Sheri "Elle" Johnson, RSW, CHt, LCSW

Hi, I’m Elle Johnson

Sheri “Elle” Johnson is a Psychotherapist, National Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, and Mental Performance Coach. She works with clients and athletes worldwide, and is licensed in British Columbia (BC), Ontario, and Florida (RSW, LCSW, CHt) for insurance-eligible therapeutic care.

Elle’s clinical background spans settings in community mental health, psychiatry, pediatrics, surgery, emergency, and intensive care. She is the founder of FreeMind Therapy, a virtual private practice operating across Canada and the US, with a team of clinicians. She is also a racing driver herself, competing in sports car club racing through the CACC in BC.

Elle’s mental performance work in motorsport is informed by her clinical training. She uses rapid, brain-based methods to address driver fear, focus, and recovery. As a racing driver herself, she understands what these demands actually feel like at speed, and builds her work around that.

I'm Interested

2026 Schedule and Content Focus

PART 1: Pre-Race Day Mental Performance

The work that happens before you ever arrive.

We cover:

● How optimizing your subconscious mind can change your performance

● Optimizing mental rehearsal and visualization

● The difference between process goals and outcome goals

● Managing anticipatory anxiety in the days and hours leading in

● Subconscious over Superstition: How to build a prep routine individualized for your own subconscious.

TAKE HOME: A personalized visualization practice that incorporates the subconscious mind, a specialized induction cue, and applies to one specific piece of track you want to improve.

PART 2: Pre-Grid Mental Performance

The highest pressure window in the sport and the one most drivers never train for. Sitting still with nothing to do is when the nervous system is loudest.

We cover:

● Purpose of your fear and why your body treats waiting as threat

● Regulation under helmet and heat

● What to do with intrusive thoughts & self-doubt when you can’t simply distract yourself

● How to narrow attention on command.

TAKE HOME: A pre-grid reset protocol, do-able in 30 seconds while strapped in

PART 3: Race Mental Performance

Performance in the car.

We cover:

● Attention control under sensory load

● Recovering from a mistake within one lap instead of losing five

● The self-preservation response that makes your brain resist commitment at the limit,

and how to retrain that response rather than white-knuckle through it.

● We also look at what flow actually is and the conditions that make it more likely.

● Fear, self-preservation, and commitment: why the brain resists late braking and how to

retrain the threat response rather than override it

● Focus under sensory overload: attention control with radio traffic, mirrors, and physical

load

TAKE HOME: A next turn rapid recovery sequence

PART 4: Post-Race Mental Performance

What you do after the session determines what you carry into the next one. We cover:

● Debriefing without self-attack

● Processing incidents and contact

● Receiving feedback from coaches and family without absorbing it as identity

● Separating your worth from your result sheet.

TAKE HOME: Your own debrief protocol, designed to maintain or increase confidence and instantly reduce regret or shame.

Additional standalone sessions available on request:

reproduced, adapted, or delivered without written permission.

SERIES: Post-Crash Return to Speed

● What happens in the brain after an incident and why “just get back in” doesn’t cut it

● Guided self-hypnosis

● How to tell when professional help would be of benefit

SERIES: Mental Performance & You

● Q&A

● Micro mental performance coaching sessions - live only, not available for playback

SERIES: Mental Performance: Parents & Coaches

● Communication patterns that build confidence

● The power of word choice when speaking to a child or teen about their performance

Complimentary One-on-One Rapid Mental Performance Sessions

● Available free until December 2026

● Must complete the application form on the website

● 1-2 rapid sessions per driver (one topic/issue)

● By referral, or those who attend sessions live.

Pre-recorded self-hypnosis files

● Topics TBD

My Approach

Helping racers and team leaders and those with ADHD or ADHD tendencies - break free from reactivity. By combining neuroscience, behavior change, and practical systems, I help identify their blind spots that limit performance and implement strategies that work with their brain, not against it. The outcome is greater clarity, stronger decision-making, more effective leadership, and teams that thrive.

Leadership & Team Performance

For team leaders in high-pressure environments, translating these strategies into stronger team dynamics

Identifying Blind Spots

Building daily habits and systems designed around ADHD tendencies, and other mental and emotional affecting daily life - not against them