Shannon is providing mindset and mental wellness coaching services to help endurance runners and athletes strengthen their mind, improve their running and mental wellbeing.

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U.S. residents only.

DOES THIS SOUND LIKE YOU?IMAGINE THIS…
Wasted your money on race registrations and you don’t show up at the race because you’re feeling scared and have a lack of confidence that you’ll be able to get through the race.Run your race with confidence and be able to handle the lows that the race may throw at you.
Dropped out of your race because your mind wasn’t in it or your mind caved in under the pressure of the race.Know how to get in the frame of mind to race and be able to cope with the pressure, so that you can race less stressed.
Searching for your limits and need to strengthen your mind.Have a set of mental tools and strategies, so that you’re better equipped to push yourself.
Difficulty fighting the “inner demons” during hard training or a race.Win with positive self-talk.
Spend too much time on tasks or projects trying to get them perfect in order to attempt to control a future outcome.Being able to acknowledge the root of your concerns, minimize perfectionism, and set boundaries with yourself and those unhelpful behaviors.
You’re stuck in a fixed mindset and have low self-esteem.Foster growth mindset by challenging your negative beliefs about yourself.
Spending too much energy on other people and find yourself frequently drained.With relationships in mind, set appropriate boundaries with those people, so that you can take better care of yourself.
Need support building resilience.Learn and grow from challenges. Improve how you manage and stay balanced during difficult times.
Lack energy, self-care is lacking.Feel great with more energy to train.
Stuck in a cycle of unhealthy habits and having trouble reaching your goals due to slipping back into those habits.Recognize patterns, disrupt the cycle, and replace the unhealthy habit with a healthy one. Crowd out the unhealthy habits with healthy ones and you’ll see yourself getting steps closer to your goals.
Unsure about what goals to set or how to appropriately set a goal.Feel excited about your goals and following your dreams. Know how to make your goals doable and organized.
You feel like “why bother?” because progress is slow and it feels like you’ll absolutely never be able to reach your goals.Be able to keep the process and progress in mind. You can reframe your thoughts to reflect the progress that YOU HAVE already made. Believe in yourself.
You put too much pressure on yourself for making mistakes.Know the negative impact that that pressure and negative self-talk has on you. You can feel better about yourself and accept forgiveness.
Trouble finding where to place your focus with everything going on in your life between work, family, friends, and training.Find balance between all of the different areas of your life and train efficiently and effectively with the time that you have.
(Women’s issue) Feeling very down, bothered or challenged because you are pregnant or are currently planning a family and cannot train or race like you are used to.Know that you’re not alone, that your feelings are valid, and find out what you can do right now.
Struggling to find motivation to workout and eat healthy.Identify what’s most important to you and get the ball rolling with actionable steps. Lean into your “whys” for being healthy and for racing.
Would like support discovering meaning and how to use it to fuel training and racing.Train and race for you!
Trouble getting into the frame of mind to race well.Have better understanding of your barriers and be able to keep your head in the race.
Have difficulty believing in yourself because of what others have said to you in the past or from something else you went through.Learn from your past and put it behind you. Build self-esteem by taking a step towards your goals. Believing you can achieve your goals will follow.
Lack connection to your body and staying present causes you to miss signals that you need to eat or hydrate.Learn about the benefits of practicing mindfulness and apply them to keep you in-tune to what your body needs.
It’s hard to stay positive.Shift the brain’s default settings by stating positive affirmations.
Would like to work on visualizing your goals.Find visualization strategies that best suits you. Maybe this is creating a vision board or practicing a race day visualization.
Stressed out and unhappy when it comes to trying to keep after your goals and juggle everything else going on in life.Happiness equals success. Identify what truly makes you happy, fit more of it into your journey towards your goals to reduce stress. Find balance.
Become overly disappointed with slow progress and beat yourself up over it.Manage disappointing thoughts and reassess your process.
Feeling angry, frustrated, or depressed because you’re injured and can’t run or ride.Reframe your thoughts surrounding the injury and find what you CAN DO to change how you’re feeling.
Constantly comparing your results or body to other athletes and feeling terrible about yourself.Be able to celebrate and love yourself where you’re at.
Weak immune system due to stress, but can’t afford to be sick.Eating healthy and exercising because you have the time and energy.

Are you working towards strengthening your mind because you want to push beyond limits, but keep getting stuck? Do you want to learn how to create a more resilient mindset while applying it to running and fitness? Would you like to improve your overall mental wellbeing?

I practice and teach endurance athletes a variety of strategies and skills to help them strengthen their mind. The mind is a muscle and we must exercise it in order to create resiliency.

What is a mindset?

Have you ever dropped out of a race or given up on something because your head was in the wrong space? Have you ever fought thoughts or “inner demons,” as we call them in the ultrarunning community, during a run or “hard effort” exercise? Is your mind set to fixed or set to growth? Your mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation. Our thoughts can shape how we behave, so in order to achieve our highest goals, we must know how to manage the mind.

What is resiliency?

Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Resilience is a habit, a skill, and a mindset that can help you manage and keep your balance during difficult times. It is learning and growing from the challenges that we face. Adopting a flexible mind in life’s situations.

Creating a shift in the way that you think is a process, it takes time, patience, attention to detail, and hard work, just as dialing in athletic abilities.

Crewing Laurel Highlands Ultra (2021)

Topics, strategies and approaches

I work with endurance runners and athletes all over the United States who want to dial in their race mentality, mental strategies, and overall improve their mental wellness.

– My coaching services are fully on the mental side.

Here’s some of what we can do:

  • Improve day-to-day mental wellbeing.
  • Build better habits.
  • Incorporate mindfulness
  • Learn emotion regulation skills.
  • Set challenging, yet attainable goals.
  • Discuss motivation
  • Address body image thoughts or concerns.
  • If you feel concerned that you have an eating disorders, let’s discuss it, so you can find help. I am informed on eating disorders.
  • Talk about you! Who are you, besides a runner or athlete? – parent, sibling, entrepreneur, community member… What else do you do, and how does it impact training for races or vice versa?
  • Coping with injury and setbacks.
  • Managing disappointments, like “Did Not Start” and “Did Not Finish”.
  • Juggling priorities and time management.
  • Are you actively trying to find a mental health professional? I can assist!
  • Are you searching for a running coach? I can provide pointers on how to go about finding someone who’s a good fit and what questions to ask the coach when interviewing them for fit.
  • Mental strategies and mindset for racing.
  • Positive affirmations or swearing during races? Both?!
  • Training and race day visualization.
  • Generalized anxiety and race day anxiety.
  • Happiness. What is it? How to get more of it.
  • What might you do if you encounter a problem during a race.
  • Building trust with yourself.
  • Improving self-care, self-esteem, and self-compassion.
  • Knowing when to push yourself and when to be kinder to yourself.
  • Why’s and meaning behind what you do. Passion. Using that as support and drive.
  • The unique situations and challenges that women face in sport. Being a parent, pregnancy, miscarriage, dealing with periods during races…
  • On top of talking, I do provide resources and homework.

Phew!!! … I hope that this paints a picture of the good stuff that we can cover.

Contact me if you have questions or want to schedule.

I look forward to learning about what you’d like to work on.

Pacing my friend at Badwater 135 (2021)

Session times (Email Shannon for availability)

Mondays: 5:00 PM; 6:30 PM EST

Tuesdays: 1:00 PM; 5:00 PM; 6:30 PM EST

Wednesdays: 5:00 PM; 6:30 PM EST

Thursdays: 5:00 PM; 6:30 PM EST

Fridays: 5:00 PM; 6:30 PM EST


Finances

  • Check with me for session availability.
  • Applicable mental wellness information, mindset strategies and practice.
  • Receive free resources and worksheets.

$60 per 50-60 minute session

$40 per 20-30 minute session


NOTE: THIS IS A NON-CLINICAL SERVICE

My professional disclaimer

I own and operate two businesses, Finish Stronger Counseling and Finish Stronger Mindset Coaching. For legal and ethical purposes, I need to keep counseling and coaching separated.

I am a National Certified Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor, providing services via telemental health.

I specialize in working with runners and endurance athletes, but will work with anyone who is a good fit. My other areas of focus include anxiety, trauma and eating disorders. My private practice is located in Pennsylvania, where I’m licensed.

Coaching is non-clinical, so it’s not medical advice. My information is from evidence-based research, coming from several thousand hours of continuing education, and from my personal experiences of using it for years.


If I determine that my mindset and mental wellness coaching services aren’t the right fit for you, I’ll gently recommend that you seek services from a more appropriate professional.

Also note: I supports endurance athletes. I, myself, am a seasoned ultramarathon runner. I am not an athletics coach, certified personal trainer or running coach (though I do have some knowledge in these areas).


Reviews


Reach out to Shannon for more information and to find out session availability


What “Finish Stronger” stands for


Initial Consultation: What to expect


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Learn about my talks/workshops


Learn about me here


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Badwater Cape Fear 51.4 Miler

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