The Mental Matchup

By The Mental MatchupSociety & Culture Sports Health & Fitness Mental Health Personal Journals

The Mental Matchup episodes

November 04 Episode #209 - Disordered Eating in Athletes: What Athletes, Parents & Coaches Should Know with Adee Levinstein, MS, RD, LD, CEDS-C
Eating disorders in athletes are easy to miss because disordered eating can
look like discipline. Eating disorders dietitian Adee Levinstein, MS, RD,
LD, CEDS-C, joins The Mental Matchup to explain the red flags in
student-athletes, the myths she hears most, and why the “I’m not sick
enough” mindset keeps so many athletes from getting help.
We also cover healthy fueling for high-level athletes, handling travel and
schedule changes without rigid routines, and how under-fueling affects
anxiety, mood, sleep, and hormones. Parents, coaches, and athletes will
leave with practical ways to support athlete mental health.
Topics Covered
* Why athletes tell themselves “it’s not that bad” and how to support
them
* Red flags: disciplined athlete vs. disordered eating
* How food and body image struggles show up in sleep, relationships,
and performance
* Healthy fueling for practice and competition, and what diet culture
gets wrong
* How under-fueling affects brain chemistry, mood, and hormones
* How parents and coaches can protect an athlete’s mental health
Adee Levinstein, MS, RD, LD, CEDS-C, is an eating disorders dietitian at
Eating Recovery Center with extensive experience supporting
student-athletes on college campuses. She trains campus staff, presents at
national conferences, and is active in iaedp, IFEDD, and the Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics.
Connect with Adee on Instagram here
Learn more about Adee here
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
45 min
October 28 Episode #208 - Rethinking Mental Toughness with Olivia Papakyrikos, M.Ed, LMHC, LPC
Athletes are often taught that toughness means pushing through, staying
quiet, and never showing weakness. This week, Olivia Papakyrikos, M.Ed,
LMHC, LPC, joins us to challenge that idea.
Olivia is a Boston-based therapist and mental performance consultant, and a
former collegiate field hockey player at Wheaton College. She shares two
personal stories that shaped her work: a coach who asked “How are you?” a
second time, and a moment on a grocery store floor when her friends chose
to sit down beside her instead of telling her to get up.
We talk about why relationships matter as much as resilience, what
perfectionism and pressure do to athletes behind the scenes, and how asking
for help is part of sustained success rather than a sign of failure.
In this episode, we talk about:
* Why athletes get so good at saying “I’m fine”
* Balancing school, sport, leadership, and social life while trying to
be perfect
* What real support looks like (hint: it’s not always fixing the
problem)
* Redefining mental toughness and resilience
* Practical tools for navigating pressure and adversity
* Supporting the person behind the athlete
Connect with Olivia on her website here
Connect with Olivia on IG here
Email with Olivia here
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
39 min
October 21 Episode #207 - Normalizing the Conversation: Mental Health and Caring for Our Most Vulnerable Youth with Mike O’Connor
In this episode, we’re joined by Mike O’Connor, Chief Relationship Officer
at New Hope Treatment Centers, a family owned and operated behavioral
healthcare company serving adolescents with complex trauma and other
psychiatric and behavioral challenges.
Since 2008, he has helped New Hope connect kids and families with the
services they need, and built relationships with the systems, providers,
state agencies, payers, and professionals around them.
Mike talks about New Hope’s mission-driven work, why open conversations
about mental health and suicide matter, and how his family shaped his path.
Both his mother and grandmother worked in the mental health field.
In this episode, we talk about:
* Mike’s journey from wilderness-based juvenile justice work to
behavioral healthcare leadership
* How New Hope supports adolescents facing psychiatric illness and
complex trauma
* Why normalizing conversations around mental health and suicide is so
important
* The role of families, systems, and community partners in getting kids
the right care
* Growing up around the mental health field and how it shaped Mike’s
career
Connect with Mike on LinkedIn here
Learn more about New Hope here
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
39 min
October 14 Episode #206 - How Lacrosse Helped Michelle Hammer Manage Schizophrenia and Break the Stigma
Michelle Hammer is a mental health advocate, speaker, designer, and founder
of Schizophrenic.NYC. A four-year NCAA lacrosse player at SUNY Oneonta,
All-Conference honoree, and senior-year team captain, she was misdiagnosed
with bipolar disorder in college and later diagnosed with schizophrenia at
age 22. Michelle shares how the structure, teammates, and a supportive
coach helped her get through college, and why she believes athletes need
open conversations about mental health.
We Talk About:
* Playing college lacrosse while living with a misdiagnosis
* How structure and a supportive coach made a difference
* Lessons in discipline and resilience that carry into mental health
* Breaking the stigma around schizophrenia
Connect with Michelle:
* Connect with Michelle and learn more here
* Follow Michelle on IG here
* Follow Michele on YouTube here
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
If this episode resonates with you or someone you know, Morgan's Message
resources are available — you don't have to navigate this alone.
35 min
October 07 Episode #205 - Rebecca Smith, MA on Trusting Yourself, Perfectionism, and Changing Youth Sports Culture
Rebecca Smith, MA, is a recovering perfectionist, former gymnast, coach,
and parent of athletes. She has spent more than 20 years helping high
achievers thrive under pressure. In this episode, she shares how mental
blocks derailed her own gymnastics career, and how that experience shaped
her mission to help fearful young athletes trust themselves again. Rebecca
talks about teaching athletes to use their voice, make good choices, and
advocate for others, and about what it takes to push back on the toxic
culture that has long existed in youth sports.
In This Episode, We Talk About:
* Rebecca's journey as a gymnast and how mental blocks ended her career
* Living as a "recovering perfectionist"
* Why an evidence-based approach to mental performance matters
* Helping fearful athletes rebuild self-trust
* Empowering athletes to find their voice and stand up to toxic youth
sports culture
* Navigating sports as a parent of an athlete
* Building a positive athletic culture that supports mental health and
resilience
Connect with Rebecca on IG here
Connect with Rebecca on her site here
Listen to Rebecca on PerformHappy with Rebecca Smith Podcast
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
41 min
September 30 Episode #204 - Angelique Cauterucci — Redefining Beauty, Reclaiming Identity
In this episode of The Mental Matchup, Kat sits down with Angelique
Cauterucci — a former competitive gymnast turned collegiate acrobatics and
tumbling captain — to talk about the pressures athletes face around body
image, perfectionism, and identity.
Angelique opens up about her journey through competitive gymnastics, where
messages about her body eventually contributed to an eating disorder and a
loss of identity outside of sport. She shares how stepping into a healthier
team environment helped her rebuild her sense of self — and how that
experience led her to found You Define Beauty, a nonprofit that has since
reached over 9,000 students nationwide through school presentations,
affirmation campaigns, and community events.
We dig into:
* The pressure athletes place on themselves to look and perform a
certain way
* How body image struggles show up in sport — and often go unspoken
* Finding identity beyond competition
* Turning a difficult chapter into purpose and advocacy
* Why mental health deserves the same attention as physical health
* The mission behind You Define Beauty and its growth into a national
movement
Angelique's message is simple but powerful: setbacks don't define you, and
every athlete has the power to write their own story.
Connect with Angelique:
* Connect with Angelique on IG here
* Connect with Angelique's non-profit on IG here
* Learn more about You Define Beauty here
* Listen to Angelique's Podcast You Define Beauty here
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
If this episode resonates with you or someone you know, Morgan's Message
resources are available — you don't have to navigate this alone.
39 min
September 28 Episode #203 - Patrick Devenny on Identity, Eating Disorders and Finding a Way Back
In this episode, Kat sits down with Patrick Devenny — former football
player at the University of Colorado Boulder — for a raw conversation about
what happens when the sport that defines you disappears.
In this episode:
* How deeply his identity — and his parents' identities — were wrapped
up in football
* Going undrafted to the Seahawks, a career-ending wrist injury, and
the jarring transition to working as a restaurant host with a cast on
his hand
* The unexpected loss of his mother and how it accelerated a downward
spiral
* How disordered eating became a way to reclaim control — and how it
nearly cost him his life
* The random podcast episode that became his lifeline
* Why he decided to speak publicly about an issue so stigmatized in
men's sports
* His take on disordered eating rates among athletes and why so few
talk about it
* A broader conversation on college athletics, coaching turnover, and
what support for student-athletes should actually look like
A note on this episode: This conversation includes discussion of eating
disorders and suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is struggling,
the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline and the 988 Suicide &
Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) are both available 24/7
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
1 hr 1 min
September 16 Episode #202 - Scott Roussell
Scott Roussell was a Division I soccer player at UVA until two knee
surgeries ended his career — and, unknowingly, took his only sense of
identity with it. Years of quiet unraveling followed, masked by outward
success, until alcohol became his coping mechanism. It led him for years
until the moment he finally admitted he couldn't do this alone.
In this episode, Scott shares his recovery, the questions it raised about
how athletes are prepared for the game but not for life after it, and how
that led him to found After We Play, a mental performance platform for
competitive youth and college athletes.
Learn more about After We Play here
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
42 min
September 10 Episode #201 - Suzanne Potts, Executive Director of Morgan’s Message
This week on The Mental Matchup, Kat's joined by Suzanne Potts, the new
Executive Director of Morgan's Message.
Suzanne brings a career built at the intersection of sports, mental health,
and nonprofit leadership. She's a licensed social worker with a master's in
both social work and public health, a former soccer player and has spent
nearly a decade in non-profit leadership. She's also taught in the School
of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin and previously served
as Executive Director of the Autism Society of Texas.
In this conversation, we cover how Suzanne got here, what drew her to
Morgan's Message, and where she sees the organization headed under her
leadership.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please know that Morgan's Message
and resources like it exist for exactly this reason. You don't have to go
through it alone.
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
35 min
September 09 Episode #200 - Morgan’s Message Co-Founders Reflect on Building Morgan’s Message and Honoring Morgan
This is episode 200 of The Mental Matchup — and to mark the occasion, we're
doing something we've never done before: bringing the co-founders of
Morgan's Message together (well, sort of together) to reflect on how we got
here.
In this milestone episode, the co-founders look back on the earliest
conversations after Morgan's passing, the moment they knew her story needed
to become something bigger than grief, and how "eliminate the stigma" and
"treat mental health equally with physical health" became the core of the
mission. They talk about watching Morgan's Message grow beyond their own
circle, what they've learned about grief and legacy along the way, what
they'd do differently if they were starting over, and the people behind the
scenes who made it all possible.
If you or someone you know is struggling, please know that Morgan's Message
and resources like it exist for exactly this reason. You don't have to go
through it alone.
Connect with Morgan’s Message on IG here
Connect with Morgan’s Message here
37 min

About The Mental Matchup

From the publisher's feed

Presented by Morgan’s Message, The Mental Matchup is a podcast focused on opening up dialogue about athlete mental health. Co-hosts Kat Zempolich and Schuyler DeBree are both former division one…

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