Select the type of program you are interested in:

Download LEAD’s “Full Menu of Programming” for athletic departments & sports teams of all sizes.

Want even more? Visit LEAD’s Sports Resource Page for exclusive, FREE access to previously-recorded mental health & DEI-related webinars, guides, blogs, and tools for Athletic Professionals.

Mental Health Education for Sports Teams

LEAD empowers athletic professionals with no-fluff mental health education to proactively meet the social and emotional needs of student-athletes and build mental toughness in athletic communities.

LEAD provides athletic professionals with practical skills, tools, and strategies to prevent mental health crises and ensure safe and high-quality athletic programs. LEAD’s evidence-based courses move “beyond talk” with their tangible takeaways, catalyzing injury-recovery, and building resilience in athletic communities across the country.

Explore Key Features & Benefits of LEAD’s services, including: (1) Peace of Mind; (2) Customization; and (3) Accessibility.

Since LEAD believes price should never be a barrier to critical mental health and DEI education, we encourage athletic organizations and institutions who need financial assistance to complete LEAD’s Scholarship Application Form.

4-Hour Team Mental Health Certification

Target Audience: Middle School, High School & College Athletes

Mode: In-Person or Virtually Via Zoom

LEAD’s TeamMHC introduces student-athletes and athletic professionals to the risk factors, warning signs, and prevalence of mental illness in adolescent and college-aged student-athletes.

Through interactive discussion,  role-play activities, and an ABC action plan, LEAD empowers S-As and athletic professionals to proactively respond to signs and symptoms of mental illness in non-crisis situations and to connect student-athletes to appropriate professional support in crisis situations. Read TeamMHC’s agenda, post-course data, and comparison to yMHFA on our website.  

How is it Different from Youth Mental Health First Aid? Topics related to mental illness and unique to a competitive sports environment, such as sideline ghosts, self-medication, and performance anxiety, are introduced to participants in a 4-hour, rather than 8-hour format. By the end of the course, each participant leaves with a personal toolkit featuring tangible self-care strategies to promote mental health in their own lives and in the lives of other student-athletes and staff. This means that LEAD will empower participants to maximize their school’s existing mental and physical health resources, many of which are being paid for but likely being underutilized.

Want even more? Visit LEAD’s Sports Resource Page for exclusive, FREE access to previously-recorded live mental health & DEI-related webinars, guides, blogs, and tools for athletic professionals.

20-Hour Train-the-Trainer Program for TeamMHC Instructors

Target Audience: Athletic Directors, Coaches, Athletic Trainers, Sports Psychologists

Mode: Self-Paced Train-the-Trainer program, coupled with Virtual Practice Sessions 

Duration: 20-Hour Minimum

Attend LEAD’s Team Academy to certify student-athletes and athletic professionals in 4-hour “Team Mental Health” certification - the nation’s first early intervention certification tailored to a competitive sports environment. Read the course agenda here. Learn more about the LEAD Academy and the credentialing process. 

LEAD’s Team Academy consists of 30+ hours of online, self-paced training. The Team Academy teaches instructors-in-training how to certify athletic professionals and student-athletes in 4-hour Team Mental Health (TeamMHC) and how to provide culturally competent, trauma-informed, and inclusive care in a competitive sports setting. After attending the Academy, TeamMHC instructors receive access to their teaching materials, a comprehensive Instructor Manual, a framed certificate, and free continuing education from LEAD HQ.

Participants Are Empowered To:

• Recognize the difference between and the relationship of mental health and mental illness in athletics.  

• Promote mental health and model proactive self-care strategies for student-athletes and athletic professionals. 

• Apply a three-step action plan to both crisis and non-crisis mental health situations.

• Connect student-athletes/athletic professionals to team/athletic department-based, self-help, and professional resources.

Participants do not learn to diagnose or provide therapy or counseling.

Additional Information for Coaches: 

1. LEAD can extend the length of TeamMHC to five or six hours to provide extra time to practice applying the ABC Action Plan to crisis and non-crisis situations and to emotionally debrief with participants ($275/hour).

2. If 75% of the team is present at the course, both the individual participants and the team itself receive certification through LEAD, Inc. If 75% of the team is not present, only individual participants receive their digital certificates. 

8-Hour Youth Mental Health First Aid (yMHFA)

Target Audience: Athletic Professionals & Student-Athletes

Mode: In-Person or Blended Learning (2-Hour Self-Paced Pre-Work & Five Hours Live Virtual Training)

Duration: 8 Hours In-Person OR 7 Hours (2-Hours Pre-Work + 5 Hours Live Virtual)

Certify student-athletes, athletic professionals, and staff in 8-hour “Youth Mental Health First Aid (yMHFA)”.  yMHFA is designed to teach youth-serving professionals how to help adolescents (age 12-18) who are experiencing mental health crisis, addiction, or challenge. The program introduces specific mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, disorders in which psychosis may occur, disruptive behavior disorders (including AD/HD), bipolar disorder, eating disorders, and addictions in young people (ages 12-18). 

The yMHFA program, designed and accredited by the National Council for Mental Wellness, provides participants with a 5-step ALGEE action-plan to respond to mental health crisis situations in their community. Youth Mental Health First Aid not only offers concrete tools and skills, but also answers key questions like “What can I do?” and “Where can someone find mental health help?” For more information about the 8-hour yMHFA program, check out this resource.

yMHFA USA introduces participants to the risk factors and warning signs of mental health challenges common among adolescents, including anxiety, depression, psychosis, eating disorders, AD/HD, disruptive behavior disorders, and substance use disorder. 

yMHFA uses role-playing and simulations to demonstrate how to assess a mental health crisis; select interventions and provide initial help; and connect young people to professional, peer, social, and self-help care.

How is it Different from TeamMHC? Topics related to mental illness and unique to a competitive sports environment, such as sideline ghosts, self-medication, and performance/re-injury anxiety, are NOT introduced to participants in a 4-hour, rather than 8-hour format. Additionally, YMHFA does NOT teach student-athletes or athletic professionals about caring for their own mental health and preventing burnout or compassion fatigue. If yMHFA is provided for leadership staff, LEAD strongly recommends pairing it with TeamMHC for student-athletes and athletic professionals.

Participants learn to support a youth developing signs and symptoms of a mental illness or in an emotional crisis by applying a core five-step action plan:

• Assess for risk of suicide or harm

• Listen non-judgmentally

• Give reassurance and information

• Encourage appropriate professional help

• Encourage self-help and other support strategies

Custom Professional Development

Target Audience: Everyone in the Athletic Community

Mode: In-Person or Virtually via Zoom

Duration: 1-Hour Minimum (60, 75, & 90-Minute Options Available)

Empower staff with various 60-90-minute custom workshops either in-person or virtually via zoom. LEAD workshops typically involve a combination of both content delivery and “foundation building,” as well as various hands-on, activity-based, and interactive components to meet critical learning objectives. Custom, virtual workshops empower participants by offering them opportunities to build community with their teams, practice skills, engage in scenarios, and solidify newly-gained knowledge. For a full list of topics that can be taught by LEAD, check out LEAD’s Workshop Topic Menu.

For every workshop, LEAD provides partnering sports teams with the following complimentary resources: 

1. Custom workshop flyer -  to advertise the event and boost attendance! Check out flyer example one & flyer example two!

2. Post-workshop resource sheet -  to provide participants with topic-specific resources and learning materials like videos, articles, books & infographics for continued learning. Check out this example!

3. Workshop Recording (Expires after 7 Days) - for staff to watch the workshop recording if they couldn’t attend live. 

Custom Lesson Plans - Post-Workshop Facilitation Tools

Target Audience: Athletic Directors, Coaches, Athletic Trainers, Sports Psychologists

Mode: Online PDF Lesson Plan Document (with links included) → Lesson Plan Facilitation Modes Vary

Duration: 60-Minute Lesson Plan

LEAD can provide your athletic team’s leadership with custom lesson plans to facilitate ongoing conversation and skill-building for your staff after they have received training from LEAD. Custom lesson plans are created by LEAD’s expert curriculum development team with the goal of empowering your team leaders to lead internal debriefs to solidify newly learned topics.

Each custom lesson plan features a 60-minute in-person/virtual activity with:  learning objectives, facilitation instructions, “deep dive" and open-ended questions to ask, reflection prompts for staff, key takeaways, and a post-activity evaluation tool.  Check out this LEAD lesson plan example (MIT) →  

Want even more? Visit LEAD’s Sports Resource Page for exclusive, FREE access to previously-recorded live mental health & DEI-related webinars, guides, blogs, and tools for athletic professionals.

For a full list of topics that can be taught by LEAD, check out LEAD’s Workshop Topics Menu. For your convenience, LEAD’s most popular workshops are also listed below and organized into three training categories:

1. Mental Health & Mental Illness in Sports

2. DEI(JB), Cultural Competency, and Anti-Racism in Sports; and

3. Trauma Aware, Informed, Sensitive, & Responsive Coaching & Teams in Sports.

Want even more? Visit LEAD’s Sports Resource Page for exclusive, FREE access to previously-recorded live mental health & DEI-related webinars, guides, blogs, and tools for athletic professionals.

Self-Paced E-Courses & Mid & Post-Session Debriefs

Target Audience: All Athletic Professionals & Elite Student- Athletes

Mode: Self-Paced E-Course(s), Coupled with Virtual or In-Person Debrief(s)

Duration: Self-Paced E-Courses range from 90-minute to 10+ Hours; Session Debriefs Are 60-Minutes

Using LEAD’s Learning Lab, empower your staff with a continued education program, consisting of various online, self-paced professional development courses that maximize learning, reinforce healthy practices, and set the stage for long-term habit formation.

All e-courses are hosted on LEAD’s Self-Paced & Online Learning Lab and are paired with mid-session and/or post-session LEAD-facilitated debrief(s). For your convenience, LEAD’s e-courses and their learning objectives are listed below. All e-courses are provided to participants with lifetime access and are regularly updated to incorporate the latest knowledge, statistics, and trends. 

The following e-courses are available on LEAD’s Learning Lab, categorized by focus area but all with a common thread of mental health and inclusion-based education.

Mental Health & Mental Illness in Sports:

• Putting Yourself First: Self-Care & Stress Management (2+ hours) - featuring bonus modules for Athletic Professionals

• Yikes: Coping with the Anxiety of Uncertainty (2+ hours)

• Eat (With) Your Feelings: Mindful Meal Prep, Cooking, & Eating (90-minutes)

• Color Me Calm: Drawing for Mindfulness (90-minutes)

DEI(JB), Cultural Competency, and Anti-Racism in Sports:

• Tip of the Iceberg: BIPOC Mental Health, Cultural Humility, Anti-Racism, & Allyship (10+ hours) - featuring bonus modules for Athletic Professionals

• Love is Love: LGBTQIA2S+ Mental Health, Inclusion & Allyship (10+ hours) - featuring bonus modules for Athletic Professionals

Trauma Aware, Informed, Sensitive, & Responsive Sports:

• Triggered: Trauma-Aware, Sensitive, Responsive & Informed Care (10+ hours) - featuring bonus modules for Athletic Professionals

BONUS Team Modules:

LEAD's e-courses feature BONUS “Team Modules” with strategies and tools tailored to athletic professionals and student-athletes, in addition to School and Camp modules. Why? LEAD uses a human-centered and strengths-based approach when developing curricula. We believe a "one size fits all" is ineffective when providing proactive, practical, and meaningful mental health education to vulnerable communities and the adults who serve them.

Team-specific modules enable LEAD to tailor all courses to specific environments and their unique challenges, in addition to providing general tools to individuals on the front lines of their communities. All modules are available and optional for every participant, enabling youth-serving professionals who wear "many hats" to learn from a variety of perspectives at their own pace.

Mid & Post-Session Debriefs

LEAD’s 60 minute, mid and post-session Debriefs are provided after athletic professionals and student-athletes have completed their assigned e-course during a set period of time. Think of LEAD’s Debriefs as book clubs where LEAD facilitates a live discussion and reflection on the e-course material with participants. LEAD debriefs utilize a “flipped classroom” approach that combines both the convenience of asynchronous learning with the engagement and experiential learning that can occur in a live, group Debrief facilitated by a LEAD instructor.

LEAD debriefs utilize a “flipped classroom” approach that combines both the convenience of asynchronous learning with the engagement and experiential learning that can occur in a live, group debrief facilitated by a LEAD instructor. 

LEAD can also provide partnering teams with a  complimentary “Game Plan” (Example to the Right) that serves as a guidebook for participants to complete certain sections of their curriculum over a pre-set period of time. Your team is also given one free progress report per e-course, on a date and time of its choice. This progress report includes a list of registered participants and individual reports that have lecture progress and quiz scores. 

During LEAD-facilitated Debriefs, participants are empowered to:

1. Make space to “debrief” and reflect on LEAD’s e-learning material. 

2. Solidify newly-learned knowledge and skills for participants.

3. Discuss difficult topics with other members of their community, in a safe and respectful environment.

Want even more? Visit LEAD’s Sports Resource Page for exclusive, FREE access to previously-recorded live mental health & DEI-related webinars, guides, blogs, and tools for athletic professionals.

1:1 Coaching Blocks

Target Audience: All Athletic Professionals & Elite Student- Athletes

Mode: In-Person or Virtually via Zoom

Duration: 4 or 8-Hour Coaching Blocks

Sports & Athletic Professionals are empowered with one or more 4 or 8-hour blocks, separated into 30 or 60-minute coaching sessions that individual staff can sign up for.

1:1 Coaching Blocks empower staff with the opportunity to address specific challenges in private and with a mental health clinician or a LEAD industry expert. 1:1 coaching blocks incorporate a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires staff to maximize their personal and professional potential. LEAD’s coaches honor the individual as the expert in their life, use a strength-based approach, and believe every client is creative, resourceful, and whole.

During coaching sessions, individuals will be empowered to identify goals, create strategies to obtain those goals, and boost the overall performance of the organization.

Consultation with LEAD Industry Experts & Mental Health Clinicians

Target Audience: Athletic Directors, Coaches, Athletic Trainers, Sports Psychologists

Mode: Virtually via Zoom

Duration: Five-Hour Minimum

LEAD can provide 1:1 ongoing and project-based consulting to aid sports partners with creating polls and evaluation tools to discover the biggest needs, interests, and programming goals of the community being served.

LEAD’s specialists will identify problem areas, challenges, and goals, make diagnoses and give recommendations, assist with implementation of recommended solutions, build a consensus and commitment around corrective action, and facilitate client learning—that is, teaching clients how to resolve similar problems in the future.

Examples of Ongoing Consulting include empowering athletic organizations to:

1. Maximize their current internal mental health and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) training efforts.

2. Establish leadership buy-in for mental health and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) training efforts and team/department-wide culture shifts.

3. Strategize the build-out of meaningful mental health and burnout prevention programming for the next fiscal year.

Want even more? Visit LEAD’s Sports Resource Page for exclusive, FREE access to previously-recorded live mental health & DEI-related webinars, guides, blogs, and tools for athletic professionals.

Examples of Project-Based Consulting include empowering athletic organizations to:

1. Create marketing materials to promote training and resources being provided to staff, thus promoting high attendance at all programming provided by LEAD and/or full-time staff in the future. 

2. Establish a Mental Health and/or DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) Committee and help it to diversify the organization’s client recruiting strategies, update internal policies and hiring protocols to be more equitable, and promote the mental health and wellbeing of staff and student-athletes. 

3. Develop Employee Resource Groups and help the organization support staff by providing a safe space where staff can bring their whole selves to the table and foster athletic and academic success. 

LEAD, Inc. has an experienced Board with clinical and camp wellness and diversity, equity, and inclusion experts, ensuring all training curricula are evidence-based, effective, safe, and tailored to the individuals being educated.

For more information about LEAD, watch our animated founding story and explore our team of staff and instructors. Moreover, read LEAD’s Statement of Inclusion and learn how we do the work because modeling self-care and an unfaltering commitment to DEI matter! 

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