Performance · Emotional Regulation · Clinical Depth

Structure that holds when it matters.

Compasso — Portuguese for both compass and musical measure. Direction plus rhythm, calibrated to each person. Evidence-based performance stabilization for elite athletes, executives, and the organizations behind them.

English · Español · Português
The problem

Talent is rarely the issue.

No two people break the same way — because no two people are built the same way. What high performers share is running elite output on an internal system no one ever examined. And the fix is rarely more discipline: for many, overcontrol is exactly what's breaking them.

"He has all the tools, but between the ears something's off."Player development staff
"His rehab is done, but he's not the same guy."Athletic training staff
"I'm functioning, but I'm not okay."Executive client
"Therapy was too slow. Coaching was too fluffy."Founder client
The Compasso Method

Direction plus rhythm.

Built on validated clinical frameworks — CBT, DBT, RO-DBT, performance psychology — and twenty-five years of contemplative practice. Not motivation. Not hype. Calibration.

I — Read the system

Assessment in context

Beneath the symptom to the structure: how this specific person regulates, suppresses, overcorrects, and recovers — in their language, in their culture, in their environment.

II — Calibrate

Regulation, both directions

Some performers need more control. Many need less. Precision work on emotional regulation — including the overcontrol that looks like discipline and performs like a slow leak.

III — Build to hold

Structure over bursts

Systems that survive pressure, travel, slumps, and seasons — because performance built on intensity collapses, and performance built on rhythm compounds.

Engagements

Four ways in.

Organizational partnership

Retained · Embedded

Ongoing mental performance and emotional regulation support for sports organizations and high-stakes teams: player and staff support, culturally fluent work with international talent, and the Return-to-Performance Protocol built in. Delivered in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Return-to-Performance Protocol

8–12 weeks · Rehab

A structured emotional regulation protocol for athletes in injury rehab — targeting the psychological layer where recoveries stall after the body has healed.

1:1 performance stabilization

Private · 3-month engagements

Intensive, structured work for executives, entrepreneurs, and elite performers navigating pressure, transition, or recovery. A system, not open-ended sessions.

Workshops & keynotes

Bilingual · Trilingual

Working sessions and talks on emotional regulation, pressure, and sustainable performance — built for clubhouses, leadership teams, and organizational wellness programs.

Founder

Mariana Sampaio, LMHC, MSW

I was born in Brazil and built my career across three continents and three languages. Crossing worlds — cultures, disciplines, systems — was my method long before it became my message.

My training runs on two tracks that most in this field keep separate. The contemplative one: yoga since 1999, certified in Rishikesh, twenty-five years of practicing what I now teach. The clinical one: master's degrees in counseling psychology and social work, a PhD in progress, training in CBT, DBT, and RO-DBT close to their sources, and research at the University of Washington integrating virtual reality with mindfulness — starting in 2016, years before immersive tech was taken seriously.

Then baseball called. Working inside a Major League Baseball organization confirmed what clinical work had been telling me for two decades: performance rarely fails from lack of drive, and the answer isn't always more control — sometimes it's less. I've rebuilt a life in real time myself; that knowledge is in the work.

— Mari

Credentials

  • Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
  • M.A. Counseling Psychology · University of Hawaiʻi
  • M.S.W. · University of Washington
  • PhD in progress · Universidade de Coimbra / UCP
  • CBT · DBT · RO-DBT — source-lineage training
  • VR & mindfulness researcher · UW, since 2016
  • MLB organization consultant · since 2026
  • RYT-200 · Rishikesh Yoga Peeth
  • EN · ES · PT
Contact

Start the conversation.

For organizational partnerships, private engagements, or speaking — one email begins it.

info@compassoperformance.com