Katie Steele Of Athletes Mental Health Foundation On How Athletes Optimize Their Mind & Body For Peak Performance

People and connection are my core purpose. We all need each other. I believe the greatest success comes from collaboration. None of us can achieve anything alone or in isolation. I feel lucky to get to work with and collaborate with the most inspiring people in order to make the biggest impact on the world.

As a part of our series called “How Athletes Optimize Their Mind & Body For Peak Performance” I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Katie Steele.

Katie Steele is the executive director of the Athletes Mental Health Foundation, a new non-profit organization dedicated to helping young athletes understand and address their internal well-being.

Having earned her graduate degree in Couples and Family Therapy at the University of Oregon. Katie is also a licensed marriage & family therapist and co-founder of Thrive Mental Health, an outpatient mental health clinic in Bend, Oregon.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! It is a great honor. Our readers would love to learn more about your personal background. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up in Oregon playing all kinds of sports. I gravitated towards running and as a high school senior won the state cross country title. I felt lucky to be offered lots of D1 scholarships and chose to attend a school famed for its athletics. But that is where my dream turned out to be far from what I envisioned. To put it simply: we were severely mistreated and exploited. A coach and doctor I was affiliated with were later banned from the sport by USADA. The impact of that experience was significant to my mental and physical health. It is because of my negative experience that I decided to become a therapist focusing on helping young athletes with mental wellbeing and dedicated to ensuring the athletic system has the framework to integrate mental health.

What or who inspired you to pursue your career as a high-level athlete? We’d love to hear the story.

My parents. They were both active and cultivated the importance of movement as a means of connection within our family system. As a family we would go on hikes, explore the woods, bike, run, shoot baskets, pass the soccer ball, and on and on. We chatted and cheered each other on all along the way. My parents prioritized movement in their individual daily rituals and their modeling of exercise inspired me to find how I felt best when in motion. Their love and belief in me allowed space for me to chase my dreams.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

My dad was my first adventure buddy. We summited countless mountains, covered all the trails, and created new trails and challenges. Every spring break we would visit the same area and every year we would expand our adventure. It started with hiking a mountain, then running it, then running up one side and down the other, then running to another mountain and running up and down that peak. The adventures were endless. Thank goodness my mom and sister were also up for any adventure, because their support and involvement wouldn’t have allowed my dad and me to create these quests. He was my biggest fan and taught me there are no bounds as long as you believe in yourself. He passed away in 2020 and I get to carry on the values he instilled in me with my three kids. Family adventure days continue to be my favorite days.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your sports career? What lesson or takeaway did you learn from that?

I made the choice to transfer to another Power Five conference program, across the country from the state that had always been home. I loved running; it was still a core part of me, and I wasn’t ready to give up on my dream. I connected with the head coach, who felt like he was going to be a good match. He had a long-term plan for me that, most importantly, had a slow build up to reach my full potential.

The summer I was slated to transfer, there was a restructuring and the coach that had signed me was not going to be my direct coach. With minimal hesitation, I jumped right in anyway — but the new coach had a different plan. She upped my mileage quickly, and since I wanted to compete, I didn’t complain. I ended up with stress fractures in my foot. During an interval workout in spikes, my unstable foot gave out and I tore the tendons and ligaments in my ankle. Unable to ignore the pain anymore, I hobbled into the doctor’s office for an MRI to receive news of all the damage in my lower leg. My season was done. What I didn’t know at that moment, but learned over time, was that my career was done.

I had put all my trust in the coaches but forgot to check in with myself — and trust myself. With a broken spirit and lower extremity, I learned how to hustle and how to rebuild belief in myself. I was slated to be at that school for three years, however after meeting with a dean, who I thank my lucky stars I was connected to, I was able to graduate at the end of that school year. I finished my undergrad degree with a boot on, and a wounded spirit that I was dedicated to repairing. As I met people like the dean who helped me graduate, and others who understood and valued me, I began to restore my belief in myself.

It is a reminder that our body holds onto what our minds are not yet ready to process. My body was able to step in and intervene. I ignored the earlier cues it was sending me and ultimately paid the price. My hope is that we can support athletes in honoring themselves, to prevent disconnect from self and suffering. I didn’t listen to myself, and I hope that young athletes can learn from my mistakes and pay attention to themselves. I hope they can trust themselves because they are the ultimate experts.

What advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your career?

Trust your instinct; you know yourself best. If you have a need, trust that. It may differ from what others need, but that is ok. From things as simple as hydration or sleep, to heavy barriers such as the coach not feeling like the best match for you, and not feeling a place of belonging, find your people that you can confide in, who understand and value you. Lean on them, they will help boost you up to connect to yourself which will be the golden ticket to optimizing your performance.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

It is so exciting to be at the launch stage of Athletes Mental Health Foundation! We went live in September and are thrilled and inspired by the community of athletes, parents, coaches, and administrators that are forming to learn and advocate for athletes’ mental health. It is motivating hearing stories and fielding questions from leagues and athletic systems that are dedicated to making a change. The involvement of these passionate people will change the trajectory of athletes’ experience in sport. By integrating mental health into athletic systems, we have seen how athletes are able to transition out of sport feeling connected to self and empowered by the positive impact. We are committed to ensuring that athletic systems have the necessary framework to incorporate mental health to prevent unnecessary suffering of athletes.

We are also eagerly awaiting the June 18, 2024 publication date of our first book, The Price She Pays: Confronting the Hidden Mental Health Crisis in Women’s Sports — From the Schoolyard to the Stadium.

Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. As an athlete, you often face high-stakes situations that involve a lot of pressure. Most of us tend to wither in the face of such pressure and stress. Can you share with our readers 3 or 4 strategies that you use to optimize your mind for peak performance before high pressure, high stress situations?

People who seek out athletics have a special wiring. There is a level of intrinsic motivation that is unmatched. The fire comes from within the athlete. If the athlete has the desire and tenacity, the best strategies are then ensuring you are surrounded by people who understand you and want to help build you up and stoke that fire. Pressure is never the problem for athletes: shame and fear are what contribute to a negative exchange of pressure.

An opportunity to unload and process an experience can reset the athlete and create more space for them to chase their dreams. Ensuring an athlete is not internalizing or white knuckling through a season will prevent risk of injury and illness, while increasing passion and purpose for why they play the sport they play. It is not easy waking up every day and recommitting to the goal, so the pros should certainly outweigh the cons. Ensuring athletes create hobbies and interests, and also social networks, will allow them space to reset between hard training blocks and competition.

Do you use any special or particular breathing techniques to help optimize yourself?

Intentional breath. When we get stressed, we hold our breath, or we take shallow breaths. Your breath is with you all the time. Use it as a tool to help regulate your nervous system. We take our breath for granted and let it run on autopilot. Throughout that day, sporadically check in with your breath and see what patterns it has and if that is serving you. If not, practice changing it. Breathe in and out deeply, intentionally. Learn how you feel when breathing in different ways.

Do you have a special technique to develop a strong focus, and clear away distractions?

Externalize. Often mental health is counterintuitive. We think if we utilize the mind over matter mentality it will make us stronger, sharper, or more focused. But in reality, when we ignore what we are feeling, those feelings get bigger and take up more space. The counterintuitive part is, if we can feel our feelings and make space for them, the feelings actually begin to dissipate or decrease. Honoring the feeling is the antidote to the feeling.

All that to say, the best way to stay focused is to stay connected to self by honoring where you are really at. You won’t be able to trick yourself into feeling a different way.

One of the reasons I love the topic of mental health in sport is because of the paradox. A lot of the skills that make somebody a great athlete are in direct contradiction to what optimizes mental health. We know that they can coexist, but that is a skill of its own. Athletes will endorse mind over matter mentality when they are in hard training sessions or competitions. That is critical. They won’t reach elite levels without that ability to be uncomfortable and push through anyway. Pairing that with the ability to downshift in order to recover and tend to mental health is critical for longevity.

How about your body? Can you share a few strategies that you use to optimize your body for peak performance?

Our body is the best means for us to receive feedback. Learning the cues of our body and how it communicates to us is the tool that will lead to peak performance. Learning things like: do I really have a stomach bug or is that my body’s way of communicating to me that I am nervous? Is the foot really injured or am I worried about this weekend’s competition and it’s easier to feel body pain than identify emotions? Is the irritability due to that circumstance or is it more due to the anticipation of the upcoming game? Our mind often tries to trick us. We are wired for self-preservation. For that reason, we have to be very intentional and work really hard to know what is what. What does that feedback really mean? What are those body cues are really about? Are those thoughts worth believing or do they need to be reframed?

These ideas are excellent, but for most of us in order for them to become integrated into our lives and really put them to use, we have to turn them into habits and make them become ‘second nature’. Has this been true in your life? How have habits played a role in your success?

Absolutely. You touch on a critical piece. It is imperative that we start by implementing anything new only within a low-pressure situation. If we don’t utilize them when the stakes are low, it is highly unlikely that one will be able to implement that skill or tool when the pressure is high. In fact, when stress and pressure is high, we often revert back to historical tactics, so we have to work in overdrive if we are wanting to implement new strategies.

I recommend if you are wanting to start learning what your body is communicating to you, start checking in with yourself every single day. One effective way is bookending your day this way. Before you get out of bed in the morning do a quick 15 second check in. How do I feel? What is my body communicating? Where are my thoughts at? What am I worried about? What am I excited for? What is my intention for today? Then close your day out before you fall asleep by asking yourself- What came up for me today? How did I respond? Did that feel in alignment to myself? Did I compromise myself at all today? How did my body communicate with me? Is there anything feeling unresolved from today?

If you create consistency with a new ritual, it will become second nature. Then, when you are lined up to shoot a free throw that has the potential to win the game for your team, you will be able to quickly check in with yourself and regulate. You will have trained yourself how to navigate that in the moment because you are acutely in tune with yourself.

Can you share some of the strategies you have used to turn the ideas above into habits? What is the best way to develop great habits for optimal performance? How can one stop bad habits?

Consistency is most important. If you want to make a change, build it into your routine. That said, if it were just that easy, you would have already done it. You must create systems of accountability. Put a post it note on your bathroom mirror or on your steering wheel with the reminder, put an alert in your phone, share the goal with somebody you love and ask them to check in with you about it. You want to be reminded before you even are thinking about it. So, the alert will pop up in your phone and intersect with whatever your thoughts were, forcing a shift in your thought patterns and in turn your behaviors and feelings.

As a high-performance athlete, you likely experience times when things are in a state of Flow. Flow has been described as a pleasurable mental state that occurs when you do something that you are skilled at, that is challenging, that is meaningful, and comes with ease because you have practiced so much. Can you share some ideas from your experience about how we can achieve a mental state of Flow more often in our lives?

Certainly. That is one of the reasons so many of us love sports. We love how we feel when engaged in them. We love the emotions it elicits. That flow state is what keeps us all coming back for more. In fact, that feeling becomes something we chase. It sets the bar high for experiences because that is a top-notch feeling. One of the tactics I work to integrate clinically is learning how to change gears. Because the flow state is so desirable, anything less can be unsettling or feel as though we failed or didn’t work as hard — but part of being able to achieve the flow state is learning how to live at a lower level too. When we can downshift from being at the high intensity, it allows for us to be able to push even harder to be able to reach that flow state more consistently, because we are allowing our body and mind to also recover. If we can learn to shift in and out of that state intentionally, that is what will lead to more longevity in sport and, in turn, give you more opportunities to experience the flow.

Do you have any meditation practices that you use to help you in your life? We’d love to hear about it.

We are all so individual that we need to tailor our practices to our specific needs. Finding connection and congruency to self is a felt sense: a meditative state when one is at peace and acceptance of themselves and the world they are creating around them. They feel a sense of groundedness, trust, ease — that is their meditative state. For some people that practice comes from therapy. For others, it can be meditation, faith, breathwork, or exercise. The desired outcome can be reached in a variety of ways. We are all just responsible for finding what way is effective for us to feel that deep, still, connection to self and our purpose.

What do you do to prevent injuries during your workouts or during your competitions?

This is a lesson I wish I would have learned when I was an athlete. I ended my collegiate career spending nine months in a boot with stress fractures and torn tendons and ligaments. I pushed through. I thought more was better. I was afraid to pump the brakes. I felt I had already let so many people down, including myself, I was unwilling to deviate from the plan. I didn’t have coaches at this time who understood that part of me. The more they pushed, the more I pushed myself. I needed to learn how to shift gears, how to strategically pull the reins, in order to access the overdrive I desired.

This is a valuable question to ask coaches when going through the recruiting process. What is the mentality of the team? Observe what happens to athletes when they are injured. Are they continuing to be integrated into the program? Or is it more of a conveyor belt where “out with one in with another?” That will speak volumes of the culture of the team and what the program views as the athlete’s role. Are they just a number on the roster? Or are they valued, and the coaches are going to do what they can to support the athlete in reaching their peak potential?

What type of workout regime has helped you to rehabilitate from injury?

Now being years out from being a competitive athlete, yet still a person who deeply values exercise and pushing myself as hard as I possibly can, I continually find that strength training is the best injury rehab and prevention. I also work with a remarkable physical therapist to stay ahead of injury and create alignment. She has helped heal many injuries from a bike crash to a ski injury. I was talking to my acupuncturist at my last appointment and said, “geez getting older is humbling. It feels like it requires so many tools to ensure my body can operate effectively to be able to do the activities I love.” She quickly jumped in and said “No, that’s not just an age thing. Even as a high school athlete and for sure in college, all those variables were just embedded in your routine. You met with the trainer, you did the detailed work of stretching, and fine tuning, cold tubs, massage, physical therapy… all that was fully integrated into your life. Now, you have to schedule and build it into your day.” It was a profound reminder that optimizing how we feel requires intentionality at every stage of life. It requires time, resources, and energy.

Ok, we are nearly done. You are by all accounts a very successful person. How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

People and connection are my core purpose. We all need each other. I believe the greatest success comes from collaboration. None of us can achieve anything alone or in isolation. I feel lucky to get to work with and collaborate with the most inspiring people in order to make the biggest impact on the world.

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Maya Angelou’s quote: “People don’t remember what you said. They don’t remember what you did. They remember how you made them feel.”

Our connection with others is what fuels our purpose. How we show up has an impact on others. It is our responsibility to notice how we feel when we are around certain people and in certain scenarios, and be mindful of choosing people based on how we feel, because when we surround ourselves with people we feel our best around, we are going to be able to have a positive impact on how we leave them feeling. There is nothing more energizing than being surrounded by those that deeply connect to your soul. Those are the people we remember. The ones that see us, that understand us, that belief in us. That leaves a lasting feeling that imbeds in our being.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

Wow. Serena Williams. I have deep admiration for her, from being a fierce competitor, to a tender mother, a relentless mental health, an equity and diversity advocate. I would love to experience what it was like to be in her presence.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.

About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.