Danielle DeLisio
About
Danielle is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). She has a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology and Motor Behavior from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Siena College. She has worked with youth, high school and collegiate athletes, military personnel, high school and college coaches, and a variety of sport teams. She focuses on helping individuals build and maintain confidence, improve attentional focus, manage performance stress, control emotions, communicate more effectively, develop leadership skills, create team culture and improve cohesion to enhance team performance.
Danielle has extensive experience playing and coaching lacrosse. During her Bachelor’s degree, Danielle played goalie for her NCAA Division I (DI) lacrosse team at Siena College where she was ranked as high as fourth in the country for goalie save percentage during her senior season. She also coached youth, high school, and collegiate lacrosse players in New York State and the University of Tennessee club lacrosse team. In addition to coaching lacrosse, Danielle delivered life skills and mental performance services to students and athletes throughout the Knoxville area. During her time at the University of Tennessee, Danielle assisted NCAA DI student-athletes with academic course work while teaching them valuable strategies (e.g., stress management, time management techniques) in order to improve academic performance. Additionally, Danielle delivered mental performance services to youth soccer clubs, youth basketball programs, club hockey teams, high school golfers, varsity football teams, and Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) cadets.
In addition to delivering services to a wide range of performers, Danielle has built, implemented, and evaluated a mental skills training program. During her time at the University of Tennessee, she was involved in the creation, operation, implementation, and evaluation of a systematic mental skills training program for ROTC cadets. She built relationships with the cadre and cadets, assisted in building the semester training schedule, delivered over 50 mental skills sessions, observed cadets in various training exercises (e.g., physical, tactical training), evaluated the program services in order to improve its effectiveness, and provided mentorship to first-year mental performance consultants.
Danielle also interned at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the Center for Enhanced Performance. During this time, she helped cadets transfer mental skills to training exercises while also teaching NCAA DI student-athletes strategies to enhance sport performance. In addition to working with cadets and student-athletes, she also created workbooks for the university performance psychology course, tailored sport workbooks for team sessions, and transcribed cadet interviews about their experiences with the services. She also provided interventions to cadets through working closely with neuro and biofeedback technology (e.g., EmWave, Dynavision, Neurotracker, and FitLight) in their “Kinesthetic Room”.
Additionally, Danielle has a strong passion for helping others and furthering opportunities for novice mental performance consultants. This passion has led her to an opportunity as an adjunct professor and consultant with Adler University in Chicago, IL. She provides formal mentorship for graduate students seeking CMPC through AASP and teaches a weekly online seminar course that focuses on developing consultant skills (e.g., controlling nerves while delivering a large group session, providing clear and concise information, creating evidence-based client sessions).
Though her work has varied greatly across a wide variety of programs, she has spent an immense amount of time building strong, trusting relationships with leaders and performers, observing practices/training and competitions, delivering mental skills training sessions regularly, and following up with stakeholders to provide suggestions and ask for feedback in ways she could improve her service delivery.
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Her "Why"
"I often work with athletes, performers, and coaches on discovering their "why". I think this is one of the most important things to tap into daily. I am a mental performance consultant because I live for the opportunity to help others achieve their highest level of performance. From experience as a former athlete, there is no better feeling than when you perform your very best. I want to be able to provide clients with the skills and strategies that I was not as fortunate to learn while I was competing, so they can have that feeling of greatness more consistently. I love having the opportunity to see how clients are able to transfer over the skills and strategies they learn through sport to the rest of their lives and have that feeling of greatness each and every day. I aim to do this by working empathetically and collaboratively with athletes, coaches, parents, and teammates to best serve my clients.”
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