
Karelle Edwards, a 5x Team Canada hurdler, licensed mental health counselor, and mental performance consultant, and co-owner of Embrace Your Pace, shares her journey in sports. Karelle walks us through how she advocates for change in sports, especially around abusive coaching relationships. She shares her experience with a negative coaching relationship, giving us coaching red flags and tips on how we can bring awareness to inappropriate behaviors like emotional abuse, harassment, and assault. Karelle shares how, despite all the challenges she had to overcome in her athletic journey, she has learned to trust herself. Her journey shows us that performance and mental health can coexist, and her perspective as a professional athlete who is also a mental health professional is so valuable for all female athletes to hear. “Don't be afraid to speak up. You are unique, and you have a unique journey. Follow your own path. You deserve to be there. Trust yourself and celebrate yourself.” - Karelle Edwards

Authentic Conversations return with a powerful conversation around the topic of Power and Abuse in sports with former cross country skier and the founder of the Rex Project, Emma Tarbath.

On April 14th, The Rex Project released Karelle's story of her experience with abuse.Karelle Edwards-Perry, a former professional hurdler and co-owner of Embrace Your Pace, speaks out about her experience with abuse in track and field, why she stayed, how she recognized the abuse, and what stepping away from the sport she dedicated years of work to looked like.

On February 27th, Karelle hosted a live broadcast of the U Sports Conversation with student-athletes to examine the intersection between race and sports within the black community. You can rewatch the entire conversation here!

As a former collegiate athlete, I’ve struggled with allowing myself to live in the moment and oftentimes planned ahead....I felt like I was going through a period of uncertainty, questioning everything, and soul-searching for my next journey.

Karelle Edwards, a 5x Team Canada hurdler, licensed mental health counselor, and mental performance consultant, and co-owner of Embrace Your Pace, shares her journey in sports. Karelle walks us through how she advocates for change in sports, especially around abusive coaching relationships. She shares her experience with a negative coaching relationship, giving us coaching red flags and tips on how we can bring awareness to inappropriate behaviors like emotional abuse, harassment, and assault. Karelle shares how, despite all the challenges she had to overcome in her athletic journey, she has learned to trust herself. Her journey shows us that performance and mental health can coexist, and her perspective as a professional athlete who is also a mental health professional is so valuable for all female athletes to hear. “Don't be afraid to speak up. You are unique, and you have a unique journey. Follow your own path. You deserve to be there. Trust yourself and celebrate yourself.” - Karelle Edwards

Today's episode we dive deep into mental health and emotional abuse with Karelle. Karelle shares more about her story in the professional world of track and field and how she has and is overcoming her abuse. Karelle is also a mental health counselor associate who shares wisdom on body shaming and mental health in the athletic world

Here you will find the story of Karelle Edwards-Perry, a pro athlete, Oiselle sponsored hurdler, athlete model, and all around fantastic human. While podium moments are familiar terrain, we've seen that it's the sharing of the full story that makes the biggest difference -- as we all search for ways to rise to life's challenges. You can read about Karelle's experiences in the blog.

Had another great conversation, this time with @gabiefonseca about her experience with mental health and sports. @gabiefonseca and I discussed the need for colleges to incorporate mental health education into their athletic programs.

Had a great and honest conversation with @christiemoerman , another 5 x Team Canada hurdler about the fear of failure. Thank you @christiemoerman for sharing your personal story and insight on this topic.