Episode 24: Dr. Alex Auerbach

Welcome back to Closer Mentality. I'm your host, Julia Mellett. Today I'm excited to welcome Dr. Alex Auerbeck to the podcast. He's the director of Wellness and Development for the Toronto Raptors. After pursuing a BS in Business Management from the University of Arizona and and an MBA from Sao Regina University, Auerbeck decided to change course. His dream of becoming a football coach was shifting from the physical to the mental side of sport. He then graduated from the University of North Texas with a PhD in counseling psychology with a focus in sport and performance psychology.

I think there's some interesting kind of people centric stuff that comes from an MBA that's still pretty relevant. I mean, obviously part of my role is providing direct services and being a mental health, you know, provider and a mental performance consultant. But part of my role is also managing other people. And there's some overlap in skill sets, but some distinct skill sets. And so in terms of like why I pursued it, I don't know that I could give you much more beyond trying to find something, you know, that, that I thought would have some meaning and value down the line while I pursued coaching. But obviously looking back, I can see places where it overlaps well and works well together, particularly as it pertains to kind of organization level consulting. Again, managing other staff. People understanding sort of the fundamentals of how to organize an organization or a department actually think is pretty useful. And so there's maybe some parallels to like an IO psych degree, which is kind of an interesting add on and I think has, has real utility. But I would have never known that at the time. The journey itself for me was really just about where I felt most passionate and most connected. I mean, I think obviously the technical and tactical parts of sport are very important and is what we see sort of on the field, in my case on Saturdays in college football. But what I found myself consistently gravitating toward was really the relationship side of coaching and less sort of X's and O's. And then I was also a younger coach. And so I was in a position where I would often hear some of the maybe more personal stories of the players I was working with. And it was a real honor that they felt as comfortable as they did to share that with me. But there was also a sense of helplessness because it's like, oh, this is really important stuff and I don't know what to tell you, I don't know how to help you with this. And I worked at a smaller school and there wasn't at that Time a sports psychologist resource for us that at least I was aware of. And so I gravitated a bit more toward that side of things. And then I really had to do the exploring to figure out, like, what's the best way to get there, and was fortunate enough to meet a mentor at University of Arizona who kind of helped me understand the pathways and figure out how to do that. But I think a lot of it was really around kind of the passion, around the relationships, and I think feeling more kind of personally, like I could relate, I guess, to the sort of, you know, mental performance side of things. Like that's something I personally, you know, think about a lot for myself as a high performer. And what does that mean? How do I leverage all my capabilities and give the best out of myself? And so it seems sort of like a natural fit.

Switching his prerogative on the sports industry sent him back to square one, though. He was able to use his coaching experience at the University of Arizona in internships with the Chiefs and Rams to enhance the mental work he was doing. It was. It was akin to reprogramming his entire approach, I guess.

So really the switch was kind of multi step, right? So I went from coaching to going through graduate school to ultimately managing a mental health unit or department in a Division 1 athletic department. And so that was really kind of mental health and mental performance for all sports. And so it was a bit easier to sort of go from football to neutral to basketball. And you're right, I think I'm very fortunate to work for an organization that values the sort of holistic health and wellness of all of the staff and players. And they've really done a great job of committing to making the work that I do accessible and not hiding me in a therapy room and not sort of closing off access to certain parts of the organization. And certainly there's been conversations we've had about how to best position the work that I do and how to make it as accessible as possible. But I've been very fortunate to be sort of met with open arms and ushered into the organization. And that's helped with the learning the sort of technical part of basketball and feeling more comfortable in basketball culture, for sure. But it's also really a testament to the leadership and the people I work with who have said this is something really important. This is something that we value and care about and believe is going to help us be the best that we could be.

When the Toronto Raptors hired him in 2020, the team was seeking a mental health specialist to help Its forward thinking players become more mentally fit. They gave him full access to the roster and a seat on the plane.

A lot of ways it feels like I was starting from scratch. I think as I've learned more about the NBA and more about basketball, I actually think there are a number of similarities between football and basketball, like conceptually as sports. And so I think that part has helped. And obviously there's some sort of like cross sport fandom that goes on that makes for some fun discussions too. You know, NBA people cheering for NFL teams and vice versa. So it's a real honor to be able to sort of like navigate both spaces and understand both spaces. But it was definitely a huge learning curve. And there's still a ton more for me to go in basketball, you know, understanding, I guess even for me, like I didn't really appreciate fully just how, you know, things like the physicality of the NBA would contribute. You know, I think like football we all see as maybe a more physical sport, like visibly. I think it's a little harder to see just how tough it is on the court from tv, but it's happening. And so there's a lot of, I think, interesting parallels to draw between the two. And then there's obviously a ton of differences. You know, the size of the team, how visible the players are, the way they work together, the fluidity of the games. You know, there was recently on HBO the Shop, they had a discussion between Tom Brady and Draymond Green. It was really brief, but sort of comparing and contrasting how they feel about each other's sports. I think there's a lot of sort of interesting stuff to unpack there just in terms of how the game's actually played. But I think you could find the overlap if you look close enough.

Joining the National Basketball association stance surrounding mental health felt right for Dr. Auerbeck. He felt as though the coaching staff wanted his input and the players were thriving with his expertise.

A lot of times those conversations are really more about comfort and less about importance, if that makes sense. So I think like the prioritizing the physical or the technical or the tactical, I think a lot of times is about really, that's like coach's wheelhouse, you know, that's. That's what they know intimately and feel most comfortable with. And some of the work we do can feel a bit sort of different or nebulous or I guess threatening in some ways because it's harder to understand. And I think there are all sorts of layers to that. Right. Like confidentiality is a big one. Where Maybe, you know, our work's not as visible as some of the work of other people, and so that can contribute to some of the sort of skepticism or hesitancy. But ultimately, I think a lot of this just boils down to trust and appreciating kind of the holistic experience of being an athlete. And I think almost everyone that's competed at a high level, whether in sport or at something else, like, you know, chess or business or whatever, like, has had some experience of making a mental mistake. And so I think at a, like, really fundamental level, it's trying to find those examples that people can really, like, connect to.

Dr. Auerbeck says the second he becomes relatable to the athletes and coaches he's worked with, it's like a light bulb comes on.

I think coaches are now having experiences too, like, oh, this isn't as scary as I thought it might be. You know, these challenges that we're navigating are sort of like a normal part of human experience. Again, like, most coaches can find a point in their own life where they can connect to something like that. And it might be scary to think about getting help for yourself, and that's something to think about, too, for coaches and high performers. But I think as we start to find ways that people can connect to the story, I think it becomes kind of demystified a little bit. And then once the curtain's pulled back, I think it's less scary.

Head coach, nurse and the Raptors coaching staff have been open to the holistic approach that Dr. Auerbeck brings. The NBA has led the charge in mental health advocacy from professional athletes and team representatives, and Dr. Auerbeck only foresees the dialogue expanding. After NBA stars Kevin Love and the Raptors own DeMar DeRozan began candidly speaking out about their mental health struggles, the NBA sought to designate sports psychologists like Dr. Auerbach among each team's sports medicine department.

Yeah, I mean, it's. Honestly, it's a real honor to be a part of that and play one small piece. You know, I think those two and other athletes have been instrumental and incredible in their leadership around this conversation and making it accessible. I think it's just helping people to sort of see themselves in the story of another person, I think, goes a really long way and sort of breaking down some of the myths that I think people hold around professional athletes that make it at times, maybe seem harder to connect with them. I think both demar and Kevin Love have done a great job of sort of explaining away some of that I guess, you know, talking about the real human experience of anxiety or depression and, you know, how being a professional athlete doesn't, like, all of a sudden mean all those things go away. Right. And there's still, you know, pressures they face, and they hear what people, you know, all of us hear and see what people say on social media about players, for example. And. And these are real people, like, real people with real feelings and. And real care about their craft. And I think the NBA has done a great job of sort of embracing this as part of the next step of using sport to make a better society. And I think ultimately, that's what sports really about. I mean, the competition and winning is fun, but a lot of us get into sport because it's a place where we learned first how to be a great teammate, learned a lot about ourselves, learned about, you know, sort of like fundamental rules of how to navigate the world. And so to be a part of a giant platform like that is. Is really cool. And I'm looking forward to seeing kind of where the NBA and the players take things next because they have a tremendous amount of power to shape the narrative around mental health broadly and help how people sort of, you know, perceive these services and the way in which people go about accessing them. So I think it's a. It's a bright future ahead in that regard.

The NBA set initiatives in place like Mind Health, a program meant to humanize mental health struggles in professional basketball. The Mind health website has PDFs and information about league resources, but Dr. Auerbeck says that in Toronto, he leads how he sees fit. The league doesn't mandate any specific ways of teaching. They secure the resources, and it's up to the teams how much those resources are then utilized.

Obviously, at the team level, we put our own unique spin on things and are in a bit different context than, you know, sort of the league more broadly. But they're really. The league has done a great job in terms of how they think about things, talk about things, write about things, produce things, and have done it in a very consistent way. So it's really hard to ignore it. Right. Like, it comes up a lot, and you can't just turn a blind eye to all the resources being put out there. And that's a real testament to the work that they've done to make this accessible and part of every team's fabric.

Dr. Auerbach and his team also work closely with the sports medicine department to ensure that both physical and mental health are monitored and tended to.

You know, I work very closely with our sports medicine department. You know, I think obviously there's a close connection between physical and mental health. And so it makes sense that, you know, we would interact more and exchange ideas and, you know, talk about sort of like how to best take care of everyone, you know, and then I've got, obviously, different levels of relationships across the rest of the organization because we're all really. At the end of the day, we have the same culture. We all want the players to be maximally healthy. We all want the players to be as great as they can possibly be. We all want to win games. We all want to be successful together. And I just play one part in that and try my best to support the rest of the parts that help make the whole thing work.

When he's working with athletes whose identities revolve around being the best at their jobs, Dr. Auerbeck says that not all issues that arise have to do with performance and applied work.

For me personally, it's really hard to separate out what's a true clinical issue and what's a true performance issue, because performance is often very central to the experience of an athlete. If a person performs poorly consistently over a couple weeks, they may be likely to exhibit signs or symptoms of depression. Is that a performance issue or is that a mental health issue? I'm not sure. I'm not sure I have the answer. And the same thing could be said vice versa. Like, perhaps a student athlete is exhibiting signs of depression, and then all of a sudden performance deteriorates. Is that a performance issue that you should address first, or is that a mental health issue? And I think they're so closely intertwined because identity really sits at the core of a lot of these things. And who am I, and what does it mean, and how do I understand this experience and how does it impact me and what are the sources of stress I experience and all those things. And so it's really hard to say, like, it's X number or mental health and X number are performance. What I've found is I think people tend to lead with what is most comfortable for them. But what is most comfortable may not be the most important. And I think that's sort of the tough part to tease out is, you know, for some people thinking about all the spaces I've worked for, some people coming in with something, say, like, I'm having trouble sleeping or I'm feeling stressed or I'm withdrawn socially, or I feel depressed, you know, those. Those things may be easier to bring forward and talk about than, you know, I totally Bombed in my most recent race and having a really difficult conflict with my coach, and my teammates are disappointed. You know, that might be a much harder thing to get to, and vice versa. Right. Like, some folks come in and it's, you know, hey, I really just want to focus on how can I get off the blocks more quickly when I'm running, when really what they want to talk about is, you know, I've been struggling with making friends, and I'm having a hard time adjusting to the university and those kinds of things. Things. And so it's really, really tough to say as much as sport is a game, like sport is a job, for at least at this level, sport is a job for the players I'm around. And so, you know, everyone has different ways that they relate to their work. Right? And for some people, it's a very core and central part of who they are and what they do. And for other people, not so much. And each raises with it its own challenges as it pertains to participating in the sport. So if you. If you love sport and you really identify with being an athlete, then your experience may sort of ebb and flow with the experience of the team and your experience of yourself as a player on the floor, if not so much, then maybe less. But your social experience might be different, for example, so people might respond to you differently if they perceive that it's not as important to you. And so there's all sorts of challenges that can come up around identity specifically that I think are really a function of, like, you know, the values people hold and how they've managed to cope and prioritize. And I don't think there's like, a right or wrong as much as there is, you know, different stages people have to work through and sort of figure out how to come to terms with, like, integrating all the different aspects of their experience into who they are.

The work that Dr. Auerbeck does is completely confidential between he and the players he consults with. He doesn't have a coaching staff that pushes for complete transparency for the sake of having all the information. And Dr. Auerbach says that there isn't particularly anything gained by a head coach knowing everything going on off the court.

A lot of times, the work around confidentiality is done at the very beginning of an engagement when you're helping people understand how the services function and how people work together. You know, that being said, like, there are times when maybe it might be helpful for a sports psychologist to have what's called the release of information to communicate more effectively with coaches or medical staff, but that's totally up to the player, what they think they need most, you know. And so if it's something that I think could be helpful, I might raise it as, hey, you know, this is something to think about, like, where. Where do you stand on that? But it's important that it's not like, pushed onto them as something that they have to do. And honestly, I think that most of the time the information that gets shared is not helpful to somebody else to know. And so there's sort of like, I think in sports, oftentimes there's just a sort of like, drive to have as much information as possible, as though more information helps people make better decisions. And there. The counter to that is there are some decisions where more information is better, and there are some decisions where more information just makes things way more complicated. And I don't know that this is a situation where this information helps you make a better decision. What it does is probably alleviate some anxiety you have about where you stand, and that anxiety is normal to feel. And so I think we could talk about that. But it doesn't mean that there's like. That anxiety does not necessarily mean that there's a reason to know. And thankfully, I work in this circumstance. For me, I work with a very respectful and thoughtful group of people where I'm not put in a position to have to navigate that. And people have been very understanding and accepting of the way I've described confidentiality and how it works. But, you know, I've worked with other coaches in the past and other systems in the past where maybe that wasn't the case. And I know there are colleagues out there of mine who are navigating it a bit more intensely than I am.

In terms of the way that Dr. Auerbeck and his 29 colleagues function among themselves and the teams they service. Leading the charge in athlete mental wellness transcends their offices and arenas. It even transcends basketball. The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee's Mental health Services department actually uses the crisis management outline originated by the NBA for all of its athletes, including the 613 you're about to see competing in Tokyo at the end of this month.

Yeah, I think that's. I mean, I think that's wonderful. I think it's a great example of really exchanging best practices and leveraging the skills and the work of another group of people to maximize the benefit of another group. Like there is, you know, some degree of, for lack of a better term, like secret sauce to what we do you know, everyone has their own sort of personal style and things that they believe in and the way that they navigate the different concerns or challenges that I think are unique. But then there are also these sort of, like you're saying, sort of general principles or broad sweeping programs that can benefit a lot of people. Actually, I think the NBA has done a great job. The NCAA has done a great job. A former colleague of mine, Dr. Amy Athey, and Dr. Michael Branier, are putting together this project, Rest Sleep program, that's going to be used by the ncaa, but it's generally applicable to all people who want to improve their sleep and understand how sleep works. And so I think what you end up with is really, really, really talented groups of people exchanging ideas, making it easier for other talented groups of people who can then produce something else that's really cool and awesome that the rest of us can use. And a rising tide lifts all boats. And so we all get a bit better with what we do. And I think that that goes a long way to, you know, some uniformity in service, I think is important. You know, being able to sort of. Obviously we don't want folks to jump from practitioner to practitioner. There are different challenges with that. But having sort of a, I guess like a foundational understanding of what to expect when you meet with a mental health person or work with a mental health person from a team perspective, I think is huge. And so I think this is just one sort of extension of that part of the work.

Dr. Auerbeck's work exists within the context of athlete mental health, but he advocates for increased resources in communication surrounding mental wellness and sport. How does jokingly throwing around clinical terms like bipolar and depressed impact those struggling in silence?

There are two things I've really been thinking about a lot recently that I think are really important for people to start to hear and think about. So the first is, and I sort of brought this up when I talked about the use of words like bipolar, but I think is like, first is the language of mental health. And so, you know, being sensitive to and thinking about the ways in which we talk about people who are experiencing mental health concerns, I think is really important and is a really big piece of destigmatizing concerns around help seeking and mental health. So, for example, moving away from the language of mental illness or a person being depressed and moving toward languages of stress challenge a person who is experiencing depression, I think is really, really important. And so I've been thinking a lot about what does that mean in terms of a larger, almost like A public health context. And I think in those, the 90s, it may have been before that someone published a paper using the terminology around mental fitness. And that's something I've really gravitated toward. But ultimately, you know, for me, regardless of the exact way that you frame it, I think starting to have a conversation around how mental health and mental skills are really trainable things. Like, the same way that you think about physical health, you can think about mental health, right? Like, no one just shows up to a gym and expects to squat 500 pounds. Like, you do some training to get there. You know, no one should show up to the national championship game and expect. Expect to manage pressure perfectly well without doing some training. You know, similarly, lifting weights can help you not break your legs, right? So doing some work around mental health can help you not experience some of the more challenging parts of life as intensely or cope more effectively, I think, is a better way to frame that. So I think that piece is really, really important. The second thing I've been thinking a lot about that's also very important to me is to start to think about mental health. And we talked a little bit about this in terms of my role traveling, but more broadly, thinking about mental health practitioners getting up and out of the office, getting out from behind closed doors, and really starting to work with the whole system. I give a ton of credit to Team Denmark sports psychologists who have published a lot about the work that they have done from a holistic systems perspective. But I think that that is a really useful way to start to think about the work that sports psychologists can do. And so the best way I frame this, or have thought to frame it so far, is there are 168 hours in a week. If I spend an hour a week with one person, that means 167 hours of the week. They're back in their sort of environment and natural habitat. And so to think that that one hour a week is going to, you know, quickly make significant changes in this person's functioning when I'm releasing them back into a place that is maybe hurting functioning, I think, is a bit of a long play. And so what I'd love to hear people talk more about and think more about is what does it mean to work with a whole system? What does it mean to create a healthy environment? What does it mean to make the sport experience actually enjoyable for athletes? What is there that we can do that makes the environment healthier so that those 167 hours that they're not with me or with another mental health Practitioner are also helping to optimize a person's functioning performance, wellbeing, all of those things. And I think the two sort of go hand in hand. I'm not 100% clear yet, admittedly, on my own conceptual connection there, but I think there's something around, like, accessibility, being visible, working across the system, that can go a really, really long way for helping to change some of the way that we think about mental health. I hope we start to think about it like we think about physical health. Like, you know, there's not only one person that does strength training or PT or athletic training. You know, there's different specializations, and we have different specialists specializations too. And, you know, you might need a broad generalist skill set to manage the other skill sets or have some level of connection, but there's real merit to having more specialized services, too. And so I hope we can get there.

The specialized services that the Toronto raptors seek allow Dr. Auerbach to do exactly what he's passionate about every single day. For the first time in his life, he isn't searching for the next big thing.

I would say that for me, for the first time in my life, what helped me really realize that is, like, I'm so happy to be where I am and I'm not looking for anything else. And admittedly, that was a big developmental challenge for me was to be a person that sort of got somewhere. And I was like, yeah, that's, like, kind of interesting. But there might be more out there. And, you know, I have that sort of naturally embedded as a part of who I am. But it's actually been quite a remarkable learning experience for me to go through the whole last year and a half and genuinely not think about being somewhere else. And so, you know, sometimes you have to have a bit of that experience. It's like, huh, maybe this is the dream. And so I think the answer is, yes, I do think that this is my dream job. I'm fortunate to work with an incredibly talented group of people, and the people that you work with make a lot of your work experience meaningful. And so I think just by virtue of the fact that I'm only thinking about being here and doing the best that I can do at least leads me to believe that this is as dreamy as it gets for me right now.

And that's the end of episode 24 of Closer Mentality. As always, I'm your host, Julia Mellett. Thanks so much for tuning in to hear Dr. Auerbeck's story. You can connect to him on LinkedIn and follow his work on Twitter alexauerbeckphd. You can also follow Closer Mentality on Instagram and Twitter Losermental and subscribe to our YouTube channel close youe Mentality Uncensored to hear the full interviews with all of my guests. Next week's episode will be just as good as this one, when Dr. Joan Steiniger is coming on to talk about women in sport, how the sports psychology industry has changed, and distance running as a meditation source. See you next week.