Athletics Department Welcomes Sport Psychology Unit Additions

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Shane Lyons and WVU Director of the Carruth Centre for Psychological and Psychiatric Services T. Anne Hawkins announce the return of Mountaineer alumni Dr. Adrian Ferrera as the director of scientific and sport psychology, and Dr. Sofía España Pérez, as the scientific and sports behavioral wellness therapist for the athletics department.
 
“We are dedicated to our college student-athletes right here at WVU, especially in the areas of overall health, equally actual physical and mental,” Lyons stated. “We are satisfied to welcome Dr. Adrian Ferrera, and Dr. Sofía España Pérez back to WVU. They provide excellent qualifications, a long time of practical experience and are remarkable additions to our personnel. We search forward to seeing the impact they will have with our pupil-athletes.”
 
The scientific and activity psychology unit at WVU delivers counseling and general performance improvement products and services for pupil-athletes. It presents scientific companies, such as shorter-expression unique counseling, team counseling crisis intervention solutions, psychoeducation workshops, hazard assessment and reduction intervention for scholar-athletes. The unit also serves as an tutorial and educational function for the student-athletes to promote the places of scholar-athlete wellbeing, resilience and wellness.
 
In addition to the aforementioned positions, WVU Athletics also will have a graduate assistant employed inside of the clinical and activity psychology unit.
 
“University student mental well being and person welfare are essential priorities for the Carruth Middle at WVU, and we have invested a significant sum of electricity and assets to ensure that it is offered the proper interest it wants and deserves,” Hawkins claimed. “We are thrilled to perform in conjunction with the athletics section to carry back again Adrian and Sofía to operate with university student-athletes to guide them and give them the applications to accomplish success, not only on the area but in their day-to-working day life off the industry.”
 
Ferrera returns to West Virginia immediately after serving as the director of counseling and activity psychology at Auburn University given that 2018. In his position there, he delivered individual and group remedy, psychological overall health disaster intervention, consultation and outreach on clinical issues related to student-athletes which includes athletic identification, transition out of school, interpersonal interactions, cultural identity and material abuse. He formulated courses and policies for identification and procedure of emotional, social and behavioral fears influencing transitions into college life. He also produced customized counseling and activity psychology expert services to increase the personalized, social, emotional, educational and athletic success. He supervised customers of the counseling and sport psychology team and was a member of the sexual violence and avoidance committee, the Auburn Avoidance Coalition, Athletics Lifestyle Committee, A Sound Intellect Committee and the inclusion and race process drive.
 
In excess of the system of his job, he put in time as the affiliate director of counseling and sport psychology at the College of Washington, was a cognitive functionality coach for the United States Military Exclusive Operations soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, invested a a few-calendar year stint as a job services counselor and also as a sport psychology expert for three years. He began his career at Northeastern College as a college student-athlete mentor.
 
Ferrera is a certified skilled counselor and is a certified mental effectiveness advisor by means of the Affiliation for Applied Activity Psychology. He has lectured at universities in the United States and internationally, has printed expert journal article content and manufactured many professional displays.
 
A native of Southern California, Ferrera acquired his bachelor’s diploma from University of La Verne in La Verne, California, in 2006, a master’s degree in counseling with a sport psychology specialization from Boston University in 2007, a 2nd master’s degree in counseling from WVU in 2014 and his doctorate in sport and exercise psychology from WVU in 2014.
 
España Pérez served the previous two several years as a practicum trainee for the WVU Carruth Centre, though she was finishing her specifications for her master’s and doctoral levels. She provided individual in-particular person and telehealth counseling classes to college students at WVU. She assessed immediate problems, furnished diagnoses, made remedy ideas and applied interventions to support the pupils reside healthy, successful and meaningful lives. España Pérez also provided counseling sessions in the locations of alcohol and material abuse and served boost a perception of neighborhood with the student system and tackled student issues these kinds of as stress and anxiety, stress administration and self-treatment.
 
España Pérez also served as a activity psychology advisor for the WVU tennis program for four several years, was a overall performance psychology advisor for students in the WVU faculty of law and was a practicum trainee at Entire Brain Methods in Morgantown.
 
Though doing work on her master’s diploma at Minnesota State, she was a activity psychology marketing consultant for collegiate and higher school athletes in Mankato, Minnesota.
 
España Pérez has served as an teacher in sport, exercising and effectiveness psychology, coaching and teaching experiments (tennis) and diversity and sport. She also has coached tennis for various years at numerous tennis golf equipment and as an assistant coach and head coach at Minnesota State. She has experienced numerous articles posted, performed in depth exploration and grant composing and attended and presented at conferences in the United States and internationally.
 
A indigenous of Mexico Town, Mexico, España Pérez graduated with her bachelor’s diploma in psychology with a minor in sociology from East Tennessee Condition in 2014. She received a master’s diploma in activity and workout psychology from Minnesota Condition in 2017 and a master’s diploma in local community mental wellness counseling from WVU in 2021 and her doctorate in sport, exercising and general performance psychology in 2021, also from WVU.
 
She done her national counselor evaluation (2020) and is a nationally certified counselor (2021) and will be a licensed psychological overall performance expert by the Association for Used Sport Psychology.