Dr. Dietrich

David Dietrich is a licensed psychologist who received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Memphis, his master's degree in clinical mental health counseling from the University of Memphis, and his undergraduate degree in psychology from Rhodes College. During his doctoral program he worked for a year at a community mental health center providing individual psychotherapy. He completed his APA approved internship program at the University of Pittsburgh's Counseling Center where he provided individual and group psychotherapy. Dr. Dietrich has been a faculty member in the UTM counseling program since 2010. Prior to joining UTM, he was a high school counselor for three years, program director for a residential treatment facility for violent juvenile offenders for four years, and psychology professor for 11 years. This diverse professional background reflects his interest in both clinical mental health counseling and school counseling, with a focus on counseling adolescents and young adults. Dr. Dietrich's conference presentations and publications have focused on counselor education and online pedagogy.

A current interest for Dr. Dietrich is the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in the field of mental sports performance. Dr. Dietrich has worked with individual athletes and college teams to identify and improve mental sports performance issues. Topics have included: confidence, goal setting, mindfulness, imagery, managing pressure, focused training, being an effective teammate, leadership skills, overcoming mistakes/adversity, recovering from injury, and communication with teammates and coaches. Specific interventions have been developed to work with individual players, the team as a whole, captains, and coaches. ACT is an approach that incorporates mindfulness and a values to help athletes deepen their self-awareness and learn to defuse themselves from thoughts and feelings that negatively impact sport performance and achievement.

Dr. Dietrich has also conducted numerous workshops for school counselors and teachers throughout his career. Common topics have included: working with difficult students; teaching and counseling students living in rural poverty; bullying; and the use of solution-focused brief counseling in school counseling. He teaches courses in theories of counseling, career counseling, assessment, crisis counseling, and practicum in clinical mental and school counseling.