Introduction
By way of introduction, I decided to write this blog because I felt as though this would be a useful insight for aspiring sport psychologists and I also think that this blog will serve as a useful explanation for those who are interested in working with a sports psychologist. Of course, this blog really only reflects my own experiences and therefore it is ultimately subjective, and it might not reflect the experiences of every sport psychologist and no doubt the path of a trainee sport psychologist would definitely vary depending on different circumstances and experiences.
Nonetheless, this blog serves as a useful reflection for my own practice to understand where I started and the progress that I’ve made so far during this journey and maybe some of the accomplishments that I’ve achieved. As well as the challenges that I’ve faced and I suppose this reflection is all about the lessons that I’ve learnt being in the field and some of the teachings that I’ve received as result of working with such a variety of different people. I’m hoping that this blog will not only be useful for me but helpful for you, the reader, in terms of understanding what sport psychology is and understanding what it’s like working in the field and stepping into the shoes of a sports psychologist.
Starting out
Early on in my career, at the very beginning of my trainee journey, I didn’t have many connections and I hadn’t yet created or finalised my website, so I had very little opportunities to find work and gain experience. To begin with, I drew on what little connections I did have, for instance, with my local golf club. This is where I spent a lot of my time as a junior athlete. I was able to deliver a handful of workshops at that golf club and it was challenging even then, despite knowing all the people that I was working with and being in an environment that was very familiar to me, it was still challenging trying to deliver a message and to be able to have an impact. To feel as though I was making a difference in terms of improving these golfers’ performance and their experiences on the golf course, it was a new and unfamiliar challenge. Not long after that, I was able to get my first couple of clients and at that time I was really still figuring out my practice philosophy and what exactly I wanted to do when working with clients, whether it was particular mental skills, or if it was delivering therapy and helping clients overcome the psychological challenges of sport by using a more clinical perspective. Ultimately, I was very unsure of myself and looking back now the way that I provided support was very characteristic of a trainee psychologist. I felt like I did make a positive impact, but I think that the way I delivered the support could’ve been more concise and concentrated, and the way that I measured impact when working with those clients could’ve been clearer or better defined.
Challenges
With those first few clients I didn’t feel very confident at the time, still, they were notably rewarding experiences and that’s when I really started to get a flavour of what it meant to be a sport psychologist. The meaningful experience of being able to help people navigate the challenges that they were facing. Not long after that period, I was able to gain access to a local sports team which was competing at a high-level, and that was a challenging experience for me because I was entering a completely new environment and I was tasked with trying to develop trust and rapport with a whole squad of individuals, each with different personalities and attributes. I had such a limited amount of time to interact with these people and rarely was I able to interact with these individuals on a one-to-one basis. And what made that challenge particularly stressful was the lack of buy in that I received from the staff at the club. As it turned out, I wasn’t really welcome at the club and there had been some miscommunication regarding the extent to which they really needed my support, and those expectations weren’t well clarified at the beginning of that tenure. Because expectations weren’t set in place, my journey and my experience within that team environment were significantly affected. It was a very steep learning curve. But lessons were learnt, I now know that when you enter an environment like that, especially as someone who is still training and figuring things out, there needs to be clear expectations, and there needs to be a plan in terms of how the support is going to be delivered and what kind of support is required. From a larger perspective, working with this team showed me how difficult it can be for a sports psychologist to enter at an organisational level and develop trust and rapport with players, coaches, directors, and other multidisciplinary team members.
Another challenge that I’ve frequently come across is the lack of incentive or motivation for clients to attend and engage in sessions. Often because the client in question didn’t choose to seek out my services. For example, clients that were incentivised by their parents to seek support were not always ready for the advice that I would give them. If the client wasn’t on board from the beginning, then providing support was a lot more challenging, like skating uphill. At the time I didn’t realise that. Nowadays, I can tell within a few minutes whether or not the person I’m talking to is engaged and wants to be helped, so to speak. And if you are someone who is interested in receiving support from a sports psychologist, for that support to work and for the support to be effective the person receiving support needs to be prepared to make changes, to commit to ‘homework’ in-between sessions, attend sessions regularly, and importantly, recognise that the changes they want to make will take. Unlike the muscles in our body. The brain isn’t so easily changed and adapting the way we think and feel is a lot more complicated than it is for us to improve our cardiovascular fitness, or muscular strength, for example. When parents, coaches, or clubs are trying to refer an individual to a sports psychologist that individual also needs to want the change. If that individual isn’t fully ready, nor committed to making that change, then it will be very difficult for the sport psychologist to bring about those changes that you might have hoped to see.
The good stuff
I’ve been fortunate enough to observe some very powerful changes in people’s lives. I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to see such a variety of different personalities and skills, I’ve spoken to such a wonderful mixture of people, each with their own personal strengths, attributes and (of course) weaknesses, challenges, or struggles. I’ve worked hard with these people to bring about the changes that they’ve desired. I’ve seen massive shifts in confidence, ability to deal with pressure, coping mechanisms, performance routines, enjoyment, understanding, and psychological flexibility. While it is my role to provide advice and support, in each case, the clients that have seen the most success are those that have ‘put the work in’. Those that have reciprocated the time and energy that I’ve put in to be able to help them best. At the end of the day, I’ve always said to my clients that any success that they have achieved is mostly down to them and the work that they’ve put in. Jokingly, I’ve always accepted some credit for their achievements, maybe 10 or 15%! But, in a funny way, psychological support is as much about the client as it is about the psychologist. The psychologist can pave the way, they can help clients see things differently by providing different perspectives, introducing different skills and changing how they might think or feel, how to respond to events that happen around them, and responding to events that happen within them like thoughts and emotions. A psychologist can do all of these things but none of them are particularly effective if the client doesn’t engage in the process. A psychologist has a map, and they can illustrate to the client which direction they ought to take, but it is the client only who can take that step. And for those interested in psychology, or those who might be interested in becoming a sports psychologist (or any psychologist for that matter), the feeling that you get when a client is successful in overcoming their obstacles is incomparable.
What is particularly nice about being a sport psychologist is that it is a job where you will be ‘thanked’. I know that sounds a bit strange, but unfortunately there are many jobs in this world where we do a lot of things without receiving any thanks. There is an abundance of thankless jobs. And I feel very grateful that I have a job which normally doesn’t fall into that category. Though, the trouble with any psychology is that it’s quite tricky to measure impact. Unlike going to the gym and seeing changes in the weight that you can lift, measuring confidence, for example, can be difficult. In my work the best way to measure impact is to get the client to measure impact themselves. While there are a variety of different questionnaires and scales that can measure something like confidence. If the client themselves believes there has been a change and they personally feel like there has been an improvement, even if it’s a small improvement, in my books that’s a win. Unfortunately, working as a psychologist there are times when those improvements can be hard to see (or feel), but I’m a believer that even if the desired change wasn’t achieved. I know that I’ve made an impact, and there has been some kind of growth or development as a result of the conversations I’ve been a part of. Perhaps they haven’t grown as they thought they would. But they may have developed in a way which they hadn’t considered before.
Final thoughts
I guess like any job being a sport psychologist has its challenges, but there are many rewards and meaningful experiences. In my experience so far, I’ve learnt that the ability to develop positive and trusting relationships with people is one of the most crucial skills in being an effective psychologist. For those who are interested in sports psychology, often what you put in will reflect how much you get out. Trainee psychologists are required to find their own work, find their own opportunities, and that means it can be a lonely adventure. But, along the way we are blessed with meeting very special people, who are kind, hard-working, and passionate. And without doubt it’s probably my favourite aspect of the job, being able to meet so many different kinds of people and being able to give them little chunks of advice to help them develop skills that enable them to experience all of the wonderful tropes of life. Though, life can also be cruel, it can punish those who are undeserving of such cruelty, and bad things can happen to the most kindness of people. Often, the role of the psychologist is to remind people that they are kind, they are talented, they are hard-working and they can be incredible in what they do. To show them that they can be successful in ways that they might not have considered before. For those reasons, just one conversation with a psychologist can make life impacting changes.
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