Tonya Johnston, MA, is a Mental Skills Coach who maintains a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with professional, amateur and junior athletes from a variety of sports including equestrian, volleyball, baseball, golf, cycling, bowling, swimming, rodeo, basketball, rowing, and tennis.

Tonya specializes in working with equestrian athletes from disciplines such as hunter/jumper, three-day eventing, and dressage. Clients range from youngsters just starting out, to professionals in the grand prix. She conducts mental training clinics and consults with individual clients throughout the US who have attained competitive success at every level. Tonya has worked with high school and university equestrian teams, including her current role as the mental skills coach for the Stanford Equestrian Team.

Tonya has presented at the U.S. Dressage Federation and the U.S. Eventing Association national conventions, as well as the national conference for the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. She is a frequent contributor to Bernie Traurig’s Equestriancoach.com as well as Equestrianprofessional.com and Equestrianlife.com. Tonya has appeared in many equestrian magazines including The Chronicle of the Horse, The Equestrian News, The Plaid Horse, Horse Showbiz, Equine Wellness, Paint Horse Journal, Riding, and Hoofbeats. For four years she wrote a regular column for Eventing USA, the official publication of the U.S. Eventing Association. Tonya is currently writing a book on mental skills coaching for equestrians, due out in Spring 2012.

Tonya’s passion for the mental side of sport developed through a lifetime of riding and competing. She was always intrigued by the behind-the-scenes preparation and psychological skills that helped people succeed. Tonya has many championships, wins and year-end awards in the jumper and equitation divisions to her credit. She has also been very successful in the amateur medals in California, and feels that competitive involvement in the sport helps her to better assist her equestrian clients. Currently Tonya rides with Ned and Hope Glynn at Sonoma Valley Stables in Petaluma, California.

Tonya teaches in the Sport Psychology Master’s program at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, CA. For 12 years she was Director of JFK University’s Challenge Camp, a unique internship placement for sport psychology master’s students in which optimal performance techniques are taught to incarcerated youth as life skills.

Tonya received her BA in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz, and her Master’s in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University. Tonya is a member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and APA Division 47 – Exercise and Sport Psychology.