Mental Performance Instructor Middle School PE Integration
Intellectual Athlete is seeking a qualified mental performance instructor to deliver our Play-Built Resilience curriculum to middle school students during the school day during the upcoming fall semester.
This role is ideal for a CMPC, aspiring CMPC, sport psychology graduate student, licensed mental health professional.
About Intellectual Athlete
Intellectual Athlete teaches students how to regulate themselves before a challenge and recover effectively after a mistake.
Our curriculum complements a school’s existing SEL program by allowing students to physically experience and practice many of the same concepts they are learning in the classroom. Sessions are delivered through movement, PE games, sport-based drills, controlled stress exposure, reflection, and applied testing.
Students learn and practice skills including:
- Breath regulation
- Visualization and imagery
- Instructional self-talk
- Attentional control
- Reframing
- Pre-performance routines
- A four-step Mistake Reset
The curriculum is structured, engaging, and professionally designed. IA provides the framework, lesson support, and core protocols so the planning burden does not fall entirely on the instructor.
The Role
The instructor will facilitate IA sessions with middle school students approximately twice per week throughout the school year. 2 fifty min sessions per week will take place during the school day, most likely in the afternoon, as part of the school’s PE program.
The work will involve PE-style games and physical challenges, with an intentional focus on transitions, composure, recovery, and the application of mental performance skills.
IA will help design and plan the sessions. Your primary responsibility will be to bring the curriculum to life with energy, credibility, and strong group leadership.
Our model is “bend, but don’t break.” Instructors are expected to deliver the curriculum with fidelity while also contributing their own experience, judgment, and creativity.
Responsibilities
- Facilitate structured mental performance sessions for middle school students
- Teach IA’s pre-performance and Mistake Reset routines
- Lead PE games, sport-based drills, and age-appropriate stress-exposure activities
- Help students connect physical experiences to concepts from the school’s SEL curriculum
- Adapt delivery across sports, environments, and developmental levels
- Maintain a safe, inclusive, and energizing learning environment
- Collaborate with IA mentors to strengthen delivery over time
- Communicate professionally with school staff, students, parents, and coaches
- Provide brief feedback on student engagement and program implementation
Qualifications
Candidates should have a meaningful background in at least one of the following:
- Sport psychology
- Applied performance psychology
- Mental performance coaching
- Counseling, psychology, or social work
- Teaching or coaching with substantial mental-skills experience
Strong candidates may include:
- Certified Mental Performance Consultants
- Graduate students pursuing CMPC certification
- Licensed psychologists, counselors, or social workers with an athletic or coaching background
- Experienced mental performance instructors
- Former athletes or coaches with relevant graduate education and group-facilitation experience
Additional qualifications:
- Comfortable leading groups of middle school students
- Reliable, coachable, and professionally presented
- Able to create energy while maintaining structure and boundaries
- Comfortable working in gyms, on fields, and in outdoor environments
- Available during the school day, particularly in the afternoon
- Previous classroom teaching or youth-program experience is strongly preferred
- Background screening and school-required clearances may be required
Candidates without relevant experience in mental performance, psychology will not be considered.
What We Offer
- Flexible part-time scheduling
- A professionally developed, turnkey curriculum
- Ongoing training and mentorship from Intellectual Athlete
- Potential mentored experience hours toward CMPC certification, subject to eligibility and supervision requirements
- The opportunity to contribute ideas and help improve program delivery
- Meaningful work with motivated middle school students
- Experience delivering mental performance programming within a school setting
Intellectual Athlete currently delivers programming with schools and athletic programs around the country. This role is an opportunity to join a growing team that is helping students build practical skills for composure, confidence, recovery, and resilience.
Job Type: Part-time
Pay: $70.00 - $90.00 per hour
Work Location: In person
