What’s a Sports Psychologist? Ask Zach Hankle, MSCP’19, PsyD ’23
Zach Hankle, MSCP’19, PsyD ’23, always considered himself a rec-league sports star.
He played basketball and baseball in high school, but he felt he was too short to excel in hoops and not powerful enough to regularly crack homeruns. Still, he loved athletics and stayed immersed in that world.
When he decided to change jobs and pursue psychology, he came to Chatham University. What he didn’t expect was that he’d be able to combine his new career with his longtime passion by becoming an athletics psychologist at Drexel University.
Hankle grew up in the suburbs north of Pittsburgh. After leaving western Pennsylvania to go to college in Cincinnati, he got some experience working in the sports world. He had an internship at a sports-related nonprofit, did communications for a collegiate baseball league in Florida, and even worked as a production assistant at ESPN.
When he realized he wanted to pursue counseling psychology, he went back to graduate school with plans to work with adolescents, perhaps in a college counseling center. When he started looking at post-grad programs, he took note of Chatham University.
“Counseling psychology, the values in that program really stood out to me,” Hankle said. He liked that the program emphasized the holistic individual and different sociocultural identities. Not only were the faculty good teachers and smart psychologists, but they showed an interest in Hankle, in his goals and history.
“They really allowed me to feel like an individual, and they wanted me to be a part of that program,” he said. “Rather than looking at a resumé and evaluating me, [they were] really trying to get to know me.”
“The emphasis on combining psychological principles and multicultural considerations, and thinking about things through an intersectional lens, was pretty pivotal in my own development and the way that I work,” Hankle said.
“They were also super interested in my clinical interests, in where I wanted to work, and they were interested in helping me reach those goals.” Rather than telling Hankle where he should do his practicum, faculty members took interest in helping him find something that aligned with his desired career trajectory.
During his graduate studies, Hankle completed an American Psychological Association internship in Drexel University’s counseling center. After graduating, he started a post-doc position at the Anxiety and Agoraphobia Treatment Center, where he still works.
After several months there, he saw a job opening for Drexel’s athletics-embedded psychologist, working with the sports medicine team and the counseling center. With experience at the university and a history in sports, it seemed like it all fell into place for him. He got the job about a year and a half ago.
But what does sports psychology entail?
“My primary role is to oversee the mental health and mental performance of the Drexel athletes,” Hankle said. He focuses on a lot of the performance pieces of psychology: managing social anxiety, addressing mental blocks, and managing emotions, among other things.
Let’s say an athlete is struggling to perform on the field due to mental or emotional issues rather than physical problems. Perhaps they’re experiencing social anxiety or having trouble remembering plays during games, or maybe they’re struggling to regulate their emotions while they’re on the field.
“I’m helping tap into that and explore different skills, different interventions, and strategies that you can use behaviorally, and even cognitively, to work through some of those mental blocks,” he said.
But it’s much more than that. “I oftentimes will relate what happens outside of sports to sports, because they’re all interrelated.” For example, anxiety in the athletics space may be connected to anxiety around relationships with peers, the self, or others.
“Typically, it starts with talking about sports, and as we build that relationship, we intertwine more and more things outside of sports into the discussion,” he said.
Additionally, he hosts individual appointments, group discussions, and workshops. He also works alongside team doctors, athletic trainers, nutritionists, and academic services—a kind of interdisciplinary treatment team, Hankle said.
“I also work with coaches, as well,” he said. “Part of my job is … creating a presence here. Typically, I’m walking around the athletics center, in the strength and conditioning room. Sometimes I go to practices to check in with people, things like that. It’s a really cool environment.”
Learn more about counseling psychology at Chatham University, where you can pursue Masters in Counseling Psychology and Doctor of Counseling Psychology degrees.