Today we’d like to introduce you to Bradley Bryk.
Hi Bradley, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My journey to becoming a sport psychologist started with a simple Google search during my junior year at NYU. Curious about how I could combine my passion for psychology and sports, I typed “psychology and sports” into the search bar. That search ultimately led me to the University of Denver, where I earned my master’s degree in Sport and Performance Psychology.
While in graduate school, I fell in love with the science and practice of helping athletes perform at their best. At the same time, I quickly realized that I wanted to support athletes beyond their performance alone. I wanted to help them navigate every aspect of their lives including their identities, relationships, successes, setbacks, and mental health, and not just what happened on the field or court. That realization led me to pursue a PsyD in Clinical Psychology at Loyola University Maryland, which I completed in 2020.
In 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I launched BrykMinds, a private practice specializing in both sport psychology and clinical psychology for high performers in sport. After years of training and working in university counseling centers throughout the DMV area, I knew private practice would allow me to provide the kind of individualized, relationship-centered care I was passionate about while also creating a healthier work-life balance.
After nearly four years as a solo practitioner, I reached another pivotal moment. I realized that the impact I wanted to make was bigger than what I could accomplish alone. As a result, I expanded BrykMinds into a group practice by hiring another licensed clinician with expertise in sport and performance psychology. Growing from a solo practice into a team has allowed us to better serve our community while building something that reflects my core values of connection, belonging, and community. Looking back, it’s remarkable that one Google search could shape an entire career, but I’m grateful it led me to meaningful work helping athletes and high performers thrive both in competition and in life.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but each challenge has helped shape both who I am as a psychologist and as a business owner. One of the biggest personal milestones I navigated was becoming a father while continuing my education and building my career. Balancing graduate school, clinical training, and the responsibilities of parenthood required me to become intentional about my time and priorities.
Professionally, I also faced my share of disappointments. Like many people entering highly competitive fields, I wasn’t always selected for opportunities at major athletic departments that I had hoped to join. Those experiences were difficult, but they ultimately pushed me to create my own path instead of waiting for someone else to provide it.
Another challenge was staying true to my values around family. I wanted to build a meaningful career without sacrificing being close to the people who mattered most. That meant making career decisions that didn’t always align with the traditional trajectory in sport psychology, but they aligned with the life I wanted to build.
Because sport psychology is such a niche field, I also had to build my professional network and referral base from the ground up. As a graduate student, I often had to create my own opportunities to gain applied experience rather than relying on established pathways. Looking back, those challenges taught me to be resourceful, entrepreneurial, and persistent, which are qualities that ultimately gave me the confidence to launch BrykMinds and build a practice that reflects both my professional aspirations and my personal values.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
BrykMinds, led by me, is committed to meeting the unique needs of our clients, aiming to improve their mental health as well as their athletic, social, academic, and professional performance. At BrykMinds, we work with individuals, teams, and groups to develop customized performance and treatment plans and recognize the inherent abilities of our clients along with embracing a strength-based approach, in order, to maximize those skills.
BrykMinds offers a variety of specialized, one-of-a-kind services and programs. We personalize each program to help unlock your full potential, believing in a “we” approach and utilizing diverse services to assist clients in reaching their individual and team goals.
Our objective at BrykMinds and what I believe sets us apart from others is the collaborative and positive working relationships we build with our clients. We view the client, as an expert in their own experience and living with themselves 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and we are the experts in psychology. By combining our different expertise, we work together to recognize the strengths within each client and become aware of growth areas to be more intentional and willing to create change within their experience that is aligned with their values.
At Bryk Minds, we specialize in mental health as well as performance and sport enhancement. I am listed in the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Mental Health Registry.
In addition to helping athletes, performers, and executives, we have psychologists, counselors, and clinicians highly trained to work with a broad range of mental health-related issues. BrykMinds is a comprehensive practice designed to meet your needs with a preventative to intervention-based approach.
I am also incredibly proud of our instagram page that has been growing in a tremendous way over the last year, which my other colleague at the practice has spearheaded. Our instagram page is a wonderful eay for invididuals to access different ideas, tools, and strategies in the sport and performance psychology world to support themselves in creating little and meaningful changes in their lives. It is meant to be a tool that allows for this work to be inclusive and accessible.
We provide individual mental health services and individual performance enhancement sessions along with team and organization workshops.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
A significant change that all mental health clinicians are managing are major corporations creating a one size fits all approach within the mental health and sport psychology fields. This significant conglomerates are making it more challenging for small businesses such as BrykMinds to be able to have a full caseload and support individuals in our community given the ways in which these companies are seemingly making it more accessible and cheaper for individuals even though these companies tend to focus on their profit margins rather than clients overall mental and emotional health. Additionally, another changing dynamic in the sport psychology world is the tension between those clinicians that are licensed mental health clinicians with a specialization in sport and performance psychology and those individuals who are not licensed clinicians and just have the specialization or degree in sport and performance psychology. This has been an ever changing debate within the field that I do not see changing any time soon.
Pricing:
- $220 per 50-minute session
- have a few sliding scale fee spots
- Support clients in seeking out of network benefit reimbursement from their respective health insurance companies
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brykminds.com
- Instagram: brykminds
- LinkedIn: brykminds
