Hi! I’m Carrie!
The most important thing you need to know about me is that I love what I do. I love helping people achieve their goals and have more fun participating in exercise and sport and I would love the opportunity to work with you. And when you have the opportunity to meet me, you will know that statement is absolutely true.
I’ve always known I wanted to help people be confident and believe in themselves. I had no idea what that was going to look like, but I’ve known this ever since I was a kid. My “aha” moment came during a break between undergraduate and graduate school. This moment came during a rock-climbing trip in Joshua Tree National Park. I was lying down on a rock and looking up at a friend of mine, watching her lead a climb. She was an expert climber and the climb was easily within her ability. I had seen her top rope that exact route dozens of times, but this was her first time leading it. I knew that she could climb it with her eyes closed and still get up faster than I could and now I was watching her, completely frozen on the rock and unable to commit to her next move. I knew that the biggest obstacle was her own mind and I was instantly fascinated and wanted to learn more about the psychology behind performance.
I’ve had athletes achieve amazing athletic accomplishments – things they never thought were possible for them. I’ve worked with athletes that get so nervous before competition they wondered if they should quit; now those same athletes show up to their events and not only perform well, but actually enjoy it! I’ve worked with injured athletes through their recovery and helped them return to their sport only to have their greatest season yet.
Carrie’s Bio
Carrie Jackson is a performance and mental training expert, a Certified Mental Performance Consultant, and the author of On Top of Your Game: Mental Skills to Maximize Your Athletic Performance. She’s one of the world’s foremost authorities on the mental and emotional challenges of recovering from injury. She co-authored the book Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, and is the co-host of the widely regarded podcast The Injured Athletes Club.
With a bachelor’s in psychology, a masters in sport psychology, and over 2 decades of experience in sport and performance psychology, Carrie’s thought leadership on mental training is the gold standard in the athletic world. Her insights have been featured in multiple media outlets including Runner’s World, Outside Magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, and Huffington Post to name a few.
Carrie in the news
Testimonials from Teams
Her preparation for the [team] sessions exhibited excellent attention to detail and creative ideas with worksheets and activities she prepared for the players. I also appreciated how Carrie encouraged the players to search for their own answers, thoughts, and feelings, rather than putting words into their mouths. She structured environments that promoted everyone’s involvement and made it safe to express thoughts, emotions, and ideas. We were very fortunate to have her as a part of our program.
Carrie played a crucial role in the development of a young program. She helped create an environment that was encouraging and safe for communication among team members and coaches. Each year she demonstrated the ability to adapt to the needs of the team; whether it be developing a level of comfort among them, serving as a guide to help us build a strong foundation based on the characteristics necessary for team success or teaching psychological skills to enhance performance. In addition she provided guidance to me, as well as the entire coaching staff, to help improve our ability to work most effectively with each team. We were truly fortunate to have someone like Carrie assisting the growth of the program!
Testimonials from Workshops
The entire workshop was fascinating. The breakdown of pre-race prep, control [and] out of control and stoplights all gave me some insight to how I approach situations and events.
The idea to “think confident, act confident and be confident” seems to have carried with me. I’ve been thinking about it on a daily basis and, if you can believe this, I think I’m even walking with more confidence!
In the looking confident/ post it notes drill, I cannot tell you how much it helped to realize everyone else is telling themselves the exact same thing I am on a bad day! The handout is good too – it forced me to not just hear what you said and move on, but to actually be able to carry the changes into the future by having concrete things to say to myself.
Testimonials from Athletes
I have been training and racing for many years and wasn’t aware of the importance of the mental skills component. I started working with Carrie when I set out to achieve my biggest goal yet, a full Ironman. Carrie guided me on techniques and strategies for improving my mental skills training and turning the challenging and negative thoughts into positive ones. Carrie taught me how to use writing, visualization, goal-setting and stress management to deal with the anxiety of high intensity training and racing … I saw major improvement. My attitude towards myself improved as well as overall results as I learned to dial into the positive. I highly recommend Carrie, as she is an outstanding listener, professional coach, and helped forward me into action to achieve my goals.
Having somebody to bounce my thoughts off of was probably most important, especially since Carrie could help me understand the thoughts and emotions as well as just listen to them. She helped me clarify and effectively deal with a lot of different things I was feeling. It really blew away my expectations. More important than any technique was the practice of listening to my own thoughts, feelings, and especially needs. I learned to be more attentive to those forces which I feel will be very helpful for my own personal well-being and happiness.
In bike racing, which is harder? I suppose it depends on the situation, but I would be willing to say that the majority of endurance athletes would agree that mental toughness is by far more difficult than physical toughness. Knowing how to shove those negative thoughts out of your brain and coming up with a detailed plan of how you will mentally deal with everything from preparing for a race to crossing that finish line. If you think that my comeback from my horrific crash was on my own, think again. Besides my friends and family, I blame two people for my comeback: my coach, and Carrie Jackson.
She helped me perform to my top potential.
Learning how to focus really helped me: especially how to move forward after mistakes and learning how to realize I can’t control the past.
I think it has been helpful for me [working with Carrie] as a player, but it has also been good for our team. The mind game, I believe, is just as important as the physical.
Thank you so much for coaching me through the best season of my skiing life. You are such a gift!
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