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Resilient Wellness Ohio

Telehealth therapy across Ohio

Therapy for Student-Athletes in Ohio

For the injury that took more than a season, and the question of who you are when you are not competing.

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The hardest part was not the surgery. It was that nobody asked how I was doing once I could walk again.
— A composite of what injured athletes describe in a first session

Being a student-athlete means carrying two full-time commitments and a set of expectations most people never see. There is the practice schedule and the class schedule, the coach and the professor, the scholarship and the GPA. There is also the part nobody puts on the recruiting page: what happens when you get injured, when your performance dips, when the sport you have organized your whole life around starts to feel less like a choice. Athletic culture is good at teaching you to push through. It is not always good at telling you when pushing through has stopped working. This is therapy, scheduled around your season. Sessions happen online from anywhere in Ohio, which means a dorm, a hotel on a road trip, or the twenty minutes between lift and lab.

Recognize yourself?

Signs you might benefit

Athletic culture rewards playing through pain, and that instinct does not switch off when the injury is not physical. You do not need to check every box here — if any of it lands, that is reason enough to talk to someone.

An injury that ended a season — or a career — and the grief nobody named
Performance anxiety, or a slump you cannot think your way out of
Feeling like your worth is measured in playing time or stats
Pressure from coaches, parents, or a scholarship you cannot afford to lose
Burnout, dread before practice, or losing the love for a sport you used to want
Not knowing who you are outside the sport, especially near graduation
Disordered eating or body-image pressure tied to weight class, position, or aesthetics
The sense that asking for help would be read as weakness by your team
A bedroom desk at dusk under a warm lamp — cleats set down with loose laces, a knee brace, athletic tape, a sticker-covered water bottle and a folded team jersey, with stadium lights blurred beyond the window

How we help

Our approach

You would work with Dr. Staci Tessmer, Ph.D., LPCC-S, NCC, BC-TMH, ACS, whose clinical background includes counseling injured student-athletes and who serves as our Director of Supervision and Training. Sessions draw on cognitive behavioral and acceptance-based approaches, adapted to an athlete's reality — that identity, injury, and performance are tangled together rather than separate problems. A clear note on scope: this is licensed mental health therapy, not sport psychology or performance coaching. We are not here to improve your times. We are here for the person underneath the athlete, and often that is what was actually in the way.

Who you would work with

Dr. Staci Tessmer (Ph.D., LPCC-S, NCC, BC-TMH, ACS) leads this work. She holds a doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision, serves as our Director of Supervision and Training, and her clinical background includes counseling injured student-athletes. She is licensed in Ohio and accepting new clients.

Read Dr. Tessmer's full profile

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is this sports psychology?

No, and the distinction matters. Sport psychology and mental performance consulting focus on optimizing athletic performance — visualization, routines, competition mindset. This is licensed clinical mental health therapy for anxiety, depression, grief, identity, and disordered eating, delivered by someone who understands athletic culture. If what you want is performance coaching, we are not the right fit and will say so. If performance issues are downstream of something heavier, that is exactly our work.

Will my coach or athletic department find out?

Not from us. Therapy is confidential, and we do not report to schools, coaches, athletic departments, or the NCAA. If you are 18 or older, that includes your parents. The only exceptions are the standard legal limits every therapist has — imminent danger to yourself or someone else. Athletes ask this question more than anyone, and it is a reasonable thing to ask.

My season makes a regular weekly time impossible. Does that rule me out?

No. Telehealth exists partly for this — you can meet from a hotel on a road trip or from campus between commitments, as long as you are physically in Ohio. We schedule mornings, evenings, and weekends, and we can shift cadence across the year: weekly in the off-season, less often when travel is heaviest. Consistency helps, but a season is not a reason to wait.

I am a parent. Can I set this up for my high school athlete?

Yes. We work with adolescents from age 12, and parents typically handle the first contact. For clients under 18 you will be involved in setting up care, though the sessions themselves need enough privacy for your teen to speak freely — that privacy is usually what makes the therapy work. We will walk you through where that line sits during the free consult.

What does it cost, and do you take insurance?

We are an out-of-network provider — we do not bill insurance directly, but we provide superbills you can submit for reimbursement, and we accept HSA and FSA. A limited number of sliding scale slots are available. Sessions are $150 for 50 minutes, and the initial 15-minute consultation is free.

Our services

How we deliver care

All of our specialty therapy is available through convenient online sessions across Ohio. In-person services available at one of our office locations in Willoughby or Painesville in Northeast Ohio.

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Online across Ohio · In-person Willoughby & Painesville

For the anxious. The in-between. The done figuring it out alone.

Book your first session — or a complimentary 15-minute consultation to see if we're the right fit. No pressure, no commitment.

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HSA & FSA accepted  ·  Sliding scale available