Center for Performance Excellence

A Better World Through Improved Performance

The Center for Performance Excellence (CPEX) provides sport and performance psychology interventions to individuals as well as teams and groups. By teaching mental skills that help athletes and performers achieve personal excellence, we hope to use performance as a vehicle for positive social change. Through an emphasis on well-rounded development, personal responsibility and citizenship, clients gain knowledge and tools they need to flourish personally and professionally.

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Our Services

We aim to empower clients to improve their lives through capability, consistency and the joy of performing. By training the mind along with the body, we're able to create connections between thoughts and actions. We offer consulting services to individuals, teams and groups, as well as workshops for groups, organizations, coaches, professionals and parents. Our consulting packages are designed for different performance domains including, but not limited to: sport, performing arts, high-risk occupations, and businesses and corporations.

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Areas of specialty include...

  • Creating team culture
  • Motivation and commitment
  • Building self-confidence
  • Purposeful practice
  • Communicating effectively
  • Leadership
  • Overcoming adversity
  • Confidence under pressure
  • Mental toughness
  • Finishing strong
  • Emotion regulation
  • Distraction management
  • Energy/Stress Management
  • Attentional control and focus
  • Job satisfaction and career motivation
  • Enhancing team dynamics
  • Efficient communication

Sport and Performing Arts

CPEX provides various packages for teams and individuals in sport and performing arts. Each package is tailored to the clients' needs, and consultants work to develop skills that can be utilized within the specific performance domain, but can also translate to other areas of life.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Who are CPEX consultants?

    We have approximately 30 advanced standing graduate students who provide sport and performance psychology interventions, and 30 additional graduate students who are completing the core curriculum in sport and performance psychology who are observing advanced standing graduate students and professionals in the field. These graduate students are supervised by established alumni in the field in addition to adjunct faculty who are Certified Mental Performance Consultants through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). Our graduate students receive a minimum of 250 hours of education, experience, supervision and direct observation prior to working with athletes and performers.

  • Where does consulting take place?

    Most individual athletes and performers will meet with their consultant in the Center for Performance Excellence (CPEX) on the University of Denver (DU) campus. For teams and groups, consultants typically provide on-site sessions.

  • Are CPEX services covered by health insurance?

    CPEX is unable to bill insurance. Invoices can be provided upon request and some insurances will reimburse for sport and performance psychology services.

  • How much are consultations?

    These are price estimates for our different services:

    • Individual Sessions: $50 per session
    • Group Sessions/Workshops: $150 per hour
    • Sessions throughout a Season: $500 per season
       

    Prices are negotiable and CPEX strives to meet the needs of individuals as well as teams and groups — regardless of the ability to pay.

    For specific pricing and consultant availability, please contact us at 303-871-2202 or cpex@du.edu

  • What happens when a consultant graduates?

    Prior to completion of a consultant’s degree, a student transitioning into advanced standing in the program can start to observe the work between a graduating consultant and their individual clients and/or teams and groups. This allows the student transitioning into a consultant role to start to build rapport with the intention of continuing the sport and performance psychology work with the individual clients and/or teams and groups upon graduation of the existing consultant.

  • What if an individual client and/or team want to keep the same consultant after graduation?

    Individual clients and/or teams and groups have the option to retain their consultant after graduation by hiring that consultant as a member of their team or organization’s coaching or performance staff. Alumni consultants operate on individual fee scales and are external to CPEX. If an individual client and/or team and groups wish to maintain the relationship with the existing consultant, you will terminate your partnership with CPEX and enter into a new partnership with the consultant.

  • When will a client and/or team/group see results?

    Results vary and are contingent upon the following:

    • Motivation and willingness to change;
    • Commitment to the partnership;
    • Willingness to commit to the process; and
    • Practice, practice, practice.
       

    Training the brain is similar to training a muscle and results will not be witnessed overnight. All change and growth take time, consistency and commitment.