Tiger Woods' Therapist

It has been reported that Tiger Woods is in “marriage counseling” as a result of these current events in his life. I am sending a plea out that Mr. Woods needs more than marriage counseling to correct his behavior and his public image. Marriage counseling is a very circumscribed intervention. It is a wonderful help to a marriage relationship when conducted by a skilled professional therapist. BUT, a caution here. If only a small amount of the facts being paraded in the news about Mr. Woods is true, it is my professional opinion that he needs individual therapy in conjunction with therapeutic intervention on his marriage. Mr. Woods may be suffering from what plagues most athletes, especially professional athletes. That is, the pressure and stress from their performance is resulting in negative consequences in their life.

The credentialed professionals in the International Sports Professionals Association(ISPA) are those best qualified to intervene in the lives of athletes suffering from these disorders. We know athletes well. Many of us having been athletes all our lives.

With well over 25 years of experience as a clinical psychologist and noted for my success in offering practical and direct interventions, I would offer myself to intervene into this situation and solve it with the Woods. I hope and pray that Mr. & Mrs. Woods and their family are receiving the best help they can get and are not just going through the motions with some quasi-professional so that they can report this to the media. Please get the best help you can.

Happy Thanksgiving-Don't do it!

On behalf of the entire Family Fit team, we'd like to wish you and your families a very happy-healthy-and safe holiday!

Dr John Mayer~

Who is John Mayer?

Free ebook for parents

Hello everyone!  If you've not visited www.nogginpower2.com yet, I've got a great reason for you to do so today!  We're giving away, free to everyone, a parenting mini manual on sleep and bedwetting in children and teens.  It's loaded with good, useful and extremely practical advice we can all use.  

As usual, thank you for your support! 

Go Chicago 2016!!!

http://nogginpower2.com/family_help_downloads.htm  - link to ebook

Athlete Hero!!

his week’s Sports Illustrated, September 14, 2009 issue, has a story for all of us. Written by Selena Roberts and appearing on the very last page of the magazine in the ‘Point After’ column, she writes a poignant article about a high school athlete.

It is an article about what is most joyous and what is most sad in the lives of our teenagers. The article is about a high School athlete, Kaleb Eulls, an outstanding student and athlete from Mississippi. Kaleb was on a bus one morning when another student, a 14-year-old girl took out a gun from her backpack and threatened revenge for being bullied. Kaleb was able to disarm her (Please get this magazine and read the article) and save anyone from getting hurt. Ms. Roberts details how modest and hardworking Kaleb is in his everyday life apart from this incident. He remained that way throughout the national attention he received as a result of this heroic deed.

In the last two weeks I have given many presentations on bullying and teasing at schools in my professional role as a clinical psychologist. I have also just finished publishing a very affordable and comprehensive manual for schools to apply to their school to STOP and PREVENT bullying and teasing behavior among students. My goal is to provide schools with tools they can use without expending enormous resources and money. (Comparable programs cost in the thousands of dollars-mine is a straightforward, hard-hitting manual for schools for $25.)

The appearance of this article, in a magazine devoted to sports underscores the seriousness of this problem of bullying and teasing among students of all ages. Children, teens, adults are being hurt and killed by this behavior. It is time we stopped it in our society. In the next few weeks I will have a booklet available on www.NogginPower2.com, I call them Mini-Manuals, for parents on this issue as well.

We could have lost this special young man, Kaleb Eulls, innocently because of this deadly behavior of teasing and bullying others. Help stop it NOW!

The International Sports Professionals Assoc.

Hi-just started doing video blogs on youtube for The International Sports Professionals Association. It's something I'm very active in and am happy to share with you all.  Membership is increasing daily and we're appreciative of all your support!  To say thank you, we are extending our membership drive through mid-October to give everyone a chance to become part of ISPA.

The link to our website is at the bottom of this page, or here is the link to the video blogs if you want to ck them out.  http://www.youtube.com/user/ISPAssociation

Again, thank you all for your continued support!

Dr Mayer

Public schools vs private schools in this economy

here's a link to an article I contributed to in Crain's Chicago on how the economy is forcing parents to send their children to public schools vs private schools.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?id=32349

stressed spelled backwards is desserts!! who knew!

Announcing Family Fit!

“Suck it Up” is Bad and Dangerous

 The traditional coaching axiom after what seems to be a minor injury is not only stupid, it is now being seen by experts as dangerous. We are heading into what some experts consider the ‘head trauma season’ in sports. Coaches, trainers, parents, it is wise to be prepared. 

    If a player receives an injury, even a minor one, what many coaches call a “dinger” or when the player sees stars or is briefly disorientated, they need to sit. These are mild concussions and not sitting can be dangerous. Last year the New York Times did a series of 15 articles on the results of repeated concussions in players from youth through pros. They found that the long term consequences of repeat concussions were: persistent headaches, fatigue, difficulty paying attention (ADD-like symptoms), memory problems, mood swings and personality changes. In a few cases even death resulted. 

    Don’t take even ‘minor’ hits lightly. “When in doubt, sit them out.” That is the strong advice of Dr. Robert C. Cantu, one of the leading experts on concussions. (As quoted in the New York Times Aug. 25, 2009) Dr. Cantu is a co-author of the National Athletic Trainers Association position paper on sports-related concussions.

    These ‘dings’ to the head do not only come from sports. Parents know that young children bang their heads frequently as they learn how to navigate their world. Take the same advice, make them rest and not exert themselves after a hit to the head, even minor.

Respect for others peoples time

I do a fair amount of interviews for both print and media. Until recently have I had mostly good experiences.  Notice how I said "until recently."  The process usually starts out where both parties agree on a time that they can both be available to speak on the phone or physically meet in person. You'd think that since you both agreed on a given time that there wouldn't be any problems there. WRONG! If your running late for an appt, common courtesy is to phone/email/text- SOMETHING giving the other party a heads up that your going to be late.  And we do this why??-respectfully so that the other party isn't left guessing, sitting waiting, etc... I seriously wonder exactly how much time people waste in a period of 24 hours waiting for other people to show/call/email etc...

Have some consideration.

Spitting ughhhh

While taking a run this morning on the Chicago lakefront I did something I feel badly about. As I was well into my run my mouth developed a good deal of saliva as we men are often known to do. I looked behind me to my left and then to my right to see if another runner or cyclist was approaching me from behind because clearly there was no one approaching me. I prepared that mouthful of spittle, took a deep breath and off it went out of my mouth and on its way toward helping the lakefront grass to some nutrients. But, alas, from out of nowhere a cyclist going at an estimated speed approaching Contador and Armstrong dueling down a French mountain, came next to me at the moment of launch and my well intended lawn additive landed squarely in this cyclist’s face. After a string of choice words and a bit of a wobble on his expensive road bike he didn’t break pace and sped off.

My first reaction to this unfortunate incident was, “Oooops! I feel so bad, sorry good sir.” But, as I jogged on my merry way also not breaking stride from my blistering 10.0 mph pace I thought about how many times I had seen cyclists speed by runners, walkers, groups on this same path thinking they are re-creating a stage of the TOUR and ride up upon people without warning. I have seen cyclists run right into the backside of runners, I have seen runners change lanes suddenly and bikers swerve to avoid a crash only to be thrown violently from their bike. All of this that could have been avoided had the cyclist given the proper, “On your left” to warn the foot traffic on the path that they are approaching.

I do feel bad about what happened this morning, but cyclists please, give a warning as you approach foot traffic on the paths! At the very least you’ll be protected from the possible face full of spit.

Meaning of Life

I saw this and found it to be quite true.

We're just wired differently.

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/pc/manwoman.html

My books...

On the right side of this page I added links to most of my books.  Don't forget, "Family Fit" is fresh off the press and ready to be part of your family!

The Success of Pro Sports

t is astounding that pro team owners focus their energy on the raw materials (players) in their businesses and not on what obtained the lofty status of pro sports in the US, that is marketing, sales and branding of sport. They treat this raw material as if it is a precious commodity, when in reality it is not. There is plenty of raw material available. Pro sports in the United States didn’t get to be such a lucrative industry because of the raw materials, the players, it got to be lucrative because of how it was brilliantly sold to the American Public.

We would have less problem with the thug mentality in pro sports, cheating in pro sports, scandals, doping, etc. If the focus was put back on what made pro sports successful in the first place. It wasn’t the raw materials it was the SELL.

Family Fit is finally out!!

My latest book, Family Fit, is finally out and I'm very excited to be able to share it with you.  A great deal of heart and soul went into this book.  I'm a firm believer in living a healthy lifestyle and this book is my way of sharing my knowledge with you all. 

It's available in book form and digital form with Amazons Kindle.  Great gift idea for that parent or family you car pool with.

I'm pretty proud of it!

you can find it here - http://www.amazon.com/Family-Fit-Dr-John-Mayer/dp/0982096178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250874937&sr=8-1

Backpacks

Backpacks should weigh only 10-20% of your child’s weight. Straps should be close to the body to prevent back pain. Clean out regularly to reduce weight. Heavier objects nearer to body---all to prevent back strain.

High School Football Warning

Believe it or not but high school football practice is in full swing around the US. A new study reported in The Journal of Athletic Training that high school football players experience greater acceleration forces to their heads when they collide with other players than college players do increasing the danger of injuries such as concussions. The lead investigator of the study, Steven Broglio of the University of Illinois recommends that coaches spend more time teaching the fundamentals in techniques to players, especially keeping your head up and avoiding using the top of the helmet to collide with another player as this can increase the possibility of cervical injury. Pass this alarm onto high school coaches you work with.

Also, speaking of football, congratulations to my friend, Coach Frank Lenti of Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago who was just named by Chicago Magazine in their ‘Best of Chicago’ article as the best football coach in Chicago. Yes, best football coach, not high school football coach, football coach, period. Congratulations Frank!

Thuggery in the NFL

Plaxico Burress accepted a plea deal that will place him in jail for two years for carrying an illegal weapon into a night club and then accidentally shooting himself. Many sports analysts seemed more interested in when Mr. Burress would be back to play football than discussing the ramifications of Mr. Burress’ actions. It seems that much thuggery has surrounded the NFL as of late and many analysts are focused more on how much football these individuals will miss and not on opening a dialogue on how these activities can be prevented. Playing football in the NFL is a privilege, one that for many is a highly compensated privilege. Because playing football in the NFL is a privilege it can and in some cases should be taken away permanently when deemed necessary. Sports analysts should be focusing on why players such as Plaxico Burress should be allowed to play again and not when can they can play. There needs to be more dialogue on how we can prevent these thuggish actions. Furthermore, commissioner Goodell needs to have zero tolerance when individuals do not uphold the standards of conduct set forth by the NFL and society.