Today we’d like to introduce you to Marina Harris.
Hi Marina, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I knew I wanted to be a sport psychologist since high school. I was a highly competitive gymnast for a majority of my life. Gymnastics can be an extremely demanding sport and requires a high degree of mental toughness. I had always loved competing, but as I got older and the stakes got higher I found myself feeling afraid and nervous, even with skills I knew how to do well. After working with a sport psychologist, I realized that our mind has the power to influence our reality and our performance. I knew I wanted to help other athletes use their mind to achieve their full potential.
At the time, the path to become a sport psychologist was not well-developed and I had to forge my own path. I chose to attend West Virginia University to both join the gymnastics team on a full scholarship, and study in one of the only sport psychology undergraduate programs in the country. From there I completed graduate degrees in kinesiology and mental health to become a licensed psychologist and certified mental performance consultant.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Any goal in life worth pursuing is going to have roadblocks. Many of the struggles I’ve faced are struggles my clients also cope with – which puts me in a great position to help them, because I’ve walked a similar path. I understand the pressure of being an athlete, the anxiety of high performance, the deep problems in win-at-all-costs culture in athletics, business, and graduate school. And I’ve done the deep work of healing so I can help others do the same.
At the height of my gymnastics career (senior year of high school), I experienced a career-ending Achilles injury. Although many people return to sport after this injury, I had several strokes of bad luck that led to multiple surgeries and delayed wound healing, which ultimately led a physician to determine that it was no longer safe for me to continue in gymnastics.
Without sport, I threw myself into my studies and put everything I had into becoming the best sport psychologist I could be. But there I faced different challenges – the rigors and stress of graduate school were incredibly taxing. The win-at-all-costs hustle culture I worked to leave behind in athletics just followed me into my professional life. It took me a while to recognize that the level of work I was doing was not sustainable. I knew that I had to intentionally slow down and prioritize my own well-being if I was going to have longevity in my career and my life in general. Ultimately, I’m grateful for these challenges because they gave me the push I needed to quit my full-time job working for someone else and start my own practice. Since then, I’ve been able to build a career that is sustainable for me and gives me the work-life balance that I want. It’s my goal to continue to grow the practice so we can help even more people across the country.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Bloom Psychology Group is a therapy practice in Apex, North Carolina that specializes in helping women and girls perform well under pressure, feel more at-home in their bodies, squash self-criticism, and ultimately live more values-centered lives. Most of our clients come to us for sport psychology, anxiety, eating disorders, and perfectionism. We offer individual therapy (working 1:1 with a licensed professional), family therapy for eating disorders, or high-performance intensives.
I am most proud of our offering for high-performance intensives. Intensives are designed for athletes, performers, or high-achieving professionals who want to make improvements at a quicker pace than traditional therapy. Clients can expect to gain a deeper understanding of their goals and values, mental and physical strategies for staying calm under pressure, and ways to be more flexible and resilient in both performance and in life. Intensives are especially helpful for things like overcoming mental blocks, performance anxiety, fear of failure, and perfectionism – but they can also be great for general performance enhancement, building resilience, or gaining more clarity, vision, and drive for your goals.
Bloom Psychology Group is considered a premiere therapy practice. We offer individualized, high-quality therapeutic services that give you the attention you deserve. We use a warm, authentic, and relatable approach, combined with the highest level of professional training. Our clinicians also have lived experience as athletes, professionals, and moms, which means we deeply understand what our clients are going through.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
The way you think about things matters in shaping your reality. The most successful athletes internalize their successes, while externalizing their failures. They believe that their accomplishments come from their preparation, work ethic, and ability. When they fail, they evaluate what they can change, identify what to do better next time, but put failure in context of the situation and circumstances. They refuse to let the outcome define their worth or ability. I try to have the same mindset in my business and with my clients.
Pricing:
- Individual therapy – $185-250 per session
- High Performance/Sport Psychology Intensives – $215-225/hour
- Supervision/Consultation for professionals – $250/session
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bloompsychologync.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmarinaharris/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://x.com/DrMarinaHarris
- Other: https://payhip.com/BloomWellness
