Dr. Sofía España Pérez has been a member of the Mountaineer Athletics Department since Aug. 2021 as the clinical and sports behavioral health therapist.
The clinical and sport psychology unit at WVU provides counseling and performance enhancement services for student-athletes. It provides clinical services, including short-term individual counseling, group counseling crisis intervention services, psychoeducation workshops, risk assessment and reduction intervention for student-athletes. The unit also serves as an instructional and educational role for the student-athletes to promote the areas of student-athlete health, resilience and wellness.
España Pérez served for two years as a practicum trainee for the WVU Carruth Center (2019-21), while she was completing her requirements for her master’s and doctoral degrees. She provided individual in-person and telehealth counseling sessions to students at WVU. She assessed immediate concerns, provided diagnoses, created treatment plans and implemented interventions to help the students live healthy, successful and meaningful lives. España Pérez also provided counseling sessions in the areas of alcohol and substance abuse and helped promote a sense of community with the student body and addressed student concerns such as anxiety, stress management and self-care.
España Pérez also served as a sport psychology consultant for the WVU tennis program for four years, was a performance psychology consultant for students in the WVU school of law and was a practicum trainee at Whole Brain Solutions in Morgantown.
While working on her master’s degree at Minnesota State, she was a sport psychology consultant for collegiate and high school athletes in Mankato, Minnesota.
España Pérez has served as an instructor in sport, exercise and performance psychology, coaching and teaching studies (tennis) and diversity and sport. She also has coached tennis for several years at several tennis clubs and as an assistant coach and head coach at Minnesota State. She has had numerous articles published, done extensive research and grant writing and attended and presented at conferences in the United States and internationally.
A native of Mexico City, Mexico, España Pérez graduated with her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in sociology from East Tennessee State in 2014. She received a master’s degree in sport and exercise psychology from Minnesota State in 2017 and a master’s degree in community mental health counseling from WVU in 2021 and her doctorate in sport, exercise and performance psychology in 2021, also from WVU.
She completed her national counselor examination (2020) and is a nationally certified counselor (2021) and will be a certified mental performance consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.
