EMDR Therapy for Athletes: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Performance Enhancement, Recovery and Resilience

This presentation is CEU Eligible

EMDR Therapy is widely recognized as an evidence-based treatment for trauma, yet its application in sport extends beyond trauma resolution to include addressing performance barriers, injury rehabilitation, and athlete well-being. This presentation introduces the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model as a framework for understanding how past experiences, memory networks, and nervous system responses can influence athletic performance, confidence, and recovery. Participants will explore the relationship between unresolved experiences and common sport-related challenges, including performance blocks, injury recovery, identity transitions, and competitive anxiety. Through clinical examples and case conceptualization, attendees will gain a foundational understanding of how EMDR therapy may be integrated into athlete care, when referral to an EMDR-trained clinician is appropriate, and how a trauma-informed, nervous system-informed approach can support both resilience and performance enhancement.

Whitney Dittmar, MA, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor and founder of EMDR Intensives for Athletes, Coaches and Leaders in Centennial, Colorado.  She has more than 20 years of clinical experience, and as a former Division I athlete she brings a deep, lived understanding of the psychological demands and physiological pressures inherent in peak performance. She specializes in helping elite high school, collegiate, and professional athletes enhance performance and navigate challenges such as performance blocks, anxiety, the yips, and injury recovery. As an EMDR (Eye Movement Desentization and Reprocessing) Certified Therapist and Consultant Whitney integrates evidence-based, nervous system–focused methods to build resilience, promote recovery, and support optimal performance. She is a passionate advocate for athlete and coach mental health, working to transform systems so athletes are supported proactively, both as performers and as people.

Working in Systems: A look at interdisciplinary relationships and a thriving sport social work presence within an athletic department

This workshop is CEU Eligible

This presentation will discuss what a social worker's role within an athletic department can look like. It will discuss social work strengths and how those strengths can support, supplement and lead areas within a department. It will discuss collaboration, psycho-education about the work we actually are capable of and how to showcase that work

Kelli Monedero is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Mental Performance Consultant. She is currently embedded at Indiana University within their athletic department as their Athletic Counselor.

She is a 2002 graduate of Central Michigan University and a 2007 graduate of the University of Tennessee where she got her master’s in social work. 

Prior to joining to the IU Athletics staff, Kelli worked for IUPUI doing mental health counseling with their student athletes. She worked in a myriad of settings including an outdoor wilderness camp, k-12 public education as a therapist and school social worker, and in a community mental health organization. She was honored for her work as the Person of the Year as her role as a school social worker in 2018.  Kelli was a track & field coach for 20 years and has coached in Michigan, Tennessee and Indiana where she was named Track and Field Coach of the Year in 2012. 

Kelli is an adjunct faculty at Indiana University in the School of Public Health where she teaches a grad level course she created called, "A Coach's Role in Their Student-Athlete's Mental Health and Sport Performance." 

Kelli owns a small consulting business called Thinq Health & Performance where she works with high school athletic coaching staffs and students to create healthy coaching environments and team cultures. It can be found here: https://www.thinqhp.com/

Kelli resides in Bloomington and considers herself a plant lover.