Liv Massey is a mental performance coach and mental health counselor. Liv received her Master’s degree (M.Ed) in mental health counseling with a specialization in sport and performance psychology from Boston University. Liv was a 4-year NCAA Division 1 Track and Field Athlete who competed at Bucknell University. Her passion lies with helping athletes and other performers reach their highest potential through the creation of specifically designed plans that include evidenced-based mental conditioning techniques. Liv has specific expertise in the delivery of mindfulness-based interventions that help performers develop abilities in attentional control, mental preparation and optimizing their mindset to be able to perform at their best.
Liv has participated in the creation of sport psychology research ranging in topics from self-compassion development in athletes and coaches to measuring coping skills and resilience in elite performers. She also served as a Sport Psychology consultant for NCAA Division III teams in the Boston area. Liv has worked in a variety of settings ranging from leading young adult clients through wilderness therapy in Hawaii to delivering therapeutic interventions to kids through the use of sport and play.
When Liv is not working with athletes, she can be found running with her big dog in the park, playing flag-football or soccer with her various social leagues, or exploring the NYC restaurant scene.
Amanda Fazio joins the SportStrata team as a Project Coordinator and Mental Performance Coach. Amanda received her master’s degree (M.S.) in Sport Psychology and Motor Behavior from the University of Tennessee. Her passion lies with empowering athletes and performers to reach their highest potential both on and off the field through the teaching of evidence-based mental techniques, specifically surrounding positive psychology, and a mindfulness approach, and utilizing techniques from motivational interviewing. It is her goal for performers to not solely use mental techniques and increase enjoyment in performance, but to find it in everyday life. Amanda’s most recent experience ranges from facilitating mental skills training programs with youth and college athletes in various sports to conducting research with para-sport athletes on flow state experiences. She is also currently working towards becoming a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) as well as completing her master’s in clinical mental health counseling to seek licensure.
Prior to joining the SportStrata team, Amanda was a collegiate softball coach for three years at both the Division I and Division III levels, while most recently serving as the Graduate Assistant for the softball team at the University of Tennessee for two years. These experiences have allowed her to work not only with athletes at a high level, but also communicate effectively with various collegiate coaches and administrations to help them facilitate growth, positive team cultures, and most importantly, enjoyment, in the student-athlete experience. She prides herself on building positive relationships with student-athletes and has her finger on the pulse when it comes to the intersection of mental and physical performance. In her own playing career, Amanda was a 4-year NCAA Division I softball player at Bucknell University where she broke program records in career strikeouts, strikeouts in a single season, wins in a single season, and stolen bases for the Bison.
Outside of work, Amanda enjoys bringing her very fluffy dog to the park and on hikes, cheering for the New York Yankees and New York Giants, and eating her weight in ice cream. Amanda is also a second-degree blackbelt in Isshinryu Karate, which she credits for much of her mental fortitude in her own athletic career.
Jared McShall is a licensed clinical psychologist. Working within a cognitive-behavioral framework, Jared believes cultivating a strong client-coach relationship is paramount to helping clients reach their goals. Jared also has extensive training in Motivational Interviewing and its application for augmenting empirically-supported interventions.
Jared grew up in Harlem, where he began studying martial arts at age 10. After graduating from Wesleyan University, he began training with karate world champions Eugene Frazier and Jadi Tention in the Bronx. Jared went on to compete in several national martial arts tournaments while helping to develop junior martial artists.
Prior to SportStrata, Jared was a full time psychologist with Montefiore Medical Center’s Supporting Healthy Relationships Program, where he led psychoeducational workshops with under-served couples. He taught empirically-supported techniques to improve communication between partners, reduce conflict, manage stress, and improve parenting.
Outside of work, Jared enjoys playing basketball, collecting movies, and “circling the wagon” for the Buffalo Bills!
Dr. Rebekka Palmer is a licensed clinical and performance psychologist. She works as a coach and therapist for youth, young adults, athletes, couples and executives. She believes strongly that athletes, performers as well as people in business can benefit from mental coaching.
She has done performance coaching with executives in a wide array of specialties such as treasury, finance consulting, investment banking and corporate banking. Her approach with executives has largely focused on refining and working toward performance goals, advisory regarding challenging decision making and handling sensitive issues, as well as enhancing emotional intelligence.
In addition to her coaching work with high-performers, Dr. Palmer has extensive experience in substance abuse treatment, motivationally challenged populations, harm reduction, and use of protective strategies for substance use among young adults.
Jorge Aguilar, MD PhD is a board-certified psychiatrist and mental performance coach with expertise in the psychological aspect of athletic performance. He obtained his MD and PhD degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed residency training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Aguilar believes strongly in tailoring his coaching method to the individual athlete and their goals. He employs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and evidence-based mindfulness practices to help them achieve greater confidence, focus, resilience, and enjoyment in their sport and daily life. He has helped athletes in numerous sports including baseball, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and swimming.
Jorge grew up in the Bronx, New York, and was a multi-sport varsity athlete and team captain in high school, and a year-round NCAA Cross Country and Track & Field athlete in college. He also has experience coaching at the team level and was the head coach of the 2009 Harlem Little League World Series team. In his free time, he enjoys training for marathons, mentoring inner city youth, and being with his family and 2 dogs.
Courtney provides a range of therapies including cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, motivational interviewing, feminist-oriented therapy and mindfulness. She works with adolescents and adults experiencing a variety of difficulties including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, trauma, and performance-related issues. Courtney believes that a strong therapeutic alliance between the therapist and the client is at the core of all successful experiences in therapy. A former Division I hockey player at Yale University, she is particularly passionate about working with young women and individuals that compete in elite performance spaces.
Courtney graduated with her MA in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and completed her clinical internship at the New York Center for Community Counseling and Wellbeing where she worked with adults of multicultural identities and backgrounds. Courtney is also passionate about yoga and meditation, as she is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) and teaches classes in the NYC area in her free time.
Dr. David Bright is a mental health counselor who uses a trauma-informed approach when working with teens, college students, and adults across issues of anxiety, depression, grief, career development and many other concerns. He believes in honoring a client’s lived experience and autonomy through fostering an empathetic relationship under a person-centered model. One of his primary focuses is making sure a client feels safe, heard, represented, and accepted in the counseling space. David often utilizes cognitive-behavioral, narrative, solutions-focused, existential, and psychodynamic approaches and specializes in issues of anxiety, depression, career development, and executive functioning.
David has experience working as a mental health counselor, school counselor, career counselor, and executive functioning coach across the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. He has worked with clients aged 4 to 66 on a variety of diverse issues and consistently strives to holistically honor the unique needs of every client. He recently has worked as an assistant professor of Counselor Education at SUNY New Paltz, training future school and mental health counselors. He has written and published articles and books on career development and anxiety management. David’s new book, Context Is Everything: How to Navigate Life in Multiple Realities explains how each of us is raised in our own unique context and how that context shapes our identity, narratives, beliefs, and willingness to interpret facts. David pulls from his extensive work as a mental health, career, and school counselor to help readers better understand how we create our own social narratives and identities.
Jenny Santi is a mental health counselor and executive performance coach. Her lifelong interest in personal development drew her towards a career in psychotherapy, where her goal is to help clients achieve self-knowledge, mental stability, and healing so they can make choices from a point of self-empowerment and clarity. As a global citizen who has traveled to over 56 countries and lived in 5, her unique multicultural and multidisciplinary background makes her open-minded, non-judgmental and practical in her approach.
As founder of a firm that represents and advises high net worth individuals and public figures on wealth, philanthropy and purpose, Jenny’s work has been featured extensively on international media including the BBC, Fox News, the New York Times, Big Think, Psychology Today, TIME Magazine, and many others. She is the author of the acclaimed book “The Giving Way to Happiness: Stories & Science Behind the Life-Changing Power of Giving” (Penguin Random House, 2015), and has a forthcoming book on the topic of Envy.
Education, Experience & Expertise
Eli Yasuna is a Mental Performance Coach and Mental Health Counselor who is set to receive his master’s degree (M.Ed) in clinical mental health counseling and athletic counseling from Springfield College. He is also currently pursuing mental health counseling licensure and working towards becoming a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). His passion lies in supporting athletes and performers of all ages in achieving their desired goals while finding meaning and enjoyment within their performance domain.
Prior to SportStrata, Eli worked with collegiate athletes in a variety of sports, including football, soccer, lacrosse, and gymnastics, providing both counseling and sport psychology services. He developed mental skills training programs for a number of collegiate athletic teams. Eli also provided support services for athletes recovering from injuries, helping them better manage the rehabilitation and return-to-sport process.
Eli developed a passion for working with athletes and performers through his own playing experience as an NCAA Division III soccer player.
Outside of work, Eli can be found spending time with his needy yet adorable puppy, playing pickup soccer wherever he can find it, and spending meaningful time with family.
Ben Oliva is a certified mental performance consultant (CMPC) and licensed mental health counselor (LMHC). He specializes in training athletes and performers of all ages to maximize their potential by teaching evidence-based mental skills and techniques that apply both on and off the field.
Ben is the mental performance coach for Fordham University and New York University Athletics. He also works with the Baylor Football program and other NCAA teams. Beyond athletics, Ben is a mental performance coach for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Mental Performance Initiative and delivers leadership and mental performance workshops for business organizations across the country.
Prior to joining SportStrata, Ben’s experience includes working for the mental skills group of the Boston Red Sox and serving as an assistant coach at Williams College for the baseball and football programs, where he was also a two-sport varsity athlete. In addition, Ben worked for nearly a decade at a summer camp for children ages 5-12.
Ben received his master’s degree (EdM) in sport and performance counseling from Boston University and his undergraduate degree in psychology and astrophysics from Williams College. In his free time, Ben enjoys hiking with his dog, spending time with his friends and family, and playing sports. He currently competes as an endurance athlete and has completed the Boston and Los Angeles Marathons.