Over the course of three months, Dr. Michelle helped my teenage son turn the corner in his tennis mental game. Prior to seeing her, he was getting increasingly frustrated with himself during practice and matches when he wasn't playing well. That would often lead to him trying to hit winners on every shot or rushing through points just to get the match over with. He was in a slump. My son was initially unsure about seeing a mental coach. But Dr. Michelle soon established a warm connection with him, and he became comfortable sharing his thoughts and feelings about his game. This sense of trust also allowed him to open up to Dr. Michelle's process. Dr. Michelle taught him how to reset emotionally after a lost point or a bad shot. She also helped him reframe his outlook and self-expectations to reduce his sense of anxiety before and during matches. She gave him practical, effective mental tools to apply both on and off the court. During my son's recent tournaments, he's been able to calm himself during critical points and maintain the mental strength to come back from behind and win. He is more focused during practice and competition. He's even been able to retain a sense of humor after hitting bad shots during a match. Most importantly, however, he is once again enjoying playing tennis. read more

I can't recommend Dr. Michelle highly enough. I booked four sessions leading up to a Paragon pickleball tournament, and the impact was immediate. As a global performance coach, Dr. Michelle provided me with invaluable mental tools and practical advice on how to focus and refocus during each game, how to reset after a tough point, and how to build consistent pre-game routines. We also worked on setting realistic goals and quieting my "inner demon", which helped take some of the pressure off and allowed me to actually enjoy the games. Working with Dr. Michelle completely shifted my mindset, allowing me to focus on the process rather than just the results. Having her mental strategies as a supportive presence on the court was a total game-changer and a huge reason I walked away with a silver medal. If you're looking to level up your mental game, she is the best! read more

Michelle Cleere, PhD - Counseling & Mental Health Near Me

Over 12 sessions in 3 months, I elevated my tennis game through simple mindset shifts. I had noticeable improvements in my game, that were reflected in 4.0 league matches. These also have translated to improved mood and performance off of the tennis court. Highly recommend to anyone serious about examining their inner psychology for performance or wellness. read more

Dr. Michelle was a tremendous help. I was facing multiple setbacks and on the brink of another challenge, and she helped me regain self-confidence within weeks. She taught me incredible skills for coping with anxiety and stress in high-pressure situations. These techniques and lessons are sustainable practices I can carry with me even after the sessions are over. Everything we discussed and practiced was manageable and never felt overbearing. I truly could not have asked for a better experience and would highly recommend. read more

I've found dr Michelle online. I was desperate to find help for my son who was struggling with his athletic performance at the time. At first I had my reservations, since I didn't know much about her. But we ended up being very happy that we found her. Doctor Michelle is a knowledgable, skilled , responsible with a very night work ethic, and she is a very nice person. Doctor Michelle's help was invaluable. She taught him how to cope with stress and improve his performance. He just got accepted to his dream school , both, as a scholar and an athlete. I know that timely help from Dr Michele was a part of this achievement. I highly recommend her for parents of teenagers, both athletes and not. read more

Dr Michelle is truly a gem. She always has the right combination of encouragement, relatability and knowledge. I'm thrilled and fortunate to have worked with her. I came to her for help with mental strategies for tennis and walked away with much more. I really liked her concept of how adults (esp professionals) don't get exposure to being competitive in sports and I struggled a lot with anything performance related. Her ideas and explanations are easy to understand and she is always thoughtful about checking the pace of the sessions. If you're debating this decision, you won't regret it, and your mental outlook will be much better for it. read more

Dr Michelle was referred to us by a friend and I am so glad she was. She was a great fit for my son who was really struggling with his mental game during tennis tournaments. As a parent it was a struggle to watch the amount of pressure he would put on himself and not know how to handle it. It has been amazing to watch his confidence and self affirmation on the court grow over the last few months but better yet it is fun to watch him love the game again. I would highly recommend Dr Michelle to anyone and everyone! read more

I just completed an 18-week session with Dr. Michelle and literally, she has changed my life! I initially went to Dr. Michelle to help me with some mental challenges surrounding my tennis game but lo and behold, our work together transformed not only my tennis game for the better but it also helped me to see where I was stuck in my professional and personal life. Dr. Michelle worked with me on a number of issues but one that I have greatly benefitted from is addressing my "old" feelings of being responsible for everyone and everything. Once I realized why I did this and understood that I no longer had to, I could feel the burden lift with every passing day. At the end of our session, I felt empowered, in control, reinvigorated, happier, ready and excited to embark on my new semi-retired life this year! Check Dr. Michelle out! She is quite the rock star! read more

Our daughter is the highly ambitious achiever type who has a tendency to get anxious, and tendency we have been working on for years. And while her anxiety was gradually lessening over time, it was always there and would flare up during inherently stressful times like tests, or when she was fencing on the strip. After a particularly spectacular meltdown at a national tournament we decided to hire Michelle based on her Yelp reviews here. Our daughter's sports performance anxiety improved so much we then asked Michelle to expand her efforts to our daughter's schoolwork, a tougher beast. Within a few weeks our daughter was able to better enjoy her achievements at her school and in her life. She is always going to hard-driving - it is part of her DNA - but our daughter has still managed to become more balanced and, incredibly, more relaxed over time, even as her high school ramps up. She gives Michelle a lot of credit for her progress. We've graduated for now, but I'm grateful we have Michelle as a resource if my daughter could benefit from her down the road. I recommend her highly to any parent of a hard-driving teen. read more

What can I say about Dr.Michelle that hasn't already been said by other reviewers. She's genuine, insightful, experienced, authentic and relatable. I can't recommend her highly enough. read more

I started seeing Dr. Michelle a few months ago because I wanted to get back into the sport of triathlon but had major anxiety around the water. I would do okay in short races but the fear would keep coming up and I just stopped doing triathlons altogether. I wasn't sure what to expect but I know I was tired of just avoiding it. I immediately started to discover things that Dr. Michelle helped me see even at our first session. She would give me ideas to think about over the week which shed light on so many things. She also gave me ideas and tools that helped not only with my anxiety of water, but it spilled over into all aspects of my daily life. It was like a weight being lifted. I worked hard weekly with her guidance and felt a definite shift in my perspective on things. I will still keep working on it but now at least I have insight into why and tools to help me. Normally it takes a lot for me to give anyone 5 stars but, Dr. Michelle should get 6 stars. This is the best thing I've done for myself. People focus so much on physical fitness but we rarely address the mind and it's such a huge part of it. Do this for yourself--you will NOT regret it. read more

I recently found myself in the terrifying position of discovering I had "open water phobia" only weeks before my first triathlon. I had really become comfortable in the pool but in the open water I was experience panic attacks and inability to breathe (a little inconvenient!). Luckily, I got a referral to Michelle from a friend and she helped me ENORMOUSLY. We did a few sessions in her office really exploring the details around what brought up this anxiety and it was calming and helpful. But when that stubborn phobia just didn't go away completely, Michelle went Above and Beyond in a way that truly made all the difference: she offered to go IN the water WITH me to help me, breath by breath and stroke by stroke. That was the breakthrough for me - having someone calmly WITH me, in the deep water. It was incredibly reassuring as she gave me practical physical as well as psychological tools to deal with the situation. Two days later, I did my first blissful one-mile swim in the bay that felt effortless and awesome. If I could give her ten stars, I would. It feels like nothing short of a miracle. My triathlon is this coming Sunday and I am facing it with excitement instead of dread. If you have ANY issues with mental preparation around any sport, Michelle will you give you her 100%. She's amazing! read more

Dr. Michelle is amazing. She helped my daughter who is a competitive tennis player, create a winning mindset. She gave her tools to manage the stress of tournament competition. Her confidence rose tremendously as a result of her work with Dr. Michelle. I'm so grateful we found her. read more

My 12 year old daughter is a competitive swimmer and started seeing Dr Michelle 6 months ago to help deal with the stress and pressure of training, racing and competing against the fastest age group swimmers in the country. I can say without hesitation that Dr Michelle has provided the tools, approaches and attitudes that have enabled her to not only deal with the pressures but to enjoy the entire process much more than she previously did. A great bonus for my daughter has been Dr Michelle's advice and guidance out of the water as it relates to friends, school and the issues of becoming a teenager. The best testament to Dr Michelle's work is the following letter I asked my daughter to write if she wanted to continue to see and work with Dr Michelle: Dear Dad, Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk with Dr. Michelle. It has helped me so much. I am able to deal with stress so much better than before, along with dealing with adversity and having a better attitude. Talking with a sports psychiatrist has influenced my life so much, I would love to do it again. It has benefited me in many ways and I believe she can guide me even more. This experience has made my mind stronger and more capable of taking adversity. Without Dr. Michelle's help, I would have never been able to have a heart breaking 50 fly at JO's, and come back to win the 50 back. Continuing with her help, we will work to have new strategies to help me in all situations. Whenever it has been longer than two weeks without talking to her, I seem to fall off track. I am not saying I will need to continue this schedule forever, just for the time being. I have a way better attitude towards practice and swimming in general now that she has helped me. I love to go, even without Anna's presence. Although I am nervous for the future, where we will move, who I will swim for, swimming will get harder, high school is coming up, friends, and everything inbetween, I believe having someone on the outside of my life, looking in, and having a different perspective will help assist me to greatness. Sincerely, your loving daughter read more

Michelle recently worked with my teen/h.s. daughter who was having issues with overthinking and anxiety during competition. Over several months Michelle worked with my daughter to give her the confidence, the proper mental state, and the tools and techniques necessary to calm herself during competition. Now my daughter is full of confidence and is performing well. I highly recommend Michelle. read more

Our teenage son, has been going to see Dr. Cleere for almost a year, and she is wonderful. She is been phenomenal in helping him to ge trough the psychological issues related to sports training, physical appearance and general wellness, our son has been able to focus and accomplish his goals, with the new prospective on what the future has to offer. I will highlight recommend Dr. Cleere, as she is a wonderful doctor who cares about the people that she treats. Rick and Gina M. read more

Dr. Michelle is extremely knowledgeable and experienced when it comes to dealing with teen sports psychology. We reserved a 12 session package for my teenage level 8 gymnast, having sessions about once a week. Its really easy, because you can have a session via skype or phone, so there is no need to go to the office in person. My daughter has been having issues with certain skills on beam, she had fear of backhandsping combination, backflip and round of backtuck off the beam. Michelle has worked with her on finding the true reasons of that fear, and how to deal with fear, stress, and anxiety in general. I'd say the skills that she taught my daughter are applicable in every day life: school, work, peers. My daughter is doing so much better now, she has a new found confidence in herself. I highly recommend Dr. Michelle and am very thankful that we found her. We'll definitely be back if we ever need a touch up. read more

Dr. Michelle was invited to speak at my weekly Health and Fitness seminar and it was clear from the start that she knows her stuff. Not only did she make the class feel comfortable with her teaching skills but encouraged them to ask questions so that they can understand what the best solution would be to getting results. Thank you Dr. Michelle, Yours in Good Health, Dr.Tony Tropea read more

Michelle Cleere has a Masters in Sports psychology and a PhD. She assists people overcome mental and emotional stress. Dr. Cleere teaches at JFK University, National Academy of Sports Medicine and more. Along with writing and publishing, she works with athletes and other peak performers, such as artists, performers, CEO's, dieters, weight loss etc. She does hold group mental training which helps with confidence, focus, goals, eating disorder, burn out and over training. She assists her clients perform at their best. read more

Dr. Michelle is awesome! My son is a top ranked swimmer who was facing challenges of self confidence in his sport. She clearly understands the pressures of being an elite youth athlete and the pressures of making the transition to college sports. With Dr. Michelle's help, my son has developed techniques to thrive in a very challenging environment. He has used his new approach to achieve personal bests in the pool and feels ready for the next step. Thank you Dr Michelle! read more

"Amazing" is all I can say. I am an older athlete and Dr Michelle helped me with organizing my thoughts and focus in gym and during completions ! Her knowledge for teaching me these skills are itruly appreciated! read more

I was disappointed by Dr. Cleere. She encouraged us to buy a package of sessions, and then it was really difficult to book them. Furthermore she didn't really make a connection with our son. I ended up feeling that making money and promoting herself were a bigger priority than helping people. We found Joe Puentes and it has been a much better experience. read more

We hired Dr. Cleere to help our inspiring ballerina to enter professional dance world. While our daughter was getting into her personal best physical shape for auditions to ballet companies, her emotional health was her biggest obstacle. We set our ecxpectations very low and communicated so much to Michelle. In many ways, ballet training is very similar to any athletic training, with one major difference. Ballerinas are trained from very early age to defer judgment of whether they are any good to teachers, adjudicators, artistic directors - anyone but themselves. Ballet dancers' earning for perfection goes hand in hand with understanding that that perfection will never be attained. While that could drive a dancer to constantly improve her/his technique, often it creates a very stressed out and confused state of mind, especially in a young adult entering professional world. This confusion and inability to own her progress drove our daughter to sometimes botch her easiest combinations, blanking out on variations in class, falling in the very end of her very strong performance during easiest turn. Our daughter's biggest struggle was to not being able to control her body when her brain would blank out under stress. Being ignored and not getting correction from a teacher would lead to her total inability to self correct, or analyze her own strength or weakness, which resulted in constant state of panic. What Dr. Cleere was able to achieve through her very patient and nonchalant approach with our kid, was to first, slowly but surely, teach her how to pay attention and feel her body during class. Second, how to give herself a permission to have a self assessment. Third, gaining power of self analysis and mindfulness. We overheard her telephone sessions sometimes. What impressed us was that Dr. Cleere kept asking and prodding even when our daughter would only give her one or two word answers. She kept bringing her attention to how her class or audition felt both physically and mentally. Towards the end of our series of sessions, our daughter moved across country having joined a professional company as a trainee. During my visit in her new home, I was a witness to one of the last session. I was happy to hear how much more chatty my kid was in reporting her progress to Michelle. I liked how Michelle kept asking my daughter to refer back to the tools she taught her and making her analyze what worked and what could have worked better. I liked that my daughter OWNED her experience, could self assess and look for her own way of correction. She is slowly learning to take teachers' criticism or praise not as final verdict of her ballet career but as an objective feedback. Thank you for that! read more

Our daughter is a talented athlete that rose quickly to national ranking. As she hit early teens she was increasingly overcome with performance anxiety, freezing at competitions ... she became a stress mess. We were unable to solve, and matters got worse. She then started seeing Dr Michelle. She instantly took to Michelle, loved her time with Michelle, trusted her to confide in about anything and really took to heart Michelle's advice, Michelle's advice trumped everything. It was a process, no immediate A Ha, not an immediate fix, and along the way a setback or 2 (2 steps forward, 1 step back), but during the past 12 months continued progress. She has now regained her national status, and her confidence. It continues to be a process that we all work at, but thanks to Michelle we are better understanding and better able to manage; for us (the parents) how to support her, and for our daughter how to manage anxiety, competition, and to be kinder to herself. Best of all what she learned has set her up to better deal with school and stress and every day issues. We have for the moment ended the sessions, but if she veers again (her perfectionism and expectations are deeply embedded) we would not hesitate to go back to Michelle. In fact, our daughter would go every week, she loved her time with Michelle that much. read more

my 16 year old son needed help recovering from a tough year competing in jiu jitsu, he was considering giving sports up. he started working with her and had the best year in highschool wrestling. she has helped him understand the pressures of being an athlete, understand how to deal with this. gave him a broader perspective, how to put goals in place that were up to him and his work and not so much focus on results which brings a lot of anxiety. he now enjoys what he is doing and has a different attitude towards competition thanks to the work he has done with Dr Michelle. these tools will last him forever and this has no price. read more

Dr. Michelle was my Triathlon coach and helped me complete my goal with confidence and comfort. I was well trained both physically and mentally which made for a fabulous experience. She is a velvet hammer and has the ability to help you pull the best out of yourself and achieve your peak performance....whoever you are and wherever you start. We also became fast friends and I am so glad that we are still working out together. Where is the 6th star? read more