Jesse Steinfeldt

Welcome! I am a Sport Psychologist and Professor in my 15th year in the department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. I have been at IU since 2007, and I spent a yearlong sabbatical in 2014 with the University of Washington Athletic Department and at Seattle Children's Hospital.

I teach a variety of graduate courses, including Interventions in Sport and Performance Psychology (G609), Group Counseling (G532), Introduction to Ethics and Professional Issues in Counseling (G502), Counseling Student-Athletes (G608), and Counseling Theories (G522). I also teach an undergraduate class, Introduction to Sport Psychology and Student-Athlete Mental Health (G207), which my doctoral students also teach. I also coordinate our undergraduate Minor in Counseling and our new Counseling and Student Services (CASS!) Major, a popular and growing opportunity for students to not only explore prospects of future professional training in a mental health field, but students in this Minor and the CASS Major also learn counseling-related communication and helping skills that can help them be successful in any professional field.

I have created and coordinate a Doctoral Minor in Sport and Performance Psychology for our Counseling Psychology graduate students wherein these students receive strong curricular training combined with supervised clinical practicum experiences with student-athletes in the Indiana University athletic department and at local high schools. I currently am the Director for the IU Sport and Performance Training Practicum (college level placements at Indiana University Athletic Department, Indiana State University Counseling Center) and the Director of the High School Sport Counseling Internship (high school level placements at Edgewood and Mooresville High Schools). And I coach a bazillion youth sport teams, or so it seems, implementing Sport and Performance Psychology principles into action.

If you haven't gotten the hint yet, sport is a very important part of my personal and professional life. Sport is a fertile field to examine social dynamics, and within this domain my research interests center on the intersection of multicultural psychology, sport psychology, the psychological study of men/masculinities, and social justice issues. Primarily, my research focuses on the psychosocial development of student-athletes, which includes investigations of gender role socialization, racial and athletic identity, and psychological well-being (e.g., adjustment, body esteem, help-seeking). My research also involves American Indian empowerment through an examination of the psychological effects of the use of Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos in sport.