This week on The Mental Matchup, we’re joined by Hania Taduran—former Division I beach volleyball athlete and founder of Breaking Barriers, an organization dedicated to advancing mental health support for athletes through education, peer connection, and advocacy.

Hania brings a rare and powerful perspective to this conversation, blending her lived experience as a high-performing athlete with her clinical training in Marriage and Family Therapy. Having competed on a nationally ranked NCAA team at FIU, she understands firsthand the pressure, identity challenges, and emotional weight that often come with elite athletics.

In this episode, Hania opens up about her personal journey and the experiences that shaped her passion for making mental health support more accessible and usable for athletes.

Together, we explore:

Hidden grief in athletics and how it shows up in performance, identity, and emotional well-being

Why athletes often struggle to name or process grief—and what actually helps

Barriers to help-seeking in sports and the subtle ways stigma shows up in athletic culture

What it takes to shift environments so athletes feel safe asking for support

The story behind Breaking Barriers and how Hania is turning awareness into meaningful, systemic change

This conversation is an honest look at what so many athletes carry behind the scenes—and a reminder that vulnerability isn’t weakness, it’s a pathway to connection, healing, and growth.

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