Dr. Mitch Abrams is a sport psychologist and the nation's expert in Anger Management in Sport.  His book (see photo - below left) is the only one on the market that not only describes the problem of violence in sport, but provides the How-To of teaching athletes, coaches & parents to "adjust the flame".  This allows athletes to harness their anger to help performance, rather than engaging in behavior that they will regret.  Related to this work, Dr. Abrams has also been a pioneer in sexual assault & domestic violence prevention, with specific focus on athlete populations, developing  the Abrams Model of Sexual Assault Prevention. This is an accountability based model that includes, but far exceeds, Bystander Intervention modalities.  This model includes education about the legalities of consent, as well as athlete incidence rates and probabilities of false report (less than 5%), drug & alcohol involvement in sexual assault, the consequences to victim, perpetrator, family & institutions following an assault, what incarceration is like, the Male Athlete Culture, hazing, Title IX, toxic masculinity that perpetuates a rape-supportive environment, and much more!  It is the most comprehensive Sexual Assault Prevention Program available for athletes.

 

Dr. Abrams has consulted with thousands of athletes over the past 25 years and has developed programs for athletic organizations at the Youth Sport, High School, College & Professional levels.  Dr. Abrams works to build the strengths of athletes, coaches and teams through improved communication, life skills introduction and direct counseling. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Learned Excellence for Athletes – his sport psychology consulting company located in New Jersey.

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Because he is also a seasoned forensic psychologist, Dr. Abrams has been called on to conduct risk assessments related to athletes'  violence and criminality risk.  He has trained sport psychologists on this process as well.

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In an effort to prevent high profile athletes from transgressing and finding themselves arrested or in the midst of a media scandal, Dr. Abrams has developed Entourage Training which is a program that takes a member of the athlete's peer group and trains them in conflict resolution, gang identification, social media training, prediction of consequences and directs them towards self-defense and weapons training as needed.

 

He was raised in Brooklyn, New York, received his Bachelors of Science from Brooklyn College and earned his Masters of Science in Applied Psychology and his Doctorate of Psychology (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology from C.W. Post/Long Island University. He received specialized training in Family Violence and Anger Management.

 

Dr. Abrams was the Senior Psychologist at Coney Island Hospital's Psychiatric Inpatient Program in Brooklyn, NY and then moved on to work as a staff psychologist at Northern State Prison in Newark, New Jersey. Over the course of twenty one years working inside the prison system, Dr. Abrams progressed from directing the inpatient mental health units at Northern State Prison.  He then became Clinician Administrator for Rutgers/University Correctional Healthcare where he has been responsible for the delivery of mental health services for seven of the state’s thirteen state prisons. He is currently the Chief Psychologist for UCHC and oversees all aspects of psychology services inside the New Jersey Department of Corrections.  Dr. Abrams coordinates the Forensic Track of Rutgers' predoctoral psychology internship and has been involved with several aspects of advancing the quality of mental health services in prison systems. He is  Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and has held adjunct faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Long Island University/C.W. Post and Fairleigh Dickinson University. In addition, as mentioned above, he has been in private practice for the past seventeen years providing sport, clinical and forensic psychology services at Abrams Psychological Services.
 

He is a full member of the American Psychological Association as well as its Divisions 47 - Division of Exercise and Sport Psychology, Division 46 - Media Psychology and Division 41 - The American Psychology-Law Society. Further, he holds membership in the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), where he is also the Chair and Founder  of the “Anger & Violence in Sport” Special Interest Group (SIG) and is a reviewer of submissions for the program of AASP's annual conference.  Dr. Abrams was named a Fellow of AASP in 2024.

 

Dr. Mitch Abrams is a Licensed Psychologist in the states of New York (#14186) and New Jersey (#3936).