Erika Osherow, Mental Performance Expert
Erika Osherow, M.A., CMPC, CSCS, NBC-HWC is a certified mental performance consultant who provides training for elite athletes, students, executives, military officers, and other high performers. You can think of her as a strength coach for your mind.
Erika is passionate about harnessing her clients’ ability to perform at their peak in high-pressure situations in academia, athletics, the military, and corporate settings. In addition to training elite swimmers, softball players, and other athletes, Erika served at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she trained cadets in biofeedback, virtual reality, and mental skills. She has even served as a health coach at Noom, assisting clients with the mental skills needed to achieve their health and weight loss goals.
As an elite athlete herself, Erika understands that a broad toolkit is often necessary to unlock her clients’ peak performance on both physical and cognitive tasks. Erika’s approach to mental skills training is grounded in person-centered cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance commitment therapy, and she also emphasizes goal-setting, imagery, effective thinking, attention control, confidence building, and mindfulness in her work with clients.
In addition to performance psychology, Erika’s other passions include marathon running, cycling, fly fishing, hiking, surfing, and poetry. As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, Erika was named to countless all-ACC academic and athletic teams and completed her second master’s degree in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Denver.
Our favorite reviews of Erika’s coaching:
"The perfect compliment to working with a GMAT Ninja tutor."
"Erika is the best combination of supporter and coach! She is genuinely in your corner through the entire process and incredibly encouraging."
“The breathing techniques and pre- & post-performance routines Erika taught me played a huge factor in getting a test score I wanted on the test day. I HIGHLY recommend her to anyone seeking mental performance improvement; it's a life skill, and I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience the power of mental performance."
“Erika helped me realize that the ideal conditions I needed to operate at my peak performance differed from what I THOUGHT was ideal (based off my peers' experiences). This was a groundbreaking discovery for me!"
“Erika really helped me to relax as I studied to take the test and taught me how to keep my mind at peace for the day of. I really think the controllable exercise and Gratitude exercises may be two of my favorites because I still use it everyday. Because of my sessions, and practicing methods during my studying I can attribute improving 10 points on my LSAT to Erika. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!"
“Erika helped me get over my test anxiety in such a short time. For me, the GMAT was more about the mental game than the actual content, so conquering my fears was crucial. In our sessions, Erika taught me some techniques that would help me refocus my attention (thanks to my ADHD brain!) and also help me *distract* my negative thoughts. She also prepared a wonderful Imagery script that helped me calm my test day nerves by playing out how it would look like. Everything that we spoke about is a huge learning for me, and I will carry it forward so that I can use it in other spaces in life. Erika has been a wonderful, understanding coach and I will definitely reach out when I need help flying my wayward butterflies in a formation!”
Learn more about how to develop stronger mental skills for the GMAT, GRE, EA, LSAT, and other standardized exams:
How to Overcome Performance Anxiety on the GMAT (5-minute video)
How to Close the Gap Between Practice and Test Day on the GMAT and GRE (6-minute video)
How to Create Successful GMAT Test-Day Routines (9-minute video)