Dr. Don Zeman

Get to know Dr. Zeman

Sport has been part of my life, in one way or another, since even before I started school. Growing up in a small Canadian Prairie town, almost any sport seemed fun, and I eventually settled on running and figure skating. I ended up competing in figure skating for many years, several times at the National level and performed over 4,000 shows doing pairs and solos in travelling ice shows in about 40 countries. I am still involved in the sport as an official for competitions.

My educational route to becoming a counselling psychologist had a few stops along the way. After an undergraduate degree in Science and then working in ice shows, I studied chiropractic and was a Doctor of Chiropractic for 11 years, working predominantly with athletes. During that time, I completed a Master of Kinesiology in the area of sports mental training in 1997. Since then, I have had the chance to work with athletes in over 20 sports. Next, I moved to counselling psychology and completed a Ph.D. in Applied Psychology at the University of Calgary in 2007.

I have worked with counselling psychology clients for over 20 years and in the area of sports mental training for over 25 years. I believe that clients bring strengths and resiliencies with them to counselling and that highlighting those or reconnecting clients to those abilities is usually a large part of what we do in our counselling work together. All of us are always in relation to others in our lives, and I like to approach and work with clients as holistically as possible and consider all aspects of their lives. This includes co-developing specific and clear goals as well as the plans and actions to move toward and attain them. I have a passion for lifelong learning as well as helping sports and communities make all sports and activities, at all levels of abilities, inclusive and part of everyone’s life.