Here's what parents, teenagers and combat gym owners have had to say about their experience...

Host a FREE Mental Fitness 
Seminar At Your Gym

• Add value for your teenage members (and parents) with a FREE mental fitness seminar hosted at your gym.


• Teach your existing teen gym members (and their parents) how to develop emotional regulation skills, manage their mental health, and communicate effectively.


• Attract new gym members with this unique angle of developing mental fitness through combat sport.


• Learn from a seasoned combat sports coach, exercise scientist and registered psychologist with over 40 years experience.


• Based on the only fun-filled and evidence-based program in Australia that combines boxing and psychology to guide young people toward achieving their full potential (i.e. The CounterPunch™ process)

Give your teen gym members the gift of mental fitness strategies utilised by the world's top performers

FREE Mental Fitness 
Workshop At Your Gym

• Add value for your teenage members (and parents) with a FREE mental fitness seminar hosted at your gym.


• Teach your teen gym members (and their parents) how to develop emotional regulation skills, manage their mental health, and communicate effectively.


• Learn from a seasoned combat sports coach, exercise scientist and registered psychologist with over 40 years experience.


• Based on the only fun-filled and evidence-based program in Australia that combines boxing and psychology to guide young people toward achieving their full potential (i.e. The CounterPunch™ process)

Give your teen gym members the gift of mental fitness strategies utilised by the world's top performers

Why Is It So Important Right Now For Youth To Learn Mental Fitness?

Ever since the start of 2020, the need for mental health services in Australia has sky-rocketed. The current demand is so high that organisations such as HeadSpace are unable to keep up.


Teenagers are extremely vulnerable when it comes to their mental health – their brains aren't fully developed as yet, and they're not aware of how to regulate their emotions. If left undealt with, they can end up exhibiting negative and oppositional behaviours that impact the quality of their lives as young adults.


Here are some statistics about mental health in Australia:

1 in 5 of us experience mental illness in any given year (depression, anxiety, substance abuse)


75% of common mental health problems emerge during adolescence


Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in adolescents


• Since COVID-19, Beyond Blue has had a 30% spike in contacts, and Lifeline has had a 25% increase in calls

Sources:

• Black Dog Institute – Facts & Figures about Mental Health

• Fitness Australia COVID-19 Fitness Industry Impact Report

• World Health Organization – Adolescent Mental Health Fact Sheets

How YOU Can Help as a Gym Owner

Teenagers find it much easier to open up, and communicate their feelings in an environment where they don't feel like they're compelled to do so.


Talking while sitting face to face in an office with a counsellor/psychologist, a teacher, or even at home with their parents is often too challenging for them. It is not effective in opening a communication dialogue for teenagers.


There's perceived stigma with "having to see a therapist." Traditional counselling and therapy sessions "boring", and young adults simply don't respond well to sit-down talk therapy!


Gyms however, are typically a place of refuge away from adults and authority figures telling them what to do. Most teens that go to your gym are there by choice; not just because someone told them to be there.


As such, one great way to help equip teenagers with the tools to recognize and manage their own mental health, is to host a FREE CounterPunch™ seminar at your gym - it's a place where they're more receptive to learning new ideas about their own wellbeing, because they already have that innate interest in combat sport.


And as a bonus, having a mental health angle will help parents see the benefit of enrolling their teens at your gym (the presentation is aimed at both parents and teens).

Why It's So Important Right Now For Youth To Learn Mental Fitness

Ever since the start of 2020, the need for mental health services in Australia has sky-rocketed. The current demand is so high that organisations such as HeadSpace are unable to keep up.


Teenagers are extremely vulnerable when it comes to their mental health – their brains aren't fully developed as yet, and they're not aware of how to regulate their emotions. If left undealt with, they can end up exhibiting negative and oppositional behaviours that impact the quality of their lives as young adults.


Here are some statistics about mental health in Australia:

1 in 5 of us experience metal illness in any given year (depression, anxiety, substance abuse)


75% of common mental health problems emerge during adolescence


Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in adolescents


• Since COVID-19, Beyond Blue has had a 30% spike in contacts, and Lifeline has had a 25% increase in calls

Sources:

• Black Dog Institute – Facts & Figures about Mental Health

• Fitness Australia COVID-19 Fitness Industry Impact Report

• World Health Organization – Adolescent Mental Health Fact Sheets

How YOU Can Help as a Gym Owner

Teenagers find it much easier to open up, and communicate their feelings in an environment where they don't feel like they're compelled to do so.


Talking while sitting face to face in an office with a counsellor/psychologist, a teacher, or even at home with their parents is often too challenging for them. It is not effective in opening a communication dialogue for teenagers.


There's perceived stigma with "having to see a therapist." Traditional counselling and therapy sessions "boring", and young adults simply don't respond well to sit-down talk therapy!


Gyms however, are typically a place of refuge away from adults and authority figures telling them what to do. Most teens that go to your gym are there by choice; not just because someone told them to be there.


As such, one great way to help equip teenagers with the tools to recognize and manage their own mental health, is to host a FREE CounterPunch™ workshop at your gym - it's a place where they're more receptive to learning new ideas about their own wellbeing, because they already have that innate interest in combat sport.


And as a bonus, having a mental health angle will help parents see the benefit of enrolling their teens at your gym (the presentation is aimed at both parents and teens).

Topics Covered In The Presentation

Why Teens and Parents Often Have Trouble Communicating

Learn the 3 stages of brain development & how to adapt your communication with your teen members over time

How Teens Learn To Manage Their Own Emotions

Learn how to help your teen members develop emotional regulation skills in a non-confrontational way

The Psychological Need That Drives The Behavior of Most Teens

Learn how to motivate your teen members using scientifically proven methods to achieve their full potential

How You Can Integrate Mental Fitness Training Into Your Gym

Learn how to motivate your teen members using scientifically proven methods to achieve their full potential

About The Presenter

Hi, I'm Mercedas Taaffe-Cooper! (you can call me Merc)

Over the last 40+ years I have had many great experiences that have taught me a lot including:


• Being a high performance athlete

• Coaching elite boxers

• Being a sports and exercise scientist

• Practising as a registered psychologist

• Becoming a best-selling author


I've combined all these experiences into an overarching, fun-filled and evidence-based program to guide young people toward achieving their undoubted potential.


I call it the CounterPunch™ method, and I'm on a mission to equip as many teenagers around the world as possible with these mental health management tools.

My athletic career as

a martial artist

Coaching teen athletes to

elite level in Ireland

Bringing psychology to teens

through CounterPunch™

Co-authoring a best-selling book

and generating media attention

My athletic career as

a martial artist

Coaching teen athletes to

elite level in Ireland

Bringing psychology to teens

through CounterPunch™

Co-authoring a best-selling book

and generating media attention

My athletic career as

a martial artist

Coaching teen athletes to

elite level in Ireland

Bringing psychology to teens

through CounterPunch™

Co-authoring a best-selling book and generating

media attention

Why Parents and Teens Say About CounterPunch™

What Teachers and Mental Health Specialists Say

Angie Prime
(School Teacher)


Coming into the workshop I was hoping to get some skills and strategies to help students who are dealing with anxiety, depression and to develop some self-regulatory skills...


It's really exceeded my expectations... I mean, I found it most useful for myself which I didn't expect. Merc's psychology background has really taught me a lot about why I behave the way I do at certain times, which I didn't think I'd be coming here to learn about myself, but I really have.


I also found the boxing skills a lot of fun – I think a lot of teachers need to do this course, especially leadership groups, counsellors...


I think coming here is just a totally different experience. It'll only add value. So very grateful that I've been shown this."

Jess Reed

(Mental Health Clinician)


I was really excited when I found out about CounterPunch because I love the whole mind-body connection in mental health.


Learning all the different strategies to connect with young people, particularly working with values and what drives behaviour and how we can elicit more positive behaviour using these mediums — I can see how passionate Merc is about it.


And I can really see the benefits of applying this – particularly in early intervention but I can see it working with fairly disengaged kids as well. And just to learn how to engage young people through the physical side but with the psychology also backing it up.


Merc simplifies it so that it's easily useable and you don't have to be in clinical psychology to deliver this program."

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this mental fitness seminar REALLY free? Why?

What research is the content based on?

Will this free seminar be worth my time?

Why did you create CounterPunch™?