Today’s podcast is part 2 of an interview with the Founder and Director of the Rocky Mountain Sports Counseling Center, Brooke Ewert. Brooke formerly led Soccer Chaplains United’s counseling efforts, but has since turned her attention to growing RMSCC and her counseling team who serve athletes of all levels. The Rocky Mountain Sports Counseling Center is a place we often make referrals for athletes and families to get the support and health that they need.
Today we talk about that state of mental health awareness and support in sport, the top issues facing athletes, and Brooke joins in a fun little game of Crosses with Rev.
From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).
Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd,in the Apple and Google store.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/From-the-Touchline-Cover-Art.jpg15001500Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2024-05-22 00:00:002024-07-08 23:46:45Mental Health May 2024 – Brooke Ewert Interview, part 2
Founder and Director of the Rocky Mountain Sports Counseling Center, Brooke Ewert, is a guest on the podcast today. During the month of May, we’ve been examining faith as helping someone’s mental health. Brooke, formerly was part of Soccer Chaplains United and oversaw a number of counselors that were serving and supporting soccer teams and soccer athletes.
The Rocky Mountain Sports Counseling Center has been featured in several little commercials this past month and is a great place of referral for athletes and families of athletes to get the support and health that they need.
Today’s podcast is part 1 of 2 and we talk about Brooke’s background and experience and the work that she and her team do in addressing mental health needs in sport.
From the Touchline is a short-feature (10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).
Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd,in the Apple and Google store.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/From-the-Touchline-Cover-Art.jpg15001500Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2024-05-15 00:00:002024-07-08 23:46:50Mental Health May 2024 – Brooke Ewert Interview
As 2020 comes to a close and with 2021 on the horizon, Soccer Chaplains United is making a significant shift in emphasis for the foreseeable future — namely, the elimination of an internal counseling emphasis for the organization. The shift comes after this past year of analyzing and assessing the continued viability for the organization to carry out counseling service for soccer as part of its own makeup and DNA.
There are a number of reasons for what I am calling a “shift of emphasis” that I will share here. But before I do, I want to recount what I think is a still commendable history for counseling in the Soccer Chaplains United organization with the simple timeline graphic below.
Beginning in 2011 — a key conversation with a professional soccer player led us on a journey of trying to “marry” counseling and chaplaincy. It was born out of the idea that there were certain things where a clinical counselor was better trained and equipped to address (mental health areas) and where a chaplain and counseling team might better serve, holistically.
In spite of the upcoming shift, Soccer Chaplains United fundamentally still values and believes in that; however, we have reached a point as an organization where we continue to struggle to see the necessary growth and reconciliation of some key factors internally. Those pieces lead us to believe that we need to go about the chaplaincy and counseling collaboration in a different way.
Some of the key pieces for our consideration included:
Soccer Chaplains United — our name didn’t help grow counseling very well and wasn’t as representative (for counselors, especially) and transparent as necessary.
Limited resources — in truth, legitimate, clinical sports counseling has very few (although growing) amongst its membership. Soccer-specific counselors are even more difficult to find. For us, it’s not that a counselor and to be soccer savvy, but there is a certain subculture to soccer that is key and critical to understand.
Financially — typically chaplains are volunteers in professional sports (this is currently true of all Soccer Chaplains United chaplains); counselors are not. There is a disparity as unpaid chaplains “hand-off” or refer people to counselors who are fee-for-service. While we had aspirations to provide free or subsidized counseling, this was a much harder sell than we anticipated and led to very short lifespans (and conversations) amongst interested counselors.
There were other, smaller considerations for us around the decision, but a number of things that we believe Soccer Chaplains United will continue to uphold and value will help make our mission and vision leaner and also continue to move forward as we seek to serve those in soccer:
We still value and believe that qualified and capable (sometimes known as licensed) Christian counselors and counseling is needed and important for affecting change and offering holistic care and support to those we serve in soccer. To this end, Soccer Chaplains United chaplains will seek to develop local counseling relationships to whom they can, when appropriate, refer.
Differently from most professional sports in North America those in soccer, especially in the lower professional divisions and elsewhere, often lack the financial means to afford counseling fees. To this end, Soccer Chaplains United chaplains may raise and determine a budget for counseling subsidies in their annual budgets.
We believe that this refinement — coming as we have devoted the past six years to seeing and working through a model to try and develop chaplaincy and counseling together, may come at an important time and hopefully this “rest” from development will see the counseling emphasis grow in a better, more organic way outside of Soccer Chaplains United.
By way of practicality, for Soccer Chaplains United, we have taken down the counseling portions of our website. Brooke Ewert will continue to be a localized resource for referral and a help for chaplains serving in the Denver Metro area, but her volunteer role as Director of Counseling will be dissolved. It maybe bad form to quote myself in a story that I am writing, but I wanted to make sure that my own comments about Brooke standout from the rest of the story:
Brooke, has been an amazing person to journey with as part of Soccer Chaplains United. She has grown with us and I am excited to continue working with her in the future (albeit in different ways) to help provide for the mental health needs of those God allows me to serve in soccer. I am glad to have a trusted person to refer people on to see and I look forward to seeing her and her practice grow in the years to come.
Brad Kenney, Volunteer Chaplain Colorado Rapids on Brooke Ewert
I also never want to diminish the people who have worked to serve alongside of Soccer Chaplains United (and formerly, CrossTraining). Cody Baker and Nicholas Runyan also helped in the forming and shaping of best practices and different levels and layers of care. We were also glad to be able to successfully host the first known counseling internship amongst a professional development academy in North America. Those will be some gems and historical highlights that will always be a part of the Soccer Chaplains United story.
Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and depends upon the financial support of individual donors and church partners to carry out our work of chaplaincy service across all levels of soccer. Our chaplains are not employed or paid by any of the clubs that we serve. Simply click the PushPay (the big P or give tab) link below to make a secure, online, tax-deductible gift, or mail a donation to Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081, Denver, CO 80250.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Counseling-stock-image.png6861139Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-12-14 06:00:002020-12-07 15:56:53Soccer Chaplains United Refines Focus for 2021, Transitions Counseling Emphasis
The global pandemic has impacted industries in unique and critical ways and even the work of counseling and mental health has faced new challenges. For Brooke Ewert and the counseling provided for Soccer Chaplains United and those in sport, the different aspects of social distancing, limited contact, and travel and play/performance restrictions have all created a new layer of mental health issues and challenges amongst athletes, coaches, and those in the sports industry across many different levels.
For example, a chaplain recently reached out to Brooke and asked if she would be willing to meet with a professional athlete. The athlete needed support with life issues as well as setting goals for the future. Since the athlete is not in Colorado, the approach cannot be one typical for mental health support. Essentially, this means that there can be no formal diagnosis. State laws and ethics prevent undertaking or keeping counseling relationships in other states without additional licensure; however, a counselor can work through life circumstances in less formal ways (ie, life coaching) and assist athletes and coaches as they process through the life circumstances that are most challenging to them.
Brooke, who serves as the volunteer Director of Counseling for Soccer Chaplains United, has had to adapt in her own practice and service amongst those in sport.
It’s a new approach for me and one that I am enjoying because it shifts the focus to resources (internally/externally) for the athletes and walking alongside of the athletes in a new way.
Brooke Ewert, on adding and adapting life coaching to her counseling service and practice
Life coaching will allow a counselor, like Brooke, to reach more athletes than could bet helped previously. Because sports counseling is such a new field, there are not a lot of places to make referrals to counselors throughout the country. Brooke (and other sports counselors) have discovered that the life coaching and consultancy adaptation is an effective tool for getting athletes the help that they need. Additionally, such additions will help open the door for more athletes to seek help and to continue breaking the stigma down of asking for help.
“The transiency of athletes makes mental health counseling difficult because most of the athletes I see leave the state I practice in and go to another state for training. Life coaching allows me to be able to reach more athletes when they cannot find adequate support in the state where they are competing.”
Brooke, on the ever-moving population of athlete and coach in sport
Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and depends upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. Please consider making a contribution today to help us continue growing our work.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ghtvhowmqvo-scaled.jpg12801920Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-09-24 12:00:472020-09-30 09:39:54Counseling Adapts to COVID with Life Coaching Option
Perhaps, there was never a more difficult time but more important time for the first counseling internship for Soccer Chaplains United. This past January, saw the first-ever joint venture internship to feature a counseling intern working with the pre-professional soccer players and families that comprise the Colorado Rapids Development Academy.
And just as the internship got off to a start with select age-groups, the global pandemic hit. Shutdown. Quarantine. And everyone had to pivot. Coaches. Players. Families. And more. There was a major shift and transition to zoom and online. There were at-home programs created and developed to help the athletes stay in soccer shape as much as possible while being apart from their teammates.
Just as the Rapids U-17 team earned a spot in the DA Championships, the Coronavirus pandemic shutdown soccer across the US.
And in spite of all the different challenges and barriers to creating a good system of mental health and mentality support for desiring DA athletes and family members, perhaps there has never been a more timely moment to begin.
Brooke Ewert, Soccer Chaplains United’s volunteer Director of Counseling offered this observation:
We were able to normalize mental health services to the developmental academy in a way that they got use to seeing a counselor around and knowing they could talk at any point in the season if they needed support.
Brooke, on the impact of the first-ever internship
In the final review, the counseling internship (which recently ended) might be deemed a success. A number of athletes and families were helped and supported in the midst of a pandemic shutdown and a lost season — which also saw major changes within the academy and soccer scene, itself. There looks to be a precedent set for the future — one in which the mental health needs of some of the youngest of athletes who might one-day don a 1st-team shirt have been helped from the beginning of their journey.
Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and depends upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. Please consider making a contribution today to help us continue growing our work.
Brooke Ewert, Director of Counseling for Soccer Chaplains United, joins me on the From the Touchline podcast, today to talk about the different ways that she is helping athletes, coaches, and others in soccer cope in the midst of the pandemic influenced sports season. The current global pandemic has seen a rise in the numbers of athletes and others around sport who are faced with serious mental health issues such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Brooke and I talk about the need for awarenessmand help and support as well as some practical exercises and tips for coping with the difficulties of this time.
Brooke also shares a number of suggested books and biographies that might give helpful insight from others who have had to endure similar times:
From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10-15 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).
Also, don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccrChapUtd,in the Apple and Google store.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/From-the-Touchline-Cover-Art.jpg15001500Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-08-26 00:00:002021-03-08 14:31:56Coping with COVID with Brooke Ewert
Soccer Chaplains United’s Director of Counseling, Brooke Ewert, recently took part in an interview series with the Colorado Rapids. With the month of May being known as Mental Health Month, the Rapids have been doing a series, entitled, Mindful Monday. The interview style stories on the website featured Brooke and others working in the field of mental health and sport. Read the interview here.
Part of the vision of Soccer Chaplains United is to work closely with counselors in order to provide necessary clinical interventions that support the whole person. While chaplains often provide spiritual help and support, there are times when it is important to refer the athletes, coaches, staff, and their family members on to a trusted counselor to help provide mental health and well-being.
You can learn more about how counseling integrates with chaplaincy, here.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Brooke-Ewert-Dir-of-Counseling.png510754Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-05-11 16:06:182020-05-11 16:06:20Ewert Features on Mindful Monday for Rapids
Sport, especially the sport of soccer, is increasingly filled with more and more pressure. Pressure to perform, pressure to leave family, pressure to succeed, and more. Part of the work of Soccer Chaplains United is to look to care for the entire person that is involved in the game — whether an athlete, a coach, executive, or staff member, and even fans — our aim and mission to provide chaplaincy and counseling support that can care for the entire person and their family.
In today’s From the Touchline episode, Rev Brad and Counselor Brooke Ewert have a recorded conversation about chaplaincy and counseling and some of the different approaches and challenges that come with trying to work together and connect the two.. Brooke is the Director of Counseling for Soccer Chaplains United and also has her own practice, Rocky Mountain Sports Counseling. Rev Brad Kenny is the Founder/Executive Director and Lead Volunteer Chaplain for the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.
Connection points mentioned in today’s podcast:
Ownership/Management/Leadership looking into chaplaincy or counseling for your soccer club, team, or organization? Send us an email to info@soccerchaplainstunited.org.
Athlete/Coach/Executive or Staff Member looking for counseling resources or support? Send an email to brooke@soccerchaplainsunited.org.
Athlete/Coach/Executive or Staff Member looking for counseling resources or support? Send an email to brad@soccerchaplainsunited.org.
Looking to join Soccer Chaplains United either as a chaplain or counselor? Check out our application on the main page or send an email to info@soccerchaplainsunited.org.
From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).
Don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccChaplain,in the Apple and Google store.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/From-the-Touchline-Cover-Art.jpg15001500Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2019-12-04 12:00:272021-03-08 14:14:10Chaplaincy and Counseling
Being thankful has a tremendous impact on our own spiritual and mental health and well-being. No matter one’s circumstances, there is always something that we can give thanks for, something that we can be grateful for. And when that focus is off of one’s self it can help foster greater sense of gratitude and even impact things like one’s self-esteem.
In today’s From the Touchline episode, Rev Brad and special guest Brooke Ewert reflect on the impact of gratitude and how this can affect even elite, high-level athletes. Brooke is the Director of Counseling for Soccer Chaplains United and also has her own practice, Rocky Mountain Sports Counseling.
Notable stories or resources mentioned in today’s podcast:
— 5 Kernels of Corn Thanksgiving Tradition
— Goal-setting as a means of generating thanks
From the Touchline is a short-feature (usually 10 min) podcast with Rev Brad Kenney, Founder and Executive Director of Soccer Chaplains United and Volunteer Chaplain to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Rev Brad and occasional guests touch on various issues around the topics of faith, family, and football (soccer).
Don’t forget that you can listen in our app, SoccChaplain,in the Apple and Google store.
This week, I asked our Director of Counseling, Brooke Ewert to share some of her own reflections following on from the 2nd Global Congress on Sport and Christianity. In her own words,
“This past week was the 2nd Global Congress on Sport and Christianity in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This was my first time attending this conference. After processing through the week when I returned home, I felt so incredibly blessed to be in the same room with so many Christians who work in the sports world. To be honest, I often feel alone because there are not many people who specialize in sports like I do with sports counseling.”
“I was encouraged to hear from those who work in sports as academics, historians, mental health professionals, and chaplains. Each person focused on helping athletes or studying them to help them in a more holistic way. The camaraderie that came from being in the ‘same field’ bonded us together quickly. I felt many people I interacted with quickly became friends and we tried to figure out how we can best help each other in our respective fields of work.”
“A few moments stuck out to me from the conference. First, I met women in my own field (mental health) who encouraged me in my own work with athletes in mental health. Second, I was gleaning information from the speakers who look at sports differently than me and how that can help me to be a better practitioner. I felt inspired by many of those speakers who helped me to see how sports and faith can be weaved together in a beautiful bond. I am already looking forward to the next meeting of the congress in three years and I cannot wait to have a few more sports counselors attending with me.“
Thank you for your support of Soccer Chaplains United. Your financial gifts and support help make continuing education opportunities like the Congress a reality — whether for a chaplain or counselor. It is helpful in shaping our work and direction.
If you would like to make gift to cover expenses or future opportunities for training and education, you can click the PushPay logo below or simply text Soccerchaplains to 77977. Or send your donation via mail to: Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081, Denver, CO 80250.
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