MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – A local counseling group is bringing mental health support to high school athletes, filling a gap in services that previously required families to travel to Wilmington or Charleston.<\/p>\n
The Oaks Counseling Group created \u201cThe Confident Athlete\u201d program after owner Megan Townsend identified a need in Myrtle Beach. <\/p>\n
The program adds specialist Kristin Sawyer to the staff as a sports psychologist.<\/p>\n
\u201cBalancing sports with academics and even just a social life, family life can be really hard for them sometimes,\u201d Townsend said. \u201cSo being able to have an outlet and a source to work through some of the mental skills, the pressure, and even just someone to talk to is really beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Children struggling with pressure in sports previously had to travel to Wilmington or Charleston or use telehealth to talk with a sports psychologist. <\/p>\n
Families can now get that support locally.<\/p>\n
Building mental skills alongside physical training<\/p>\n
The program teaches athletes skills to manage pressure, build confidence, and work through challenges. <\/p>\n
Sawyer said athletes\u2019 performance is directly tied to their mental state.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they are teaching a skill to somebody, they really start to break down for themselves the skills they may be missing, and they need to incorporate,\u201d Sawyer said. \u201cSo hopefully with this group, when they are hearing other athletes talk about their struggles and what they are going through, hopefully this will have them go \u2018oh I do that too, how can I best fix this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The program includes group sessions where athletes learn from each other\u2019s experiences and develop foundational skills.<\/p>\n
Mental training should be treated like physical training, something athletes practice year-round rather than only when struggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning these skills from the very beginning can help increase not only their physical performance but also their mental performance in the long run and really help elevate any stress and pressure that they face,\u201d Sawyer said.<\/p>\n
Individual sessions focus on process goals, performance goals, and creating routines. Sawyer works with athletes on areas including staying focused when traveling for sports. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of different areas that athletes really don\u2019t think about because they are so focused on the physical component,\u201d Sawyer said. \u201cSo really trying to dial in the mental side of things to help them reach that peak level of performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program aims to improve both athletic performance and overall well-being.<\/p>\n
Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with WMBF. For more free content like this, download our apps.<\/a> Have feedback that can help us improve? Click here.<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 WMBF. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – A local counseling group is bringing mental health support to high school athletes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[13590,163,85,46,522,523,212799,212801,212800],"class_list":["post-456368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-athlete-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-sports-psychology-myrtle-beach","tag-the-confident-athlete-program","tag-the-oaks-counseling-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}