Psychology’s Love Doctor: Get Your Check-up from the Neckup - Exclusive Interview with Dr. Rick Perea
- Brainz Magazine
- 2 days ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Dr. Rick Perea, Ph.D., (Dr.P.) is one of the nation’s most energetic and dynamic practitioners in Performance Psychology. His work as a Motivational Speaker and Executive, Life and Performance Coach is truly unique; equipped with endless energy, passion and knowledge, he has spoken to many of the top-performing organizations in the world. Companies like Ultimate Software, Apple, Google, Noodles & CO., Denver Fire Department and other nationally prominent businesses have benefited from his competency and acumen regarding Organizational Performance. In addition, he also works with many of the top NFL, NBA, and MLB teams and many High-Profile Division 1 College programs. Dr. Perea was the Performance Psychologist for the World Champion Denver Broncos in 2015/2016.
When did you first take an interest in psychology?
I think the origin would be my sophomore year in high school when my guidance counselor called me into her office and asked me where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to do. Through our discussion, she told me that they were going to start offering a psychology course at our high school and she thought I’d be a good fit for it; she knew my trauma. The next day she gave me a textbook to take home. I took the book home, and I couldn’t put it down. From that point, I had a real psychological thirst, if you will, for understanding the brain and its process of making decisions. So, I would say high school was my starting point when I first had an interest in psychology.
You have been known to say that psychology saved your life. What do you mean by this?
Well, when I started taking psychology classes it became really cathartic and healing for me to understand why people do what they do. Looking back, I had an older brother, eighteen years old, who became a catalyst for my life. His name was Danny. He was killed. He was murdered by his best friend. He was stabbed in the heart by his best friend. I was seven years old when that happened, and I didn’t understand it; I was searching for answers. Psychology became my answer. It became a way to explain how pathology impacts the brain and makes decisions that aren’t always objective, balanced and adaptive. This is what I mean when I say psychology saved my life. There are actually two things that saved my life; football and psychology, but clearly without psychology I would have been lost. I think I would have been lost searching for an answer to why something so traumatic could happen to my brother.
You don’t look like a typical psychologist. What exactly is Performance Psychology?
That’s funny! It’s funny you say that because I look like me. I dress like me. I wear what I want I want. I’m very authentic, and I always have been. When I was a young kid, I was always making leather bracelets with beads and necklaces for myself to wear. I didn’t really understand where that etiology came from, the origin, but later when I became aware of my culture and my cultural background. I’m Native American, so it made a lot of sense for me to make jewelry like leather bands with beads. I have always dressed a little bit differently and have always felt wonderful being me. I can clean up with the best of them, but I prefer to be really core and androgynous when I dress because that’s me day to day. I am a combination of masculinity and femininity and strength and sensitivity. I think one of the things that make me a good psychologist, is that I have an eclectic skill set. I can reach and relate to all people. I love people and am a helper healer by nature.
How did you evolve from being a college professor for 14 years to working in Pro Sports?
That’s a great question. I was teaching every day at the University of Colorado, Denver and loving it; loving the students, loving the interaction and loving the critical inquiry that’s necessary in research and a scholarly setting like being a college professor. One day the Colorado Rockies, which is the Professional Baseball team here in Colorado, reached out to me. They heard I was an effective speaker, and they engaged me to speak to the team. After my presentation, one of the owners of the Rockies approached me and said ‘what do I have to do to get you full-time?’. That was the beginning of me leaving my profession of being a college professor. In fact, it was a really challenging moment in my career because the Rockies needed me immediately in Spring training. I was torn because I didn’t want to leave my classes in the middle of the semester. Unfortunately, I had to do that as well as put the school in a bind, but I don’t regret it. In fact, I still have former students reach out just to check-in. I love being on my own as an entrepreneur in Performance Psychology, but I do miss my students.
Who is your typical client?
Honestly, I work with everyone from seven-year-old gymnasts to 93-year-old people who have challenges with Alzheimer’s. We work on improving memory challenges, the psycholinguistics that is the outcome of Alzheimer’s, and the challenges of word retrieval; in addition to lessening overall anxiety that can accompany these differences. So, if you think of it this way, everyone is a performer. Moms and Dads perform as parents, partners and leaders. You don’t have to be a pro athlete, a surgeon, an astronaut, or a pilot to perform your job. We all perform in our jobs. When you think of Performance Psychology it’s all-encompassing, and that’s part of why I love what I do. It’s so rewarding to help people, to heal people and then to teach them techniques and protocols to put in their toolbox every day, so they can go out into the world with full effort, full energy and an amazing attitude. I literally have the best job in the world!
What modalities/methods do you use that make your approach to mental health and wellness unique?
The field of psychology and especially Performance Psychology, is advancing so much that talk therapy is not enough for everyone. In fact, it can keep people to stay stuck in their pathology. As such, many of us on the cutting edge are looking for modalities that help the brain from an electronic level. For example, here at Think One: The Behavior Design Specialists, we offer Alpha Stim, which helps the brain acquire more alpha to be in the alpha state, which is the desired state for optimal performance. We offer neuro-feedback with top-level equipment that really primes the brain for success at a preconscious level. We didn’t have this technology available 30 years ago. We also offer sensory deprivation tanks, or float tanks to balance the brain waves. Tibetan Singing Bowls are used to transmit sound frequency and sound waves, that can bypass the brain to elicit or release emotions. We offer other modalities as well, because to reach all people you have to be eclectic. It can’t just be talk therapy. That’s dated, and antiquated, in my opinion. Twenty years from now, it won’t be talk therapy. It will be discussions. In talk therapy, people tend to stay in pathology; in discussions, there is an interlude between people that fosters growth and development. There is an interaction between the coach/therapist and the client. People need people, and they need coaches/therapists for support and interlude. They don’t need therapy per se, and the whole field of psychology is shifting in a way that’s very exciting and progressive.
What makes you stand out amongst other performance psychologists?
Energy! Fucking energy, Man! I have energy! Oh, my gosh! One of the protocols I teach is EEA, or effort, energy and attitude. We have 100% control of those three things every day. Also, the passion I bring to my client is unmatched. I truly believe that, and that’s fueled by my brother’s death. It really is, because without that, I think I would be a typical everyday person. But with that, I’ve learned that life can end right now. It can end in a moment, not even like tomorrow. It can end right now, and that taught me so much as a seven-year-old kid. Think about my brain at seven years old and what I had to do. The mental gymnastics I had to perform to be able to get through all that. I didn’t get therapy.
There was no therapy offered in those days. I had to learn how to navigate, and that taught me to value life so much. I’ve often been called Extra or a really passionate person, but I think what I’ve done is learned how to harness such a strong belief system every day to help and heal people. I am in the perfect profession for my personality; I believe I am funny, passionate, knowledgeable and dynamic; I have no problem talking about it. I think more people need to be confident, believe in themselves and tell people who they are. Am I the best researcher in the world? NO, I am not a scholar in the research realm. I chose not to go in that direction. I chose to go into the practitioner's dominion. Am I the best in the world at being a practitioner? I believe I am one of the best; no doubt. I believe in terms of energy, effort and attitude, I am unmatched. If there’s someone else out there who can out-energy me, I’d love to see it because it will help our field. We need more passion from our practitioners.
There are too many tweed jacket, calm, regulated people out there who don’t really show their clients the humanness, the human side of our profession. I think that’s horrible. I think it’s a great thing to let people know there is actually a human behind these three letters, PhD.
Why do people call you the Love Doctor?
Because I love life completely and passionately; because of losing my brother; in an instant. One phone call and he’s gone. That taught me life is fragile or transitory. I think that in our society we need to learn how to love more effectively and be more verbal about it. We are quick to let people know when they’re failing and doing things that are not good like, ’Honey you forgot to take out the trash again’, but are we really good at saying, ‘My gosh; you are just a beautiful human being?’ Sometimes you look across the table at your partner and you think what an incredible human being they are, but do we tell them that out loud? Not enough; we don’t do that enough, and that’s why love is the answer.
I have that in my book as a theme, and I was fortunate enough to be part of the 2015/2016 Super Bowl 50 Championship with the Denver Broncos as the team psychologist. What we had was love on our team. In fact, one of our amazing receivers, Emmanuel Sanders, when he retired was asked by the media what was the difference in us being able to win the Super Bowl 50 and he said, Dr P; he brought the love between us. He helped us understand how important it was to play together, and love playing for each other and with each other. After that season, we lost that. I left and went to the Miami Dolphins, team players left and to this day, Denver hasn’t even made it to the playoffs. It is not due to a lack of players, not because of coaching, but because of the lack of a culture by design. They’ve had a culture by default, unfortunately.
When I asked you previously, I said you don’t look like a typical psychologist, and I noted your answer, but I’d like to take it a little bit further than that. As I said earlier, you don’t look like a typical psychologist, you look like an athlete. What’s your athletic background?
Yeah, I grew up with two older brothers that were boxers. I grew up watching them and every once in a while, I’d go with them to the gym and watch them train. So I came from a very athletic family.I started boxing myself when I was eight, and after getting hit in the head repeatedly, I was like ‘Whoa, I’m not sure if I want to do this.’ But, one day I found organized football. I used to play football all the time, but I found organized football and I found my passion. I’ve often said how football saved my life… Really, psychology saved my life, but football gave me a purpose. It gave me a direction. I was gifted; I was fast, I was big, I was strong, and so I was a natural fit for the sport.I still had a lot of hurt and anger from my brother’s death that hadn’t yet been resolved at that time when I was about 12 or 13 years old. Football was a great outlet for me to be able to hit people legally. It was like I could be violent within the law, so that’s what got me started.
The other thing, too, is the weight room. I’ve worked out with weights since I was 12 years old, and it’s always been a place of peace and serenity for me. I could lift weights and be by myself, and that was my therapy…By the time I got into high school, I was setting records in lifting and I was always the strongest player on my teams. And how ironic is it that I have 21- and 18-year-old sons that now play college football, and who have each broken records in lifting at their high school, which is the largest, most successful high school in the state of Colorado. I really think it’s been their therapy too. Without the football gym I don’t know where I’d be, and I think my sons have that same view.At the end of the day, my love for football enabled me to sign my first NFL (National Football League) contract with the Denver Broncos; the very team that I would someday (2015) serve as the team psychologist and win a Super Bowl (50).
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself continuing to spread my love of psychology and self-love. We have got to do a better job at loving ourselves, you know? We can’t love another person until we really understand and love ourselves. And, although I have been very successful in the sports world, I don’t want to neglect the corporate world and other industries. I have successfully operated two organizations as an entrepreneur; this helps me help organizations use research and evidence-based techniques and protocols to perform at peak levels. Helping companies and organizations reach their potential is a delicious act to experience.
From Google to Apple to New York Life, I have been fortunate to be engaged in some Fortune 50 Organizations. In the sports realm, in addition to directly helping the Denver Broncos win Super Bowl 50, I have explicitly helped and developed the Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Rockies, and Arizona Diamondbacks and worked directly with many CEOs, Surgeons, Pilots and other high-performing, high-risk professions.
I just want to be creative in the way that I reach people. Obviously, being a motivational and informative speaker is one way for me to keep speaking and spreading love. Since COVID, a lot of my presentations have been virtual. So, I’ve developed new virtual classrooms that are offered through Zoom. This will be a major part of my future so I can help people from all over the world. My virtual classroom is called Get Your Check-up from the Neck-Up with Dr. P.
But more than anything, I just want to advance the field of psychology so that people understand talk therapy can be an antiquated and archaic way to heal. It can help, but we have so many more methodologies and modalities to reach people. Love is the answer… always has been and always will be…
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