One Skill
The session ends with one skill to run that week. Not five. One. Something like the 3Rs reset: recognize you're off, release with a physical action and a breath, refocus with a short cue phrase. Small, specific, and repeatable is what actually changes a pattern.
Between Sessions
Thirty minutes a week isn't where the change happens. It's where the change gets named. The app is where it gets built. A two-minute daily check-in, lessons built around real game moments, Mental Gym drills to run the skill from your session, and a Notebook to track what you're noticing. Between sessions, the app carries the reps, so you're not starting over every time you talk to your coach.
Who This Is For
This is built for athletes who already put in the physical work and still lose it in specific moments: the free throw, the big point, the mistake they can't shake. If you train hard and the wheels come off anyway when it matters, this is exactly the gap it's built to close.
It's not the right fit for clinical concerns: persistent anxiety, depression, disordered eating, or anything that needs a licensed provider's care. Ashleigh will tell you directly if that's what she's hearing. To find a licensed provider, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357, free and open 24/7. In a crisis, call or text 988. That line matters, and TTP holds it on purpose.
