The Power of Authenticity in Performance Psychology

Why Who I Am — and How I Practice — Both Matter

Five years ago, I organized a conference panel around a question many practitioners wrestle with quietly:

How do we bring our authentic selves into consulting while remaining ethical, professional, and appropriately boundaried?

That question feels even more relevant today.

The language of authenticity has become popular—often reduced to confidence, relatability, or personal brand. In performance spaces especially, authenticity is sometimes detached from rigor, training, and accountability.

But authenticity without competence is not professionalism.

Early in my career, I leaned intentionally into structure: clarity of role, ethical boundaries, and understanding when technique helps—and when restraint matters more. I often tell early-career professionals: you learn the scales before you improvise.

That foundation shaped everything that followed.

What I’ve learned since is simple:

Authenticity is not a replacement for training.
It is what allows training to be applied with judgment.

Beyond Technique

The session, Beyond Technique! Bringing Your TRUE YOU into Consulting, was accepted for the 2020 Annual Conference of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). Originally scheduled for Orlando, it was delivered virtually due to COVID-19.

The panel brought together practitioners with roughly 5 to 35 years of experience and was moderated by the late Dr. Kate Hays, whose insistence on ethical clarity and accountability continues to shape our field.

Panelists included Jack Lesyk, PhD, Michael Griffith, PhD, Kristina Reihl, PhD; and myself.

Our goal was not to promote styles or debate tools, but to examine what actually drives effectiveness in high-pressure environments—where decisions matter and mistakes carry consequence.

Why Authenticity Matters — and Why It Isn’t Enough

Research consistently shows that outcomes in performance psychology are driven less by technique than by relationship factors such as:

  • trust

  • alliance

  • attunement

  • psychological safety

In other words, how we show up matters.

But an essential distinction is often missed.

Authenticity is not just charisma.
It is not simply relatability.
And it is not confidence without competence.

For me, authenticity means professional congruence—the alignment between values, behavior, and decision-making—supported by education, supervised training, and ongoing consultation. It also means allowing my personality and a transparent way of being to be felt in the process. Not necessarily through disclosure or performance, but through presence: how I listen, how directly I speak, how I tolerate discomfort, and how consistently I show up. Authenticity is not something I explain to clients; it is something they experience through the steadiness, clarity, and just being human.

Experience Has Weight — When Integrated

I bring my whole life into the work.

I have experienced significant loss and significant joy.
I am a brother, a husband, and a father.
I value accomplishment—not as ego, but as evidence of commitment, discipline, and follow-through.

My background includes competitive sailing, Division I coaching prior to entering sport psychology, and embedded work across collegiate athletics, military environments, Olympic pathways, and America’s Cup, where preparation, communication, and psychological precision are non-negotiable.

Experience alone, however, does not create effectiveness.

What gives experience weight is the structure beneath it.

Training as Responsibility

I have spent my career taking training seriously, and it is a never-ending journey.

Across clinical psychology, performance science, psychophysiology, mindfulness-based intervention, and attachment-informed theory, my education has been intentionally broad and deeply applied.

The depth and range of my training reflect a simple reality: complex performance environments demand more than a single framework or skill set.

High-pressure environments require more than inspiration.

They demand judgment.

Without structure, experience becomes opinion.
With it, experience becomes discernment.

Authenticity vs. Self-Disclosure

One distinction central to the panel remains critical:

Authenticity is a way of being.
Self-disclosure is a professional decision.

Authenticity shows up through presence, pacing, tone, and humility.

Self-disclosure requires judgment. It must be intentional, client-centered, and guided by role, risk, and ethics.

Authentic practice does not necessarily mean sharing more.
It means knowing when less is actually more; it’s about the client not the practitioner.

When Instinct Isn’t Enough

Performance work evokes emotion. Strong urges to rescue, push, align, or withdraw are not cues to “be more authentic”—they are cues to pause.

Influencer culture celebrates instinct.

Professional practice demands reflection.

Authenticity without reflection becomes a blind spot.
Authenticity paired with consultation becomes wisdom.

Professional Presence in Complex Systems

Authentic engagement—especially across difference—requires preparation, not just goodwill. It demands understanding context, examining bias, and knowing when technique must pause in favor of listening.

Sometimes the most authentic move is knowing which intervention not to apply.

What Authentic, Professional Practice Looks Like Today

My work integrates:

  • evidence-based counseling

  • mental performance consultation

  • psychophysiological awareness

  • mindfulness-based self-regulation

  • attachment-informed and interpersonal theory

Across elite sport and performance environments, I’ve learned that sustainable excellence is rarely about control.

It is about awareness, adaptability, and presence under demand.

Authenticity in my practice means meeting people where they are—psychologically, physiologically, and contextually—while maintaining clear roles, boundaries, and accountability.

It may feel natural.

But it is not casual.

It is earned.

Always Learning — Always Accountable

Authenticity is not something achieved once.

It is shaped through experience, reflection, consultation, humility, and ongoing development.

Five years later, the conclusion remains clear:

Technique matters.
Authenticity matters.

But it is the combination—held within rigor and responsibility—that allows meaningful change to occur.

At Reaching Ahead, this philosophy guides our work with athletes and performers navigating pressure—offering depth and discernment in a landscape that increasingly rewards visibility over substance.

Conference Citation

Herzog, T., Lesyk, J., Griffith, M., Reihl, K., & Hays, K. (2020, October). Beyond Technique! Bringing your TRUE YOU into consulting. Panel accepted for the Annual Conference of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), Orlando, FL (conducted virtually due to COVID-19).