Opinion Forum

Dr. Jim Taylor

Dr. Jim Taylor is internationally recognized for his work in the psychology of performance in business, parenting, and sport. He has been a consultant to and has provided individual and group training to executives and businesses throughtout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, including the Young Presidents’ Organization.

Dr. Taylor has been a speaker at numerous elementary and secondary schools, and education conferences around the country.

Dr. Taylor has been a consultant for the United States and Japanese Ski Teams, the United States Tennis Association, and USA Triathlon, and has worked with professional and world-class athletes in tennis, skiing, cycling, triathlon, track and field, swimming, football, golf, baseball, and many other sports. He has been invited to lecture by the Olympic Committees of Spain, France, Poland, and the U.S., and has consulted with the Athletic Departments at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Taylor has consulted with health and medical facilities around the U.S. including the Mayo Clinic, the Stone Clinic in San Francisco, The Aspen Fitness and Sports Medicine Institute, the San Francisco Bay Club, Bay Club Marin, and the J.P. Parisien Human Performance Laboratory.

He has worked with the Miami City Ballet, the Hartford Ballet Company, and the DanceAspen Summer School. He has worked with performing artists in many disciplines.

Dr. Taylor received his Bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and earned his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Colorado. He is a former Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Nova University in Ft. Lauderdale. He is currently an adjunct faculty at the University of San Francisco and the Wright Institute in Berkeley.

Dr. Taylor’s professional areas of specialization include corporate consulting, youth development, parent training, sport psychology, educator training, coaches education, injury rehabilitation, popular culture, and the psychology of technology.

A former alpine ski racer who competed internationally, Dr. Taylor is also a 2nd degree black belt and certified instructor in karate, a marathon runner, and an Ironman triathlete.

Dr. Taylor has published more than 500 articles in scholarly and popular publications and has given more than 700 workshops and presentations throughout North America and Europe.

Dr. Taylor is the author or lead editor of ten books, including Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child, Your Children are Under Attack: How Popular Culture is Destroying Your Kids’ Values, and How You Can Protect Them, The Triathlete’s Guide to Mental Training, and Applied Sport Psychology: Four Perspectives, the Prime Sport book series, Psychology of Dance, Psychological Approaches for Sports Injury Rehabilitation, and Comprehensive Sports Injury Management.

Dr. Taylor blogs on business, education, parenting, politics, popular culture, sports, and technology on this website and on his blog at drjimtaylor.com/blog, as well as on psychologytoday.com, fastcompany.com, sfgate.com (San Francisco Chronicle’s web site), huffingtonpost.com, seattlei.com, and the Hearst Interactive Media Connecticut Group web sites. He also writes a column on the Psychology of Technology for MobilityDigest.com, a mobile-technology web site.

Dr. Taylor has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, UPN’s Life & Style, ABC’s World News This Weekend, and the major television network affiliates around the U.S. He has participated in many radio shows. His research and writings have been the subject of syndicated sports columns that have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country. Jim has been a columnist for The Denver Post and has been interviewed for articles that have appeared in The New York Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, The London Times, The Chicago Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, The Christian Science Monitor, The London Telegraph, The Miami Herald, The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, The Baltimore Sun, The Denver Post, Skiing, Outside, and many other newspapers and magazines.

Dr. Taylor is a member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Education Fund, a non-profit organization whose mission it is to help underprivileged students achieve academic success.

Dr. Taylor lives north of San Francisco with his wife, Sarah, and daughters, Catie and Gracie.

His e-mail address is: jim@drjimtaylor.com

Dr. Jim Taylor