ABOUT TERAMAI
The size of your effort is all that matters
Helen Ruud is an accredited British Psychological Society (BPS) Trainee with an MSc in Sport Psychology and an MSc in Psychology. Her practice is supervised by a BPS charted Sport Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at a leading university in the United Kingdom. Helen’s work is conducted with strict confidentiality, regulated by the BPS, and she always put the client's needs first.
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Helen brings more than five years of experience equipping individuals and teams in the UK and abroad with tailored mental strategies to enhance performance, foster communication and cohesion, prepare for competition, and manage setbacks/injuries. Her clients include Northumbria University (men’s basketball, men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s football, and swimming); Sport England Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS); Gateshead Football Club (won FA trophy 2024); GB Dragonboating, the Fiji National Outrigger Canoe Team (achieved bronze in the South Pacific Games 2023) and Barclays Bank.
"Throughout my life, I've had the honour of being involved in a kaleidoscope of sports and world cultures, which supports me in creating mental training programs that applies to a diverse audience." - Helen Ruud, Sport Psych
In late 2023, Helen finished the last leg of sailing around the world from Fiji to Thailand where she’d begun the journey in 2019. In addition to international sailing races and adventures, she’s also competed at high levels in individual and team sports, including as a captain in Gaelic Football and representing Great Britain in outrigger canoeing at the International Va’a Federation World Championships in sprints (2022) and distance (2023).
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Helen’s additional qualifications include: Level 2 Counselling skills; Primary Certificate in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT); Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Multi Skills; UKAD Introduction to Clean Sport; Safeguarding in Sport; and Enhanced DBS.
Where does "teramai" come from?
“Teramai” is a Tahitian expression for "there it is", calling for attention, care and encouragement. For example: "There it is, the wave is coming, take it!"
In early 2019, Helen sailed one of the longest legs of her sail around the world, from Peru to Tahiti. When she arrived in Tahiti, she found that the entire world had shut down while she was at sea. Helen got “stuck” in Tahiti, and decided to make the most of her time there. It was her time in Tahiti that inspired her to name her sport psychology practice “Teramai”.
In 2022, Helen represented Great Britain in outrigger canoeing at the International Va’a Federation World Championships in sprints held at Dorney Lake. Helen learned outrigger canoeing during her time in Tahiti, where she was inspired to name her sport psychology practice "teramai" after the Tahitian expression for "there it is". Photos by Xavier Keutch.
