About Neal

I’m Neal. I’m an endurance and mountain athlete, adventurer, husband and father. I’m a licensed psychotherapist and a mental performance coach and I have a passion for working with athletes who want to push themselves, explore the boundaries of their abilities and not let anything hold them back.

Growing up I ran into a lot of obstacles. I was unsure of myself, shy, anxious and sometimes depressed. I also had poor coordination, couldn’t skip, or hop, balance on one leg and definitely was THE slowest runner in school. Not the kind of person you’d expect to see leading trips in the mountains and rivers, nor someone that you’d expect would run a hundred miles in the mountains of Wyoming and Colordao, ride his mountain bike in the highest and most grueling mountain bike race in the country or qualify and run the Boston Marathon.

Working with a therapist allowed me to find my voice, become comfortable in my own skin, and lean into challenging social and physical situations. I kept seeking those challenging situations out, over the years I pushed myself to get uncomfortable both physically, socially and emotionally. Sometimes, that was leading a group of adolescents through the mountains and rivers while working for Outward Bound. That was also getting up at 1:00am for summit attempts on peaks through-out the west. It was canyoneering in icy cold streams in Oregon. Rock-climbing in Yosemite and ice climbing in Colorado. That was also running mile-after-mile, day-after-day striving for a Boston qualifier or training for a hundred mile race.

I know it’s possible to get out of your shell. I know it’s possible to overcome panic, anxiety and depression. It’s also possible to come into races focused and ready and not letting previous falls impact your performance today.