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Life Balance Program with Mark Armiento:
Ordinary pressures of daily collegiate life, involving academic and athletic expectations, have been found to lead to various student athlete’s health concerns, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, sleep and eating disorders, athletic performance issues and relationship difficulties. Although most of these concerns are treatable, unfortunately many students do not only fail to recognize that they are having problems, but they also don’t seek help, thereby falling between the cracks.
Collegiate athletes’ mental health is more important than ever before! Many courageous professional athletes like Naomi Osaka, Michael Phelps, and Kevin Love, have underscored the mental health issues experienced by many athletes. This has helped many athletes be more open about mental health challenges and many sports organizations to be more sensitive and supportive in addressing them. It has become clear that the college sports world needs to strengthen its efforts to provide services in this area. Student athletes have identified mental health as something on which athletic departments nationwide should focus greater attention.
The way we communicate about mental health can demonstrate our commitment to inclusion and wellness, and our support of all student-athletes, including those with a history of mental health concerns or those experiencing mental health concerns for the first time in college. Because of the frequency of their interactions with student athletes; coaches, faculty athletics representatives, SAAC representatives and fellow student athletes play a central role in helping to identify student athletes who may benefit from accessing resources related to mental health, prioritizing self-care, and fostering a health-promoting environment which supports mental well-being, resilience, and life balance. Every student athlete is permitted to attend weekly, Life Balance groups, team seminars and/or individual counseling sessions with a licensed therapist and sports psychology consultant.
The Life Balance portion of our student development services hopes to inspire its student athletes with a vision of personal wellness, valuing energy management: physical, emotional, mental, interpersonal, and spiritual- the keys to ultimate health, peak performance, and true life-balance. All Life Balance strategies focus on two central steps: the 1st step being raising the consciousness of our athletes and SJU staff, to be able to identify any concerning health patterns and the 2nd step is to teach healthy ways to adapt and cope with the challenges of their times.
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