The McMillin Center for Sport Psychology at James Madison University offers programs in Virginia designed to educate athletes, coaches, and parents on how mental skills can increase performance on and off the field of play. We provide mental training for all sports, skill levels, and ages.
For the Athletic Community
We believe in supporting the holistic development of athletes and performers. We offer services to improve mental performance and well-being.
Coaches and support staff are integral, and we believe in supporting them to improve team performance and their well-being.
Holistic development includes helping parents and the surrounding community with education to support youth and developing athletes.
Who We Are
Our People
We are a team passionate about sport and improving the performance and well-being of athletes, performers, coaches, and support personnel.
Join Our Team
The McMillin Center offers a unique opportunity to learn, train, and gain experience on the path to becoming a sport psychologist. Learn more about JMU's Clinical and School Psy.D. program.
Spotlight: Lauren Shoss, M.Ed. | McMillin Center Graduate Assistant
Lauren develops programmatic materials for Dukes Excel, is a workshop presenter for local teams/coaches, and meets with athletes in the community to enhance their mental health and mental performance
Research Interests: athletic identity, athletic career transitions and retirement, mental toughness, stress management, and athlete well-being
Coaches: Learn how to support your athletes even more
Coaching Life Skills Through Sport is a free self-paced, online course that teaches coaches the latest evidence-based strategies for developing life skills and provides a workbook to guide participants in building a manageable life skills program in their own coaching practice. Additionally, it provides examples of how high school coaches are putting these strategies into action within their sport programs. Specifically, participating coaches will learn to:
- label and define key life skills for their program,
- identify strategies for coaching life skills to student-athletes, and
- develop plans to incorporate the strategies during their sport’s season.
Over 88% of surveyed coaches who completed the course found the content very relevant to extremely relevant to their coaching context. Further, these coaches evaluated the course positively (i.e., ease of navigation, organization, and lectures/scenarios/coach videos/workbook activities noted as helpful).
Trauma Responsive Coaching
This Mindfulness Monday we would like to offer you a preview of the content that will be discussed in our upcoming annual coaching clinic. Stay tuned for information regarding the featured speaker and registration! 👀
