Dr. Rachel Turk, LCP - Staff Psychologist - Athletics - Cross Country Support Staff

Dr. Rachel Turk, LCP

Title:
Staff Psychologist - Athletics
Email:
rturk@richmond.edu
Phone:
289-8119

Dr. Rachel Turk serves as the athletic department’s first-ever Staff Psychologist, working with the Spider student-athletes on a regular basis since August 2019.

Dr. Turk is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who is trained as a generalist clinician able to work with any mental health concern. Throughout her generalist training, she also specialized in working with student-athletes on both mental health and sports performance concerns. She also has expertise in working with eating concerns, body image, and eating disorders as well as trauma survivors. As a clinician, she is a person-centered therapist focusing on building strong relationships first and providing unconditional positive regard and genuineness. She infuses many skills into her work from Evidence Based Practices. She also truly values individual differences and identities to provide an open, affirming space for student-athletes to be their authentic selves.

Turk is a staff member through the Counseling and Psychological Services Center on campus and her office is embedded in the Athletics department to provide services specifically for student-athletes. The majority of her time is focused on supporting students individually with both mental health and sports performance. She administers pre-participatory mental health screeners for each student-athlete each year to proactively identify any concerns and connect students to resources.

She also works with many teams to build mental performance skills and help them perform at the highest level. Sessions range from basic performance skills to building mental toughness, confidence, and resiliency. She provides training to coaches, support staff, and student-athletes on a host of topics, but each year one of the training is always focused on mental health warning signs, how to help, and resources. She facilitates the athletic department's Eating Concerns Treatment Team and Athletic Care and Concern Team and is a member of Spider Performance and Development.

Over the past few years, Dr. Turk has also begun to train and supervise advanced graduate trainees at both the masters and doctorate level through the CAPS training program. Her goal is to specifically provide them with training in working with student-athletes and navigating the many differences of working in the athletics world and to prepare them for a future in a career like hers.

As a former student-athlete, Dr. Turk is passionate about advocating for student-athlete mental health and well-being and decreasing the stigma and barriers student-athletes face. She loves getting to combine her passion for athletics with her passion for mental health.

In her free time she enjoys spending time with her husband and dog (Maple), friends and family, cooking, hiking, reading, and traveling.