"I had always known that I wanted to do psychology, but I didn't really know what area," said Foss, who interned there while recovering from an injury as a senior volleyball student-athlete at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, 35 miles north of West Point.
The mission of the academy's Center for Enhanced Performance is to educate and train the Corps of Cadets on comprehensive performance psychology.
"For me it served two purposes," she said. "It confirmed that this is what I want to do for a career and I learned some awesome tools and tricks for my own injury recovery."
Along the way, mentors helped Foss figure out which direction to go to enter her chosen field.
"Have loved it," she said. "Never looked back."
For sport psychologists, an undergraduate degree is only the beginning of their educational journey.
"I have been in school for a very long time," said Foss, who earned her master's in sport and performance psychology from the University of Denver before earning her doctorate in counseling psychology, a five-year commitment at the University of Missouri.
From there, Foss continued her training as a Clinical and Sport Psychology Specialist at Notre Dame before joining Auburn Athletics as a Counseling and Sport Psychologist in October 2020.
"I've loved being here," she said. "This is my first real job without an end date, where I can be present, build relationships and really commit and invest in a place. It's an incredible experience."
Ten years after graduating from Marist with a degree in psychology, Foss's formal education has concluded, but her informal one never stops.
"There's always more to learn," she said. "I've done all this training, but I'm always still continuing to grow and learn new things each day."
Foss's experience playing collegiate volleyball helps her relate to Auburn's student-athletes.
"You can connect because you have some sense of what that is like as well," she said. "I think it's helpful to have people who truly understand what that athletic experience is like."
Beginning her career in the middle of a pandemic created additional opportunities for Foss to serve student-athletes.
"It's also about the ways this virus has disrupted almost every other aspect of our lives," she said. "Every way we interact as humans has changed based on this virus.
"When our lives are disrupted to such a level, it's really hard to feel normal, find a routine or even do some of the same outlets. I call it the indirect aspects of COVID. As we're able to come together again, my hope is that some of that will ease."
During a recent Auburn Athletics staff meeting, an NCAA executive shared that student-athletes nationwide listed mental health as their primary concern.
"This isn't unique to Auburn or athletics in general," Foss said. "We're seeing increasing trends in mental health concerns across the country.
"Part of that is a decreased stigma and willingness to seek help, but there are also a lot of challenges when we think about social media, technology and how the ways we interact have changed, racial violence and social unrest, then you put COVID on top of all of that.
"To see growing staffs and universities investing in mental health and offering specific resources has been a really good trend nationally."
On May 19, Foss will be the opening presenter at Auburn Athletics' inaugural Mental Health Summit, speaking to a virtual audience of student-athletes, coaches and staff on "Staying Mentally Flexible in Uncertain Times."
"This is something we're really excited about," she said. "It's an opportunity to hear from some professionals at other institutions, and a chance to focus and hone in on specific skills people could use to continue to navigate everything we're going through.
"We want to make sure people are able to walk away with specific skills they can implement in their day-to-day life."
A decade after that pivotal West Point internship, Dr. Joanna Foss forms Auburn sports medicine's Counseling and Sport Psychology team along with fellow former student-athletes turned mental health professionals Dr. Adrian Ferrera and Dr. Julia Cawthra.
"We work with the full spectrum of mental health, from people who come to see us for pure performance enhancement, all the way to people who are struggling with higher-level mental health concerns," she said.
"We really want to reduce that stigma. There's no reason too big or too small to reach out to us. We are here for whatever it is you need.
"As a staff, we can meet student-athletes wherever they are and help take them where they want to go."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer
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