Jesse Steinfeldt

Welcome! I am a Sport Psychologist and Professor here at IU, since 2007. I spent a yearlong sabbatical in 2014 with the University of Washington Athletic Department and at Seattle Children's Hospital, but I am a Hoosier through and through.

I created and coordinate a Doctoral Minor in Sport and Performance Psychology for our Counseling Psychology graduate students wherein these students receive strong curricular training combined with supervised clinical practicum experiences with student-athletes in the Indiana University athletic department and at local high schools. I currently am the Director for the IU Sport & Performance Psychology Training Practicum (college level placements at Indiana University Athletic Department, Indiana State University Counseling Center; high school level placements at Edgewood, Decatur Central, and Mooresville High Schools). And I've coached a bazillion youth sport teams, or so it seems, implementing Sport & Performance Psychology principles into action.

I teach a variety of graduate courses, including Interventions in Sport and Performance Psychology (G609), Group Counseling (G532), Introduction to Ethics and Professional Issues in Counseling (G502), Counseling Student-Athletes (G608), and Counseling Theories (G522). I also teach an undergraduate class, Introduction to Sport Psychology and Student-Athlete Mental Health (G207), which my doctoral students also teach. I also coordinate our undergraduate Minor in Counseling and our new Counseling and Student Services (CASS!) Major, a popular and growing opportunity for students to not only explore prospects of future professional training in a mental health field, but students in this Minor and the CASS Major also learn counseling-related communication and helping skills that can help them be successful in any professional field.

If you haven't gotten the hint yet, sport is a very important part of my personal and professional life. Sport is a fertile field to examine social dynamics, and within this domain my research interests center on the intersection of multicultural psychology, sport psychology, the psychological study of men/masculinities, and social justice issues. Primarily, my research focuses on the psychosocial development of student-athletes, which includes investigations of gender role socialization, racial and athletic identity, and psychological well-being (e.g., adjustment, body esteem, help-seeking). My research also involves American Indian empowerment through an examination of the psychological effects of the use of Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos in sport.