Dr. Chris Praetzel - Director, Student-Athlete Mental Health Programs - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Dr. Chris Praetzel

Title:
Director, Student-Athlete Mental Health Programs
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Dr. Chris Praetzel, PsyD, CMPC, is the Director of Student-Athlete Mental Health Programs and a Sport and Counseling Psychologist. Chris is responsible for the overall mental health, mental wellbeing, and performance psychology needs of student-athletes. In his role he provides individual counseling, crisis support, individual/team mental performance support, biofeedback and neurofeedback interventions, health promotion and prevention programming, and consultations to staff and coaches. He also oversees team liasionships. He is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant through the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, an instructor in both Mental Health First Aid and Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement, and has completed level 2 Gottman Method Couples' Therapy.

His approach to counseling strives to be collaborative and affirming of individual lived experiences and intersectionality, integrating top-down (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy), bottom-up (Somatic and Emotion-focused), relational (Time-limited Dynamic Psychotherapy and Relational-Cultural), and blended (Internal Family Systems) approaches. He provides individual mental performance support providing on traditional sport psychology topics including mental toughness training, imagery, confidence building, and 3rd wave mindfulness and acceptance approaches- integrating elements of psychophysiology, and team level interventions to help groups increase cohesion, group performance, communication, conflict resolution, and overall wellbeing.

Prior to UCLA Chris worked as the Director of Student-Athlete Wellbeing at the University of Wyoming, as the lead psychologist and provided similar services as well as bystander prevention trainings to reduce power-based personal violence in athletics and on campus as an instructor in Green Dot. Chris completed his Postdoc in Clinical and Sport Psychology at Commander Counseling and Wellness in Norman, OK under the supervision of Dr. Cody Commander-an expert in collegiate mental health and support of high level athletes- who served as Team USA's Mental Health Officer at the Tokyo Olympics. In his position he provided sport psychology support to athletes at the youth, high school, collegiate, and national levels, counseling to individuals across the lifespan, psychological assessment for ADHD, Autism, and other Psychological and Personality Disorders, and workshops to high-performance groups.

Chris completed his Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) in Counseling Psychology (Springfield College, MA), and his doctoral internship at Kansas State University, where he completed rotations in Athletics and Veterinary Medicine (which unfortunately did not involve talk therapy with cats and dogs).During his program he also spent 2 summers at Empowered Wellness Camp in Santa Barbara, CA working as a Behavioral Coach and then the Clinical Director. In the latter role he was responsible for the overall mental wellness of members, providing and supervising Body Image and CBT-based groups, and administration. He also worked with individual athletes and teams at multiple collegiate institutions.

Chris also completed a Master’s in Conflict Resolution and Mediation (Tel Aviv University, Israel), Erasmus Mundus dual-Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology (University of Thessaly, Greece; University of Leipzig, Germany) and earned credits in Team Sports and Health: Psychological and Sociological Perspectives at the University of Copenhagen-Denmark, and a B.A. in Sport Psychology (Arcadia University, Glenside, PA)-where he also studied a year abroad at the University of Stirling, Scotland. During his graduate degrees he had experience providing mental performance training to elite (collegiate, national, Olympic) level athletes.  In his bachelor's degree he completed an internship with the Center for Sport Psychology and Dr. Joel Fish, a nationally recognized expert in sport psychology.

After graduating from his bachelor’s he ran solo, self-supported across America from Santa Monica to Atlantic City, New Jersey for organ donor awareness-passing through the Mojave Desert, Rocky Mountains, and to the east coast. The run was in honor of his brother, Brian, who received a life-saving kidney transplant as a child.

Chris is avid about family, running, travel, and supporting Gritty (Philadelphia Flyers).