Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Game Changer Unlocked, where we uncover the strategies and science behind peak performance. I'm your host, Bryan Fetzer. Today we are joined by an expert who operates in the intersection of mental health, leadership and high performance.
Dr. Wayne Chappelle, a licensed clinical and sports psychologist, board certified by the American Board of Professional psychology, with over 90 research publications, decades of experience in elite performance and sports business, military and ministry, and he's the founder of PsyOptimal. Welcome to the show, Dr. Chappelle.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Hey, thanks for having me, Bryan. I appreciate it.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: You've worked with elite athletes and teams and have mental health challenges in sports. How have mental health challenges in sports kind of evolved over the last decade?
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Man, that's a really good question. I think originally when people thought of mental health, they were thinking about problems, right? When an athlete is having difficulties like anxiety, depression, or some level of stress.
But now the concept has evolved to how do I not just simply move and a athlete from struggling, but see mental health as a way of being able to help an athlete thrive.
So it's certainly changed in terms of how people view the importance of mental health and not just simply overcoming problems, but really excelling underneath adversity.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Have you seen that trend start to happen a little bit more with younger athletes as well?
[00:01:46] Speaker A: I do. In fact, the sooner you can actually incorporate that with younger athletes, the better. Even younger athletes sometimes will see mental health as just something that is an issue to address unless you're struggling. But now more and more younger athletes are seeing it as an important way of being able to thrive, whether they're on the basketball court, the tennis court, the hockey rink, or even the football field. Knowing that this is really an important concept, just sort of like physical fitness, where knowing that the more you condition your body to deal with the challenges and the competitive nature of the game, and it's like that now with the mind. The more you can condition your mind in order to compete at the highest level, they're seeing as equally important.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: What are some of the biggest barriers you're seeing preventing athletes and coaches from addressing mental well being head on?
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great question. I think that some of the biggest barriers are just looking at mental health in a restrictive aspect of, hey, I just only consider mental health if there's a problem. That's probably one of the biggest barriers. But more and more coaches are actually seeing it as, how do I actually help my athletes thrive? So the more I can look at mental health as an absolute critical tool for excelling underneath These very difficult conditions, the better. So that's one barrier.
The other barrier is not just how I think about it, but also how I talk about it.
And the more and more coaches can actually talk about it in very positive ways as being a core component to success, the more they're able to overcome that obstacle. So as an example, they can look at athletes and say, hey, we know we're going to develop your technical and athletic skill. We know that part of that is helping you to develop your body and put you on a very specific strength and conditioning program to excel in the role that you have for the team or the sport that you're playing. But also now we're going to communicate this in a way of conditioning and seeing mental health as an absolute key component to how well you can thrive and succeed as an athlete.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Do you see the culture in our culture today kind of the shift, that kind of getting rid of that stigma about mental health or when somebody says that word.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I do start seeing them get overcome that stigma. Especially when you have some of the most prolific and expert professional athletes across a wide range of sports. For instance, we had Michael Phelps, one of the most decorated Olympians in the history of swimming, coming out and talking about the importance of mental health. In the NBA, you had individuals like Kevin Love coming out and talking about the importance of mental health. So yeah, the stigma is actually starting to break down because people are talking about it more and more across multiple sports. But you also have these amazing athletes that are saying, hey, I wouldn't be where I'm at today unless I had incorporated some level of becoming a better version of myself and working on my mental health.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: In what ways can psychological performance assessments help identify and nurture kind of the emerging talent in sports, kind of beyond the physical side of things?
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Oh, that is a brilliant question because that's just like saying, hey, when I go in to see a physician, what are some of the tools and assessments that I should get in order to make sure that my diet is on track and my exercise is on track? So see psychological assessments like lab results, when you go in to see your doctor and getting blood work done, it provides you a very clear picture in terms of what you need, what's going well, and perhaps areas that need more focus. So you can then use those results to provide some level of precision based personalized training in order to get you to where you need to go to become the best athlete you can.
So assessments specifically that look at how you think, how you regulate your emotions, the behavioral habits that you have in terms of how you respond and prepare for the challenges of practice and recovery after games or the sport. And then also the sort of relationships that you have with your coach and how you communicate and so on.
Knowing that it's not just like, let me assess one area, let me assess multiple areas so that I can get an idea in terms of where a person's emotional, social, and behavioral functioning needs to improve.
And then using that as a way to say, now I know exactly what to focus in on.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: You've developed some assessments, you know, that started in the military and have kind of, kind of transitioned into pro sports and college sports. You know, when you start looking at those various assessments, can you kind of give us a kind of a behind the scenes look at why you came up with those?
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, in the mid. It started in the military and special operations, where you're looking at young men and women who have to perform under extraordinary conditions.
And even though we had some of the greatest physicians and the greatest medical techniques in order to help, you know, develop their physical capability, one of the things that we really needed to do was also look at what was predictive of performance and adaptation outcomes over the long term, in addition to their physical fitness. And what we discovered was a series of emotional, social, and behavior behavioral traits and habits that were very much relevant to not only how well did somebody succeed in training, but then how well did they adapt over time.
And so the assessments that we've developed originated from that, that really became quite predictive of performance as well as shaping what I would say, how well these individuals adapted to some of the most extraordinary stressors that human beings can be imaginable. And then what we did was we translated it into the SP sports environment, into a environment that's very competitive, very demanding, and you have to be very disciplined at.
And what we found was the very variables that ended up being predictive in one area were also universal and predictive of sports performance in so many other areas as well, too.
Looking at all these different areas of emotional, social, and what I'd say, behavioral.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Habits with those specific assessments. You know, you have them with psi optimal. What. You know, one that was kind of fascinating to me is what you call ACE plus cohesion, where, you know, attitude, confidence, energy and cohesion. Like, where does that even come from?
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Yeah, absolutely.
So ACE stands, like you just said, for attitude, essentially how you approach the sport.
Are you in a growth mindset? Do you look at adversity and challenges as an opportunity for growth? Your attitude is Absolutely critical to how well you absorb and respond to and adapt to the challenges you're going to be exposed to. So attitude is critical. The other piece is confidence. Not just your confidence in terms of performing underneath routine conditions, but the confidence that you have in your ability to perform underneath extraordinarily challenging and high pressure conditions and under very difficult and unpleasant conditions. So, for instance, what's your confidence level when you're playing on a rainy day with a field that's wet and perhaps ref calls that are not going your way? Right.
And then energy is the level of energy that you bring to a game in terms of your mental capacity. We know physical energy is absolutely critical to your reaction time. Well, so is mental energy. You know, how quickly can you process information and react and respond in the moment? And sometimes one to two seconds ahead of your opponent is all you need in order to win a game or to have the advantage. So attitude, confidence and energy, we know are very predictive and something that we have to be intentional about managing throughout the course of a season.
And equally important to that is the level of cohesion that an athlete has with their teammates or people who they train with or compete with. The more cohesive you are, especially in a, in a team sport with your teammates, the more you're going to get become the best version of yourself, because nobody becomes the best version of themselves by themselves.
As an example, you had Shea Alexander who just. Gilgis Alexander, who just won the MVP award for the NBA. And he'll, he'll tell you that the reason for why he became the MVP wasn't just simply because of his own efforts, but through also the collaboration, the cohesion that he had with his teammates, even the teammates who perhaps weren't starters, but individuals who challenged him and pushed him harder during practices.
And then is the cohesion that an athlete has with their coach, how well do they feel trusted, valued, respected, appreciated by their coach?
So in addition to how much you feel trusted, respected, valued, appreciated for the role that you have on the team and that expressed through your teammates, that same, those same issues are so important for the relationship that you have with your coach.
A cohesive team will always perform their best versus a divided but highly talented team.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: We are going to take a short break and get back to talking with Dr. Wayne Chappelle. We're going to talk a little bit about mental health in schools after this break on the Game Changer unlocked.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: How am I doing, Bryan?
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Joining us again is Dr. Wayne Chappelle, who is the team sports psychologist for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA. He's worked with, you know, some of the highest level performances and performers in psychology around. In this segment, we're going to take our shift into another critical area, and that's really our schools.
And so, Wayne, you know, mental health concerns among students are skyrocketing from perspective that schools are missing, you know, when to kind of support the students emotionally and not, you know, what. What is kind of missing from that standpoint?
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Yeah, if I'm understanding your question, it's more like what's missing right now from some of the schools for tapping into and really understanding the mental health needs of their students? Am I trying to.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Very much so. Very much so, yeah.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: So that's a really great question. I think there's a lot of schools out there that make an intentional effort in order to raise awareness to the importance of mental health and actually asking students to come forward and talk about mental health problems. Because we know that mental health issues and problems are pretty prominent across elementary and high school.
And we see the value of trying to save even one student's life. And so there's a lot of things that schools do in terms of trying to destigmatize, talking about mental health, and even, oftentimes, well, even bringing in speakers and having rallies. But what's missing is the ability of, I would consider schools to be able to assess and see where each kid is at, what does each child need, what does each student need, where are their mental health issues, where are they struggling the most? And so one of the things that's missing is how well do you assess a student with where they're at.
And oftentimes the resources that the traditional resources are, if a kid is having a problem, they have to go in and see a mental health counselor. And then that's when they're assessed. However, one of the best ways to solve that problem is actually being able to send assessments to students to oftentimes their own cell phone devices so they can take assessments in the comfort of their own bedroom or in the comfort of their own home and fill these assessments out that then go straight to the school counselor who then can get an idea in terms of how much the students collectively are struggling, where are they struggling, and who is struggling.
And so that's one of the missing pieces. Now we've developed a solution to that.
Ironically, that was originally developed through other efforts and channels and communities that now can be applied to a school system.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: You're talking specifically about psiotimal's wellness assessment that you can give to Schools and counselors to kind of provide some actionable data while respecting the students privacy. Is that what you're really talking about?
[00:15:19] Speaker A: That's exactly what I'm talking about. It's interesting. What we've done is develop the capability to send these assessments whilst protecting the students privacy to a student's phone or to their email account. The student can complete the assessment which only takes about, you know, two minutes. And then the student gets a report on how are they doing, where are they doing well, where are they struggling, Perhaps not only in their own personal stress, personal life, but also how high is their stress in, in terms of the academic struggles and school stress that they have to deal with. And then very clear tips on what that student can personally do order to get better. And the other thing about this is if there's any student that's at risk for suicide or having problems with substance abuse or serious family problems that are negatively impacting them and their own health and raising safety concerns, the school counselor who is the licensed mental health provider gets a notification that this student is struggling.
So even before a student shows up or is on the radar, the licensed mental health counselor knows who needs help soonest and can provide that care as soon as possible.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Because you're not having to wait, which is huge.
You're being proactive as opposed to reactive, which is.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: That's exactly right.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Sadly, a thing that we do a lot in this country, just in life in general.
So when you're talking about the issues of young people that are having, do you think that the kind of the period of the pandemic and stuff kind of opened people's eyes up to these kind of actions or has this been the case all along or did that kind of set it off?
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Well, I think we've recognized for quite some time that the mental health issues and needs of our young population isn't going away.
In fact, the more that we talk about mental health issues, the more open kids are about their struggles and the greater the need that we see for it.
However, I do think that Covid did raise awareness to it, help accelerate the need for understanding it at a more fine tuned level as well as the the necessity to have the capability to be able to assess students using objective science based measures in a very proactive way to identify what students needed it the most.
When you have say, a school of, you know, 500 kids and you've got one counselor, how is that counselor supposed to know which kids are struggling and which ones are not?
And oftentimes the counselor is constantly Putting out fires or reacting to struggles. But how do we help that counselor get in front of the mental health problems in a very proactive way. And that's where these assessments really come into play. And I also think it's something that, you know, people will fully appreciate and even get behind because you'll see that, you know, can save even one life.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: When you. I started thinking of schools and testing and, you know, there's so much pressure put on kids nowadays for, you know, the academic standards that they have. Is there some kind of advice that you'd give to kind of combat the anxiety that a parent give advice to a parent maybe, or to a kid, how to kind of back off the anxiety that they have for having to perform at such a high level to get into an Ivy League school or get into a school of their choice?
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
It's not just, you know, isolated to academic pressure, because we see that as a very high level where kids struggle academically and want to perform well and do well. And if they aren't doing as high as they were hoping to in this competitive academic environment, that, man, it could be really challenging for them. And the pressures can be overwhelming. It's also like that with sports.
There's a lot of pressure from parents and put on young kids in order to compete at a very high level in sports, in order to get a full ride scholarship or somehow to go on to college sports. And yet, you know, it's that that percentage of kids that goes. That actually goes on to college sports is actually tiny. It's very. It shrinks.
So some of the recommendations I can give to parents is one, recognizing that students are greater than their grades and for those that are competing in high school sports, that being an athlete is part of them, but not all of them.
That the definition of success is based upon the character traits that we live by and not necessarily the grades that we achieve or even this academic or we'll say sports scholarships.
Creating a perspective also of helping a child understand what they can control versus what they cannot control.
And a lot of times we put a lot of pressure on students to try and achieve a specific outcome, but they could be the very best versions of themselves and still not achieve that outcome.
So, but they can control their effort, they can control their resilience, they can control how they think about things, even themselves.
And as long as they know they're living a life according to the character traits and values that they aspire to achieve and have is more important oftentimes than the grades that a person Achieves or you know, an academic or even athletic scholarship.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: You said the phrase twice now. Become the best version of yourself.
Can you expound on that just a little bit?
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
Becoming the best version of yourself is really an important, I think, mantra to have because every day we're going to be challenged in a number of ways that could affect our ability to kind of how we think about ourselves and how we think about the goals that we set for ourselves and.
But becoming the best version of yourself really has a handful of principles to it. One is nobody becomes the best version of themselves by themselves.
We oftentimes want to teach kids to become self reliant and independent, but they also have to understand that they're going to need help along the way.
They're going to need to seek feedback, they're going to need to have the support of peers and adults to help them and to be open minded about where they're doing well, but also where they can do better. And that means that they have to surround themselves with the right people in order to help them become the best version of themselves.
The other part of becoming the best version of themselves is also remembering that to accomplish the extraordinary, one must be extraordinary. Nobody who is ordinary accomplishes the extraordinary. It is a matter of developing extraordinary habits in the way that we think, the way we manage our emotions, the relationships that we develop. So if you want to be extraordinary, it's important that you work towards developing extraordinary habits.
Other things are expect the unexpected.
No, even the best well played the west. The best planned strategies will have disruptions to them and becoming aware of and just simply expecting the unexpected, even the unpleasant is important in order to go from, you know, good to great. One has to understand that this means also reliable and consistent effort in the face of adversity and unpleasant conditions. It's one thing when things are going well to do well, but it's one, it's another thing to do well when things aren't going well.
And that's a key aspect of becoming the best version of oneself.
The other is be comfortable getting uncomfortable. And what I mean by that is who you are today should be different than who you were a year ago. And who you are today is going to be different than who you are a year from now. That means a person has to be in a constant state of change and adaptation.
What might have worked for you a year ago may not work for you today. And oftentimes it's uncomfortable to step outside of our comfort zone and do things differently.
So get comfortable being uncomfortable because in order to be the best version of oneself, you're going to constantly have to change.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: Great.
Dr. Chappelle, we're going to take a quick break and come back with. After this commercial, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and talk a lot more about mental health and so Much more with Dr. Wayne Chappelle.
Dr. Wayne Chappelle is back with us on the Game Changer Unlocked. His work doesn't just impact sports and education, it also extends into faith based communities.
In this segment, we're going to explore how churches and ministry leaders can support mental well being and mental health with their congregations and with their leadership teams.
So, Dr. Chappelle, faith based communities often play a really key support role. What unique challenges and opportunities do you see for churches in addressing mental health specifically?
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Yeah, so one of the things that I think is important, especially for church leaders and church congregational members, is to understand that no matter how faithful a person is, no matter how knowledgeable they are of the Bible, no matter how committed they are to living a life consistent with God's will, no one is immune to mental health problems.
And so one way of addressing or the importance of addressing mental health, especially amongst the faith based community, is to understand that we are limited human beings, we're not perfect, and as a result, we will always struggle with some kind of mental health issue, whether it's emotional, social or behavioral habits. And being open and aware of that and being willing to talk about one's vulnerabilities and struggles is going to be a key aspect in terms of how well they also grow in their faith.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: So what does effective mental health support look like in a church setting, especially for leaders that really probably don't have the formal psychological training?
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Well, I think effective mental health is first of all destigmatizing even the discussion amongst faith based community, because sometimes a person might assume, hey, if I have mental health problems, maybe it's because I lack faith or I'm not righteous enough. And I just, I think an effective way of addressing mental health is letting people know there's no cure for mental health problems. We're all going to struggle at some point in time and as a result be open, be vulnerable and be aware.
Because most churches want to support people who are struggling and they're oftentimes loving and very compassionate with those who are struggling. So that's, that's one way of addressing it.
Another way of addressing it is encouraging congregational members and even leaders to get support, not just simply support. When they're struggling. But also, if you're going to become the best version of yourself and you want to strengthen yourself even spiritually, sometimes that means getting help to perform at a higher level in terms of how you manage your emotions, your relationships and your habits.
And look at mental health, like I was mentioning with sports athletes, and that is you want to become the best version of yourself. Even from a faith based perspective, it's important to always think about ways in which you can improve, how you regulate your emotions, how you think about yourself, the behavioral habits you have on a daily basis, and the goals that you set.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: When you look at pastors or clergy that they're, you know, the pressures that they have on themselves, how different is it? Even if it's any different from like a CEO or a head coach?
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Yes, I think that the pressures that are on pastors and clergy are exceptionally high.
The pastoral and clergy occupation has some of the highest burnout rates among professionals because it is very, very demanding. The expectations that people have of them are extraordinarily high. And oftentimes people are very unforgiving or they can be highly judgmental. Even when clergy and pastoral leaders struggle with their own mental health, people can be pretty, pretty aggressive and highly critical of such pastors and clergy. So I think to some degree, pastors and clergy have a much higher level of stress that they carry than CEOs of commercial businesses.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Have you seen more and more churches reach out to you to deal with mental health issues or with leadership issues?
[00:29:21] Speaker A: Yes, actually the demand signals is growing, not declining.
In fact, I see megachurch pastors from east coast to west coast, and I have a book coming out with Craig Groeschel, who has one of the largest churches in the United States, that where he talks about his own mental health issues and the struggles that he had and the things that we did together to help him navigate some of that.
So yeah, the demand signal is increasing, not decreasing. And I think that's in part because pastors and clergy are recognizing that faith and science can go hand in hand. The things that we discover through psychological science oftentimes complement what we know in the Bible. But many of this, there's additional strategies that we can develop that help us kind of navigate some of the challenges or becoming the best version of ourselves to include how we think about medications that help us manage certain emotions or habits that we have.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: You just kind of mentioned mega churches and just church. I mean, church in general is a lot bigger than what it was probably when I was a kid. The size of churches Specifically and the amount of personnel that are involved in church.
So you work with leadership and teach and kind of get them kind of involved with how they run themselves in a setting of cohesion and working together. How does that fit differently or is it differently from a church setting to a business or a team?
[00:30:57] Speaker A: Well, there's more similarities than there are differences between running a megachurch when you compare to running a commercialized organization. You can have a church of 60 staff and you can have a commercial based organization of say, 60 staff.
But the level of cohesion that you have amongst that staff is going to be critical to how well both of those organizations achieve the goals that they set for themselves, the challenges that they have in front of them in order to remain relevant, to achieve certain goals, to navigate certain stressors. The level of cohesion and the trust, the respect, the rapport, the support, the appreciation, the recognition that is through the fabric of a church culture that helps that church achieve the goals that they set out for is going to be very similar to that that you see even in business organizations.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: One more question in this segment for you.
Is there advice that you might give to a pastor on if he feels this, he feels that he's struggling mentally with mental health?
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah. The advice I would give is sometimes pastors will feel that they're alone or they're struggling or somehow feel guilt or shame if they're struggling with a specific habit. And the advice I would give to them is even the greatest biblical figures that we have in the Old and New Testament struggled with mental health issues where they talked about their own depression, their own anxiety, perhaps behavioral habits that got in the way of their leadership capabilities.
So one of the advices I would give is one, recognize that you're just, you're human.
Two, you're not alone. And three, there are people to help you through those challenges that you have and to not hide them, but to seek help.
Because in order to become the best version of oneself using a pastor, you can't do it by yourself.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: So much wisdom in that.
Dr. Chappelle, where can a ministry leader or faith based organization or really anybody find more information or how they can partner with you?
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Well, we have a website called PsyOptimal.com that is a great website for being able to go to and then figuring out, okay, where can I go to to figure out not only how I can personally become better, but how do I address some of the issues I might have with my entire staff or a section of my staff? So you have a great website with a lot of resources to walk anybody through ministry or sports or business through in terms of what's available to them, how they can get help and the assessments that are available.
We also have a YouTube channel where we're posting videos for individuals to think about and to contemplate.
We have LinkedIn accounts. So, yeah, there's a number of different areas, but I would definitely recommend they go to psyoptimal.com if they have questions or they're looking for help.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Awesome.
Very much so, Dr. Chappelle. I mean, we've touched on so many subjects and we're going to dive even deeper into the realm of what you're doing specifically with Psyoptimal and in the sports world. And like you said, we talked about the church world and the school world. We're going to dive into that after this next break. And we'll be back shortly with Dr. Wayne Chappelle, who's the head team sports psychologist, Oklahoma City Thunder, and co founder of Psyoptimal.
Right after this break, we'll be back with Dr. Chappelle.
As we close today's episode, we're diving into the cutting edge work that Dr. Wayne Chappelle is doing through Psyoptimal. He's the head sports psychologist for the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder as well. And this segment, we're going to really unlock human potential in every context, sports education and faith with some of the work that he's doing.
Dr. Chappelle, you often say we don't replace you, we just make you more effective. When you're talking about psioptimal, can you explain how that approach plays out when working with leaders of different sectors?
[00:35:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really not trying to replace a leader. It's essentially giving them tools so they can become better at what it is that they do.
So it's, it's like say you've got a psychologist that's working with a team and that psychologist is already pretty good in terms of understanding techniques and strategies that are common with helping an athlete develop habits and mindset. But what we would do is provide them a series of assessments that allow them to target where they need to work with an athlete or earlier, especially when an athlete joins a team for the first time, and then how to also look at what is collectively needed for the whole team. Now, you've become much more effective because rather than watching an athlete over time, which can take several weeks to several months to figure out what it is that you need to focus in on and what needs to get Better now, you know, in a matter of moments that makes you more effective.
And then two, once you collectively understand what's going on with all the individuals as a group, you know what the team needs most.
And so now that means that when you're working with them as a group, you know exactly what to target because you know what's going to affect that team the most. So it's really making you more effective. It's not replacing you, it's essentially giving you a tool to help you provide personalized, precision based strategies and target areas that are most relevant to each individual and then collectively to the group that you're working with.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: So what are the core psychological traits that drive kind of optimal performance?
And how do you assess and kind of develop those without really making it a one size fits all kind of model?
[00:37:31] Speaker A: That's a great question.
That could take like an hour to answer. But let me just be very, very specific.
You know, some of the variables that we know through science especially that's predictive of performance not only in sports, but also in life, center on how team orientated are you, how adaptable are you, how confident are you, how tough are you emotionally with, dealing with a lot of stressors, how inspired and driven are you, and how composed can you be not only underneath routine and controlled conditions, but also underneath adversity.
And there's 18 variables to 30 variables that fall into that. When you start focusing in on those and assessing those, you not only become a better version of yourself as an athlete, you end up becoming a better version of yourself as a person.
Being an athlete is a part of you, being a student is a part of you. Being a pastoral leader is a part of you, but it's not all of you.
And when you look at these variables, the whole goal is to strengthen all of you, not just a part of you. And this is the kind of design to then help you become the best version of yourself. Not just on and off the court or inside or outside of ministry, or in or outside of school, but collectively through life.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: You just mentioned the word adversity. And I know in sports that is so prevalent, I don't think you can go through sports without having to, to deal with some adversity, with injuries or losses, coaching changes, so on and so forth. How have you been able to walk individuals or teams through dealing with adverse situations?
[00:39:14] Speaker A: That's a really fantastic question. It's not just like being a good student underneath, you know, routine conditions or being in a faith based, you know, church where there's no stressors or thinking that you can be a great athlete and not be exp. Exposed to adversity. Adversity is a part of the whole experience.
In fact, learning how to deal with and embrace, not fear adversity is a key aspect in terms of how one actually becomes the best version of themselves.
Expecting adversity, preparing for adversity, and understanding the importance and value of it is a way of walking through it. Embrace adversity. Embrace also know that your mindset in terms of how you approach adversity and how you prepare for adversity is going to be critical to how you overcome adversity. You can't overcome adversity without preparing for it or expecting it.
So walking athletes through or walking others through adversity means how we. The habits that we develop today, terms of how we regulate our emotions, we interact with others, the behavioral habits that we set up to help strengthen us, are the very things that are going to walk us through adversity. And honestly, most people will tell you that it's underneath adversity that they oftentimes grow and learn the most.
I can tell you that, you know, as the psychologists walking the Thunder through their season, especially this last season where we won the championship, we were hitting adversity at all levels. These athletes weren't just hitting adversity in their professional life and trying to overcome deficits and losses, but they were also overcoming adversity in their personal life and how to navigate things that were going on in their personal life so they can continue to perform well in their professional life.
[00:41:09] Speaker B: It's fascinating. We could go on for a long time with me asking you a bunch of questions on that specifically, but I want to kind of shift back. And we talked about the ACE plus cohesion assessment that you do with Psyoptimal. We've touched on the wellness assessment, but one that we didn't touch on right now is tactics, which to me is really fascinating.
Can you talk through that, how that uniquely supports kind of performance and mental health within an organization?
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So it looks at 18 different areas of emotional, social, behavioral functioning. Tactics is an acronym for essentially team orientated, adaptive, confident, tough, inspired and composed.
And underneath each of those categories are several other variables that we look at. They're really important to assess, to be aware of where you're doing well, but also to be aware of where you need to improve.
And when you start focusing on those in a very intentional way, not only does it help you go from struggling to essentially surviving underneath difficult conditions, but then learning to thrive underneath Very challenging and difficult conditions. So these variables are things that we focus in on very early and then we track them over time to see how well you're developing and growing in those areas. Again, it's because these traits are universal for how well you perform and do well, not just in terms of where you're at as an athlete, but also, you know, as a person.
So yeah, but you got to assess for these things and then you have to be intentional about how you work on them.
[00:42:53] Speaker B: One of the other aspects that you have with all the assessments that you do is they're not just for the individual, but really they're for the whole, you know, the leadership staff as well, to be able to come up with team reports that can help them with their thought process in leadership.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So what we do is we provide these aggregated confidential results to the coach. So then the coach knows, hey, where do I need to focus in on? How many players do I have struggling in terms of adaptability or flexibility?
How many players do I have struggling with, say, being emotionally tough under difficult conditions? Or how many players do I have who are struggling with being team orientated and are more focused in on what's in the best interest of themselves versus the team?
So once a coach knows specifically what's going on collectively, he'll then be in a better position or she will be in a better position of knowing, okay, here's what I need to do in order to get the best out of my team.
These reports not only show where issues are, but also how to improve them. That's the other thing. Not only does these athletes get individual reports with very clear pro tips on how to get better in each of those areas, but we also do that for the coaches as well too, because then the coach is going to say, well, now I know what the issue is. Well, how do I address it? Well, the team reports will tell you, here's some very clear science based recommendations how you can address this particular issue to include toughness.
[00:44:28] Speaker B: So how does psyoptimal balance the precision data with the human side of leadership, mentorship, personal growth?
[00:44:40] Speaker A: So let me make sure I got this. So how do you take what the data and then balance it with growth?
[00:44:48] Speaker B: Yes, very much.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: Okay, so yeah, so you take the data is really key for promoting growth. You know, growth.
The best growth, I think is intentional and deliberate, not random and reactive.
And so the data allows you to be intentional and proactive and very deliberate versus arbitrary, unintentional and random.
[00:45:22] Speaker B: And that's, you know, the biggest thing about that is it gives you some facts that you can kind of look at and kind of take a deeper dive.
So, Dr. Chappelle, you know, for those that are inspired by what they've heard from you today, where can they explore Psyoptimal to connect with you further? Where can they find out more information?
[00:45:41] Speaker A: We have a website, PsyOptimal.com that people can go to to kind of sift through and go, okay, where, where can I get help? Where can I get some precision based assessments? Where can I learn a little bit more? And we also have some contact information so that you can send us an email or you can call us directly and we can kind of steer you in the direction that would be in the best interest of either you individually or for your organization, whether you're in sports ministry, business or academics.
[00:46:13] Speaker B: Dr. Chappell, thank you so much for joining us and sharing some powerful insights on mental health and human performance and kind of how they tie together your expertise and your mission to elevate leaders in every sphere from the locker room, the classrooms, the sanctuaries. Incredibly inspiring to our viewers. Remember, unlocking your full potential starts from within. Whether you're coaching a team, you're leading a school, guiding a community, you don't have to do it alone. Tools like Psioptimal can help you lead with clarity, courage and care.
Thanks for watching so much. The game changer unlocked here on NOW Media tv. Until next time, I'm Bryan Fetzer. Keep changing the game.
