Clinical Sport Psychology Overview

Increasingly in professional sport, athletes and players are more prone breakdowns in their performance and coping mechanisms. The development of Performance and Lifestyle Advisors in cricket, rugby and institutes of sport, reflect modern approaches to sporting careers in supporting athletes. So what is clinical ? Clinical psychology is a broad field of practice and research within the discipline of psychology, which applies psychological principles to the assessment, prevention, amelioration, and rehabilitation of psychological distress, disability, dysfunctional behaviour, and health-risk behaviour. (American Psychological Association). The enhancement of psychological and physical well-being are the primary clinical concerns in sport are not so different to the general population. What makes them of particular concern is the role of an elite athlete or player are the additional demands on mind and body, which those in other occupations and circumstance may avoid.

Depression, addiction, burnout / chronic fatigue,eating disorders, impotence & sexual dysfunction, loss and bereavement, psychological recovery from injury, overtraining syndrome, sleep disorders, indiscipline misplaced aggression, anxiety. Have look at my A-Z list! My work at the Sporting Chance Clinic which deals primarily with addiction and lifestyle problems considers the use of language and the way that men in particular discover a limited vocabulary to express themselves and this frustrates their communications and adds to the problems associated with addiction. Addiction itself is a form of emotional suppression and needs a good deal of support to overcome. Gambling is now the No1 addiction, followed by alcohol and drug abuse within professional football. The Professional Footballer's Association (PFA) support players who have financial problems and need treatment. More recently the Professional Cricketers Association have been courageous in exposing the role addiction within the lives of prominent cricket professionals.

Drug abuse, alcohol and gambling within English cricket have become the focus of a major new campaign to clean up the professional game and raise standards (Keith Piper PCA) Sport Psychologists with qualifications in counselling, psychotherapy and mainstream mental health services, along with Clinical Psychologists are well placed to help over both a short and long term basis. To refer yourself for help, or to discuss a problem with a view to referral go to services.

Performance or Lifestyle?

It has been considered that performance is everything in sport, but as Arsene Wengen says, "Life-style is 50% of performance". To this end, sport psychologists working with clinical issues believe that not only can resolution of lifestyle issues help return performance, but often in my experience some players will have out-perform their previous best. "With addiction some players however reached international level managing their problem but then go to pieces and self-destruct. It seems that the energy that drives them can often be unresolved anger or trauma from youth or childhood. As a result, self-esteem is often relatively low in comparison to their outward persona and attitude. Rising to the dizzy heights of international football becomes overwhelming because they no longer feel they are worth it, or good enough and lack self belief"                                                  Phil Johnson

Players and athletes who have been 'through the mill' resolving personal and emotional issues, often find they are stronger mentally and physically and out-perform their previous best. Anger and depression seem to drain energy as well as create it. A strong sense of self and the ability to 'bounce back' from disappointment is one of the main attributes of mental toughness. (Jones 2006)

Consultants

Phil Johnson has worked as a specialist mental health practitioner in the public sector both for Local Authorities and the NHS for 12 years, as a counsellor and psychotherapist, lecturer and trainer in Mental Health Law and practice. In addition to training social workers, community nurses and psychologists, he has significant knowledge and practice in severe mental health disorders as well as more common presentations of depression, acute and chronic anxiety, eating disorders, addiction, phobias, learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit and sleep disorders.

During his practice as both a social worker, trainer and psychologist, Phil has been involved in Systemic Family Therapy for over 20 years. In the sporting context Phil has worked with professional footballers at the Sporting Chance Clinic and for the Football Association, National Modern Pentathlon as well as in private practice with such presentations as eating disorders, addiction, depression, post traumatic stress, overtraining syndrome, chronic fatigue and anger management.

Dave Alcock has a background in Learning Disability nursing before becoming a psychologist and is a qualified counselling supervisor.

Together Phil & Dave are editing the first book in applied clinical sport psychology.

"Planning is everything” Eric Cantona
"Life-style is 50% of pe

rformance” Arsen Wengen"Planning is everything” Eric Cantona
"Life-style is 50% of performance” Arsen Wengen

Addictions Burnout Chronic Fatigue Comfort Zones Commitment Control Concentration-attention Confidence (Robust) Competition preparation Children & Sport Communication training Cohesion in Teams Depression counselling Eating disorders Emotional intelligence Emotional control Expectations Fear of Failure / Fear of Success ! Financial management (Personal) Goal-Setting Imagery-Visualisation Indiscipline & misplaced aggression Impotence & sexual dysfunction Interpersonal conflict training Leadership & Captaincy Lifestyle counselling Listening skills Mental health Loss and bereavement Mentoring and being mentored Momentum analysis Motivation Memory & decision making Mental preparation & Strength Pain management Perfectionism the 80/20 rule Pre-shot routines Psychological recovery from Injury Psychology of parental involvement Relaxation Training Relationships Role clarity in teams/orgs Substance abuse counselling Self Perceptions of performance Self-talk Self belief and limiting self-belief Sleep disorders Time management Team building and development WINNING !

Keith Piper PCA

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