Interview with Dr. Marina Harris

Topic: Sports Psychology and the importance of the holistic well-being of student athletes
Guest Name: Dr. Marina Harris
Guest Credentials: PhD, CMPC
Discussion Details: Mind-Body Wellness with Dr. Marina Harris of Bloom Psychology

In this episode of the Aureum Physio Spotlight Series, physical therapist Dr. Heather Smith sits down with Dr. Marina Harris, licensed psychologist, Certified Mental Performance Consultant and founder of Bloom Psychology in North Carolina. Together, they discuss how mental health and physical therapy work together to improve recovery, resilience, and overall well-being.

Dr. Harris shares her insights on the mind-body connection, the importance of addressing emotional stress in physical healing, and how her team at Bloom Psychology helps clients move from survival to sustainable growth.

This conversation offers a practical and inspiring look at how collaboration between psychology and physical therapy enhances outcomes and empowers clients to feel well, move well, and live well.

Benefits of Watching: You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of how nurturing mental wellness enhances physical recovery — and how adopting a holistic approach can help you feel well, move well, and live well painfree.

Address of Guest’s Business: 5488 Apex Peakway, Suite 143, Apex, NC 27502

Dr. Heather Smith:
In this edition of our spotlight series, we’re honored to feature Dr. Marina Harris, licensed sports psychologist and founder of Bloom Psychology Group, a premier psychology practice based in North Carolina, serving women, girls, athletes, and high achievers seeking balance, growth, and sustainable performance. Dr. Dr. Harris, a former division division one athlete turned psychologist and entrepreneur, has dedicated her career to helping others navigate the intersection of mental resilience and physical well-being. She graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in sport and exercise psychology and then went on to receive her mers in kinesiology and health from Miami University and then her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Nevada. Her work emphasizes that thriving isn’t just about doing more. It’s about aligning ma mind, body, and purpose. Dr. Harris, thank you again for joining us today for our spotlight series to highlight the importance of mental well-being and its deep connection to physical well-being. What initially drew you to sports psychology and what influence, if any, did your experience as a D1 athlete influence your professional career?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. I love to talk about um the intersection between physical and mental well-being. I work with lots of athletes um for who that’s really relevant. So, I’m excited to do the Y.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Awesome. And then did you feel like your experience as a D1 athlete had any influence in how you chose your career path or kind of give me a little background about how you um came to be where you are today as a sports psychologist and working with high achieving athletes and individuals?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, 100%. I was a highly competitive gymnast growing up in the North Carolina area and I was a perfectionistic high achiever like many of the clients that I serve and I met with a sports psychologist when I was in high school. And so that was my first experience with a sports psychologist. And she taught us to do mental choreography, which is the art of sort of matching mental key words with physical movement. And I remember it helped me a lot, especially on events that I struggled with like balance beam or was scared of. And so from there I knew that I wanted to do sports psychology and I ended up seeking out an undergraduate degree in sport psychology which is one of West Virginia has one of the few programs in the country. And so from there I was a division one athlete at West Virginia University and was on the gymnastics team until I had an injury and moved to coaching. um realized that coaching wasn’t my passion. And so then I continued to pursue sports psychology. And then as I was in college, I came across friends who really struggled with body image and eating um and some of whom even had full-blown eating disorders. And at the time there weren’t a lot of options for treatment. And I knew that I really wanted to help athletes influence their mental health in a positive way. And so I went on to get the clinical degree. I’m so glad that I did because a lot of the athletes like that come to see us or come to see me um struggle um with sort of the performance aspect of sport but might also have mental health challenges like anxiety, self-criticism, low self-esteem or fear of failure that really holds back in their life. So, it’s really nice to be able to offer a service where we can do both the mental health side of things and the sport performance side of things.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Awesome. And that kind of falls along with kind of like my next point that you’ve built Bloom Psychology with such a clarity of mission which is obvious in your response there. Um but kind of what inspired you to start your own practice and what gap in care maybe it is that kind of the intersection between physical well-being, mental health and kind of seeing the athlete as a whole. Was there any like particular gap that you were noticing in your previous experiences that kind of also helped motivate you to start Bloom to kind of cultivate the client care that you um so expertly are giving your clients these days?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, I would say that my mission to start Bloom was motivated through um having negative experiences myself in the work environments that I was working in. Um I had worked in big medical centers or in athletics departments. And after I had done all this work on myself in sort of dismantling perfectionism, working on resting more, working on trusting myself more. I went to an athletics department and that was totally lacking just in my own work environment. It very much subscribed to that toxic like win at all costs sort of toxic hustle culture mentality like we just do whatever whatever the organization needs us to do no questions asked. And at the time, I felt like that was so inconsistent with how I was trying to work with athletes because I was trying to have them slow down and listen to themselves and their bodies and trust themselves and stop doing all this like perfectionistic anxious checking and be more confident. But I was in this environment that felt like it didn’t help me do that. And so in order to best help my clients, I left that job and started my own practice about three and a half years ago now.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Awesome. So that sounds like a lot of like core values are like treating the client, the athlete, the patient for like what they need versus feeling any like external pressure from employers or other people in the team that are kind of pushing through and maybe not taking the best um you know 360 view of the athlete themselves and really placing them where they need to be. But are there any other core values that kind of shape your approach to your patient and client care? And on that note, what are the types of clients and patients that really really thrive with you?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, I mean, I would say the values are at Bloom are on warmth and authenticity. We really aim to be human and we bring ourselves to the therapy room. So, we’re working with clients together. Um, but we’re also results driven. So, we do the types of therapies that have been shown to work with a lot of different people like cognitive behavioral therapies, dialectical behavior therapies, um, acceptance and commitment therapies, and then doing sports psychology techniques that work. So I would definitely say that we’re, you know, warm, relatable, authentic, and human obviously because that’s really important. And at the same time, we help our athletes with these sort of evidence-driven tools. Um, the types of clients that work really well with us are people like, you know, teen girls who might feel overwhelmed with pressure to succeed at school or in their social lives. Um, highly competitive athletes who want to feel more calm under pressure or overcome mental blocks um or more confident in their bodies. Uh we also work with young adults facing life transition, self-doubt or burnout from perfectionism. And we work with mothers, professionals, and women in leadership, especially those who are striving to sort of do it all. Um and carrying this invisible burden and feel emotionally burnt out and like emotionally depleted in that process. Um, so we help them create a different path forward, which I find really rewarding.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Awesome. And that kind of leads me to like one of my questions, but that feeds right into it. Like perfectionism, the hustle culture, performance pressures, and then subsequently burnout are just becoming more and more common in adults and then even sadly in like our high school, middle school age kids. Um, how does Bloom, what is kind of your approach to helping these clients redefine what rest and recovery mean? Um, not really as a weakness or a fault, but kind of as their key part of their mental and physical well-being. Like how do you navigate that fine line of you not you know having someone be um you know feel like you know they’re having to step back and take a break which obviously in their mindset you know when they’re all about pushing pushing pushing is not seeing as you know completely regressing but seeing it as an opportunity to move forward like where does that fine balance come from with helping these people avoid you know any sort of negative connotation towards rest and recovery like What’s your approach to to treating kind of that perfectionism and burnout subsequent reaction?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Uh well, each person’s approach is different. So, we work on doing an initial appointment where we really get to know the individual person and we identify obviously what they’ve been struggling with, but we also want to know their strengths, what things are working well in their life, what skills they have that can help them be successful in maybe helping the areas that don’t feel as supported in their life. And so we take that really individual approach. We want to understand each person’s goals and values for themselves. Um, but in terms of helping with perfectionism and burnout, I think it is a conversation about how that has helped them in their life and acknowledging that perfectionism has probably contributed to their success in some way. Uh, which makes it so hard to let go of. and we identify like all the positive things that they’ve identified from it, but we also look at, okay, how might this be hurting you right now at this point in your life? And how might you be continuing to try to use perfectionistic strategies even if they’re not working anymore? Like even if you’re still facing relentless self-criticism or you’re dieting a lot or you’re um not as confident as you could be and help them identify that there could be a different path than just continuing to use something that has worked in the past but might not be working for them anymore. And then we identify like skills and strategies based on, you know, what we know from research, what we know from the individual client to help them do things differently.

Dr. Heather Smith:
That’s great. Um, you know, I think like probably similar experience in a way like with physical therapy, we have a lot of like patients that are very reticent to eventually seek care. Have a lot of patients that come in that have been dealing with a pain or issue for months and months. Um, and I wonder would pseudo assume that there’s many clients and patients that you treat that, you know, are sometimes reticent to start the whole journey into like mental health. Um, you know, oftentimes we experience here in the clinic that emotional stress and anxiety is very much intertwined into their recovery. you know, PTS, we spend a lot of time with our patients, and we do start to perceive sometimes that these mental struggles, but obviously we’re not trained in how to address these um mental well-being or mental health issues that they’re having or develop any sort of action plan. Um, as you mentioned on Bloom Psychologyy’s website, you don’t have to be really struggling to seek out um, you know, mental health care to improve your mental well-being. What would you say are like some good key indicators that you know us as PTs or any other health care provider can start to look for or any blind spots that might occur to where we can really start to encourage these people to start to you know consider um you know psychology services to help address that aspect of their life if they’re not you know really suffering from you know like a mental health like disease but really could benefit a lot from you. What do you would you say are really kind of things that we can start to identify in our patients or just individuals that are dealing with with struggles and start to point them in your direction and kind of hope hopefully give them a little boost boost in your direction.

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, I mean there are so many signs and I would say it’s really important to seek help as soon as possible. There’s a big misconception in mental health that you have to be like really sick or really mentally ill to need therapy. And I get a lot of clients specifically with eating disorders that are surprised to hear that they have an eating disorder because they will say things like, “Well, you know, I still eat.” Or it’s not like I don’t eat anything all day, but I’m still obsessing over my weight. I’m counting calories. I’m um you know unh really unhappy with my body and so then they’re surprised that actually that does qualify as a mental health diagnosis or would definitely benefit from therapy. So I think number one is uh working to correct this misconception that you have to be really sick to need therapy. A lot of people as long like if it’s causing any kind of distress for them or any kind of functional impairment it probably does count as mental health related. And so I would just encourage people to refer you know even if you have a inkling or even if you have a feeling that somebody could benefit from therapy because it’s very possible that the issue is deeper than you think. Um, and then for health care workers to watch out for, you know, there are some like classic signs like low mood, low energy, um, maybe worrying a lot. Of course, we’ve talked about like dieting or obsessing about food or your weight or just feeling unhappy with your body. Um, maybe you don’t feel as confident as you want to feel. Um, maybe you have that self-critical voice in your head and it’s hard to take compliments. So, those are some signs I think that people could watch out for when knowing when to refer for a mental health shoe.

Dr. Heather Smith:
And then if people are kind of hesitant, you know, if I do have like a patient, I’m like, “Hey, I really think you could benefit from speaking with a therapist.” if they seem a little hesitant about reaching out to seek help, is there anything like that you would want them to know or kind of what is your process of, you know, helping people kind of take that next step towards seeking care if they feel a little like on the fence about it?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah. The one thing I will say is that spending time, energy, and financial resources on your mental well-being is a really good investment. Mainly because sometimes we see these things might not have health consequences now, but they do definitely down the line. So, if you’re on the fence, it’s actually probably a great time to try it out. Um, I will say that there is a time for each person. Like there’s a good time for therapy sometimes for people. Like I remember when I was in college, I saw a therapist and I was not engaged. Like I probably wasn’t ready to do the work of being in therapy. And that’s totally okay. So it’s all right if you’re not feeling ready to take the step. But what I encourage people to think about is like we’re human, too. We don’t have everything together. I go to my own therapy. I’m still figuring out a lot of the stuff that I’m teaching other people to do. And so, we’re not we’re coming in a place of expertise, but we’re also there with you. Um, we’re human, too. We’re there with you. We have a shared experience of human suffering and being human. And so it’s not like there’s this expert that’s just telling you what to do to sort of get your life together, but we really work together to help you figure out strategies that you want to implement in your life. So, um, of course, we tell everyone that therapy is voluntary. You’re not ever forced to stay in therapy, but most people find it helpful in just a few sessions. Um, I usually tell people that they can see some type of progress in about six sessions. So, it’s nice to just try it out and see how it feels for you.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Awesome. And do you have like an example of like a good like kind of client or patient win like where someone was like maybe pretty reticent to really get going on like your services and you know worked with you for a while and was able to like come out on the other side and you know really achieve goals and move smoothly through their you know demands either in their job or their sport.

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yes, many many clients who have done that. Um, some examples, I can’t give any identifying information, but some of the ones come to mind around like the teens that I work with who have eating disorders and they almost never want to come in to therapy. Um, and sometimes we actually use family based treatment, which is having the families help the adolescents recover. And I’ll get comments sometimes from those same clients after they’ve become young adults and are on the other side after being recovered from the eating disorder thinking back and they’re like, “Man, my brain really was not thinking clearly when I was in the middle of my eating disorder. Like I’m so glad that my parents helped me get out of that place and are now thriving like now can go to college normally can um have like thrive in their sport, have a normal sort of young adult experience that they wouldn’t have been able to do if they were still in the thick of their eating disorder. So it’s really rewarding to see sometimes people come out the other side.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Yeah, that’s awesome. And how do you think like the collaboration between mental health professionals and PTs can enhance both outcomes to help people go from, you know, a point of, you know, struggling mentally to engage or feeling so much pressure that, you know, I assume sometimes you deal with with athletes or individuals that almost feel paralyzed with taking the next step because there’s so much pressure on top of them. And then how does their body respond to that in terms of where does pain manifest or maybe you know physical dysfunction occur? Do you see any kind of amalgamation of like both you know professions and like you work together with like pts to kind of help a client one work on their mental well-being while they concurrently work on their physical well-being.

Dr. Marina Harris:
Uh well, at Bloom, we work a lot on collaborative care, which means that we educate all our clients on the importance of us communicating with their medical team so we can both help each other because anxiety has so many physical symptom manifestations. you know, anxiety impacts sleep, it impacts eating, it impacts weight, it impacts um physical like sensations and discomfort, and it can impact pain. And so, it’s really important that we’re communicating as providers to correctly get a client’s diagnosis um and come up with a treatment plan together to best help the client. So we work in tandem with a lot of medical providers. So not just PTs but clients physicians, dieticians, sometimes coaches if the athlete wants that option. Um and then obviously with parents if they’re teens or with young adults, they get to involve their parents if they want to.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Nice. So, as you’ve already mentioned, you’ve built a practice rooted in expertise and really a warm community. Um, you’ve cultivated a brand that balances excellence um and is very approachable. What achievements or milestones are you most proud of? And looking ahead, what is next for Bloom and what are you excited about?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Oh, that’s really kind of you to say. Thank you much. Um, yeah. I think it’s probably not a surprise that I don’t slow down enough to appreciate the business and the things that we’ve created. Um, but I think a big milestone is just celebrating that we have three years open in business and we actually uh just brought on a new clinician. So, um, in the practice there’s me and I work with clients, but I have another clinician named Alexandra Parker who’s a licensed clinical social worker. And she’s extremely skilled in helping teens, um, children and young adults with their mental health, especially with anxiety and perfectionism. Um, but she’s also a highlevel gymnast like me and so she understands the pressures of competitive sport and is also working with clients on the sport psychology aspect of things. So that has been a huge milestone. Um especially as I do more of the work of being a CEO and working on the business um so that we can continue to serve new community members. Um because normally I would turn have to turn people away if I was full seeing clients and now we get to help more people. So that’s really exciting in terms of like the mission and vision of Bloom Psychology Group. Um the other big milestone that we’re celebrating is rolling out our uh sport or high performance intensives which is specialized programming uh to help athletes or high-erforming executives basically perform better but also while overcoming perfectionism and not ascribing to that toxic sort of hustle culture. And so it’s structured programming where across eight hours, the person or the athlete or the executive works with our providers one on- one to come up with individualized goals that help set them up for success. um we understand their unique story with athletics or with perfectionism or with their work or motherhood um and then develop goals and values based on that. Um, we help clients master their own self-talk by sort of shutting down that critical voice and bolstering that voice inside that is intuitive and confident and authentic. Um, we also help athletes uh use mental imagery to perform better. We help them stay calm under pressure by using relaxation skills that work. So, there’s a lot of content packed into the sport intensives and a lot of curriculum that is geared towards our ideal client, which is, you know, high performing women and girls. And those are a great option for people who uh might not want to sign up for therapy indefinitely or aren’t even sure that therapy is a right fit for them. Um it’s also great for people who might be coming in with a specific issue. So, I see a lot of gymnasts who experience mental blocks and who might not need traditional therapy, but they need some sports psychology work. And so, we sort of help them overcome a specific issue or maybe they like just want to feel more confident in their sport or more poised under pressure, more confident under pressure. Uh so those are really exciting sort of roll out most recently.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Awesome. And with that, you know, with any athlete that might be a little bit seasonal, would you say these intensives are best applied during the season or is it still beneficial if someone knows that soccer season starts in, you know, February, they could go ahead and kick off with some of these techniques? Is it useful then or is it more applicable while they’re actually in the throws of competition?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, I would say the earlier the better. Okay. Because it is really hard midseason to number one find time to meet, right? And number two to make changes when you’re already like struggling essentially. Uh, so I would say the best time for intensives is pre-season or as season’s like gearing up and starting. Um, but we can help midseason. Uh, if that is something that athletes want to do. So there’s never a bad time to do an intensive, but definitely the earlier the better. It can be structured accordingly. Earlier the better is best, right?

Dr. Heather Smith:
Perfect. Um, and then what is I maybe speak a little bit about um kind of how the mediums that y’all use? I know it’s mostly virtual, but you know, what is the best way for someone to get in touch with your office or book an appointment? How do you go about doing these intensives or your appointments um either with yourself or the new clinician with your with Bloom?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, we have a centralized office and administrative staff. So they can get in contact by calling our office which is 9198929844 or sending us an email which is listed on the website but it’s just admin bloom psychologync.com. nc is in North Carolina. Um so those are the best ways to get in contact with us and from there uh they can also go to our website and create a contact form which also outlines um what service they’re interested in. So we do offer a free 15minute discovery call that lets them talk with either me or Alexandra or the provider that they want to see. And then from there we do some paperwork because we need to do that in order to be good therapists. And then we go forward in terms of scheduling. Um we are all virtual. So we meet online via HIPPA compliant Google Meet which clients like because it syncs right up to their calendar and is very convenient for anywhere especially when you have busy athletes or busy professionals on the go.

Dr. Heather Smith:
Perfect. Um, and then any final thoughts for someone? I know we kind of kind of glossed over this before, but anyone that’s silently struggling that isn’t sure if they’re ready or where to start? I know it looked like y’all might offer like a complimentary consultation. Um, so is that kind of a good first line for someone to start to pursue?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, I think that’s a great place to start. like let’s just have a conversation and see how maybe we could help you. I think it really helps to number one talk to a person and realize that yeah, it actually does help to verbalize what you’re going through and have someone listen and really understand that and reflect it back to you. Um, but also so that we can let you know that we see ways that we can help. uh that you don’t have to just continue to do things that aren’t working or continue to do things that don’t feel good. There are people here who’ve done it and can help.

Dr. Heather Smith:
And then is there anything with your experience throughout your, you know, really well-versed career and training that you would tell yourself as a young freshman D1 gymnast? You know, hindsight’s always 2020. so many things. But is there any like one kind of like final thought that if you could like give yourself as your younger self like in regards to, you know, mental well-being and kind of going through the process of being such a highle athlete and trying to take care of yourself as you journey through life?

Dr. Marina Harris:
Yeah, there I’m sure there were a lot of things. I think one is that I don’t have to do what other people want me to do just because they want me to do it. I think that took me a really long time to learn. That I didn’t need to just do things based on someone else wanting me to do them. That I could actually make my own choices and I can say no and do things differently. Um, the other thing is just to realize that things like like surface level things like appearance or athletic accomplishments are not everything. Um, and that there’s so many more things that make up a fulfilling, meaningful life than just what your achievements are that people’s inherent worth isn’t based on those things.

Dr. Heather Smith:
So perfect. Well, thank you again to Dr. Marina Harris with Bloom Psychology Group. Um, you definitely embody what RM Physio believes deeply that healing and performance thrive at the intersection of body and mind. Um, and again, through your integrative approach, you help clients find strength, not just in what they do, but in how they feel and how they recover. Um, to learn more about Dr. Harrison or practice, visit bloomcsychologync.com to explore and then to explore how physical therapy and recovery services at RM physio enhance your mental and physical performance. You can always schedule a consultation at rmphysioc.com. Thank you again for your time.

Dr. Marina Harris:
Thank you so much.