Higher Hopes is owned and operated by Mark Stonkus. Mark is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS). In this regard, he maintains a very unique combination of expertise of the physical and mental demands of high performing individuals. An accomplished athlete himself, Mark played both football and track & field in high school and college, and has coached both sports at those levels as well. A graduate of Boston College High School and recent inductee into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, Mark earned his BA at Tufts University, his M.Ed. at Fitchburg State College, his M.A. at Boston College, and is currently completing his doctoral studies at Boston University in counseling and sport psychology.

Mark’s extensive education is the result of his constant pursuit of the highest understanding of human performance. His professional experience follows suit, and includes positions of high school teacher/coach, mental health therapist, director of strength and conditioning programs, counselor at the BU Sports Psychology Clinic, and adjunct faculty member at Boston University.

 Though quite a diverse career, Mark has always considered himself to be a student and a teacher. Whether it was working in the gym, the office, the classroom, or on the field, Mark always found his knowledge to be worthless if it couldn’t benefit others. His experiences as an athlete, coach, student, teacher, trainer, and counselor have convinced him that the body and mind are inseparable in optimizing performance. After witnessing countless cases of people failing to meet their potential due to the lack of realization of the importance of a strong mind and body, Mark decided to open Higher Hopes as a way to offer clients both the physical and mental training skills necessary to optimize their performance in sport, work, and life.

Mark personally assesses the strengths and needs of each client, and develops the most appropriate training and counseling programs necessary for enhancing performance. Rooted in each program is the most fundamental of his core beliefs, which is that no one will ever perform at his/her highest levels without the confidence and commitment to always improve. In order to be your best, you must order yourself to be better. The greatest competition in life is the struggle between who you are versus who you want to be. To come out on top, you’ve got to exceed your accepted expectations of yourself. You’ve got to have… Higher Hopes.