Chelsea Butters Wooding

Chelsea is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and an Associate Faculty Assistant Professor at Nation-al University in the BA in Sport Psychology and MA in Performance Psychology programs. She received her PhD in Sport and Exercise Psychology from West Virginia University; her MA in Counseling from West Virginia University; her MS in Kinesiology from California State University, Fullerton; and her BA in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach. Passionate about the applied side of performance psychology, Dr. Wooding has consulted in a variety of settings, including traditional high school and collegiate sports, and in nontraditional settings, including presentations to nursing students, musicians, dancers, and ultra-runners. 

Chelsea started dancing at the age of six, and while competing with her studio and high school dance team, she had the honor of being a part of multiple national championship routines and received numerous overall solo awards, various scholarships, and invitations to travel around the country and world. Chelsea had the honor of studying under influential industry leaders such as Kiki Lucas, Sharmila Mitra, Leslie Kenfield, Patrick McCollum, Eddie Strachan, Pam Chu, and Donna Shepherd, and took classes from Shannon Mather, Chris Judd, Eddie Garcia, Tyce Diorio, and Mandy Moore. Soon after graduating high school, she began teaching dance to all ages and various levels at studios throughout Southern California. Additionally, Chelsea was privileged to participate in charity shows that benefited the families of the victims of September 11th and breast cancer research. She also became highly involved in the high school dance world, choreographing for numerous dance teams, serving as assistant coach for her alma mater for over 5 years, and becoming a judge for high school dance competitions across Southern California. After leaving California, Chelsea gained experience working with college dance teams and continued teaching jazz, lyrical, and contemporary, and choreo-graphing solos, duo/trios, and small and large groups. More recently, Chelsea has won various choreography awards, and her students have received scholarships at both conventions and competitions. Since graduating with her doctoral degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology, Chelsea has used her experience both in dance and in performance psychology to consult with dance teams and individual dancers.