Episode 16: Dr. Laura Sudano on High Performers, Pro Athletes, Moms and Identity
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LISTEN ON SPOTIFYDr. Laura Sudano is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has spent her career at the intersection of high pressure and high performance. A former collegiate volleyball player, she's worked with collegiate and professional athletes, coaches, and sports medicine teams, including serving as Director of Behavioral Science at Wake Forest Baptist Health. She's also a coach at Rose & Stone, and this episode is an introduction to the work she does with our clients.
In this conversation, Laura breaks down what mental performance actually means, and why it's different from general coaching: it's the set of tools, like emotional regulation, visualization, and somatic work, that help people execute under pressure when the margin for error is small. She and Ann Marie talk about why success can hide the exact skills that created it, why the off-season is often the best time to build mental performance habits, and why athletes moving up a level often get exposed in ways that force them to adapt.
Laura also talks about identity, from the shift that comes with being injured or retiring from sport, to the parallel identity shift that comes with becoming a parent. She shares how she brings the same mental performance framework to postpartum and peripartum support, and why she thinks the emotional demands of new parenthood deserve to be taken as seriously as those of professional athletes.
What we cover:
What mental performance actually is, and how it's different from typical coaching
Why success can obscure the process that created it
The identity shift that comes with injury, retirement, or becoming a parent
Supporting high performers through the demands of peripartum and postpartum life
Why humor and honesty matter as much as skill in coaching
Laura is also a coach at Rose & Stone LLC, specializing in mental performance coaching for executives, athletes, and high performing professionals.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
Guest: Dr. Laura Sudano, Certified Mental Performance Consultant and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist