Becoming a Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology Professional

A Global Perspective

J. Gualberto Cremades, Lauren S. Tashman

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781136202568
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This edited book by two prominent professionals of Sport and Exercise and Performance Sciences addresses relevant issues and experiences as one becomes a sport, exercise and performance psychology practitioner. Chapters discuss the supervision and training involved along with models of practice, theory, techniques, and ethical issues.

The Practice of Service Delivery

2
Gleaning Insights

Perspectives of New Sport Psychology Practitioners

Robyn A. Braun and Alexis DeVries

The focus of this chapter is to recount the first applied experiences of two recently graduated sport, exercise, and performance psychology (SEPP) practitioners. This is a retrospective look at the experiences that took place during graduate school at Barry University (Miami, FL, USA) and Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL, USA), while under the supervision of university faculty. This chapter may be most useful for graduate students or young consultants, as well as supervisors. Each of the authors will describe their educational background, development of philosophy and self-awareness, case study examples, models of supervision, ethical issues, practical issues, and lessons learned. Please note that RB refers to Robyn Braun and AD refers to Alexis DeVries.

Educational Background

To understand our experiences, it is useful to have an idea about our educational training and how this developed our views and philosophies in applied SEPP. RB received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. However, it wasn’t until taking a Coaching Gymnastics course as an undergraduate that she learned about sport psychology. RB enrolled in a Master of Science in Movement Science with a specialization in Sport and Exercise Psychology and completed a combined degree that included a thesis and an applied internship. RB continued to expand her research-practitioner model through her doctoral training. Currently, RB is an assistant professor who mentors undergraduate and graduate students in the field.

AD received a Bachelor of Science in both Psychology and Exercise Science. She learned about the field through an introductory sport psychology class as a freshman. After completing coursework, playing collegiate basketball, and coaching high school basketball, she decided to further her education in the field by pursuing a Master of Science in Movement Science with a specialization in Sport and Exercise Psychology and an emphasis in applied work. AD currently consults with collegiate and national athletes, obese adolescent exercisers, and the military.

These educational and applied experiences provided both RB and AD with a solid foundation in applied SEPP. Of course, this was just their first steps into the world of SEPP consulting. Continuous reflective practice is critical to their ongoing professional development.

Development of Consulting Philosophy and Self-Awareness

For RB, the experiences in graduate school provided the foundational knowledge and pedagogical skills for the development of her consulting philosophy. The majority of her early training focused on learning psychological skills training (e.g., goal-setting, self-talk, relaxation, and imagery) and how to implement these skills within the consulting model. Therefore, she primarily uses a cognitive-behavioral approach. However, she also utilizes a holistic approach to incorporate these skills as life skills and examines the psychosocial issues related to their non-performance domain. Since she is not a licensed clinical psychologist, it is important to know and understand the boundaries and when to refer individuals.

Furthermore, it is extremely important to be aware of one’s own biases and experiences that may influence consulting. These included personal experiences for RB with injury, coaches, and teammates. For example, she had multiple knee and shoulder surgeries; therefore, it is necessary to make sure these experiences do not interfere when consulting with injured athletes. Additionally, she had to learn that not all athletes believe in SEPP. RB’s graduate supervisor in her master’s degree taught her that approximately one-third of athletes believe in it, one-third are on the fence, and one-third reject it. This was difficult to comprehend at the time, but through her experiences, she has realized this to indeed be true.

AD began developing her consulting philosophy during graduate applied supervision experiences. One of the most important lessons learned from her supervision was the importance of being authentic. The approach utilized by AD while consulting is an action-oriented (aggressive) and solution-focused approach. Additionally, her philosophy incorporates cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) because she believes it is important to develop positive and stable thoughts and emotions before introducing performers to any type of psychological skill.

AD’s approach is solution-focused, and some might even say rigid. She feels that if an athlete comes in to see her they are seeking assistance to try to improve their performance. Therefore, she will try to do everything in her power to provide the athletes with the necessary skills to do just that. AD’s supervisor taught her that the ultimate goal of consulting is to provide athletes with the tools they need to put them in the best position to enhance their performance and then get them “out the door.”

Supervision

Supervision is a key component in the development of new SEPP consultants. Our graduate degree supervisors used the developmental model of supervision (Hogan, 1964; Littrell, Lee-Borden, & Lorenz, 1979; Stoltenberg, 1981; Stoltenberg & Delworth, 1987), which emphasizes the evolution of the supervisor relationship over time. This model involves four levels of trainee growth. Level one describes neophyte trainees starting out in their first internship. This stage is the most dependent period. The trainee has generally had a minimal amount of experience and therefore lacks confidence and often seeks advice and guidance from the supervisor. Furthermore, the trainee is also lacking self-awareness. The supervisor provides a fair amount of structure, but also allows some room for their development and autonomy. More specifically, the supervisor uses instruction, support, awareness training, and exemplification.

During level two, the trainee becomes more competent in his or her abilities and starts to develop his or her own approach to service delivery. There is an increasing level of self-awareness, a striving for independence, and a move toward becoming more self-assertive and less imitative. At this point, the supervisor loosens structure and uses less instruction, thus increasing autonomy.

During the third level, the trainee is developing increased insight and empathy, and a more differentiated interpersonal orientation. The trainees are close to becoming independent and are now the primary source of structure. The relationship with the supervisor is nearly collegial.

In the fourth and final level, the trainee has adequate self-awareness, insight into his or her own strengths and weaknesses, and has integrated the standards of the profession. Ideally, collegial supervision continues throughout their professional lives.

RB and AD took two practicum courses during their master’s degree program at Barry University. These courses followed Stolenberg’s (1981) model of supervision. More specifically, this supervision included direct observation, weekly meetings, video analysis, journaling, reflection papers, and case study presentations. The supervision initially began with frequent feedback from the supervisor while progressing toward independence.

RB’s doctoral program at Florida State University also included an applied sport psychology internship experience that involved a peer consultation program, group and individual supervision, performance enhancement workshops, and the development of self-awareness. Peer consultation or peer mentoring is a way to describe a process in which critical and supportive feedback is emphasized and evaluation is deemphasized. In contrast to supervision, peer consultation is characterized by the mentee’s right to accept or reject the suggestions of others (Bernard & Goodyear, 1992). The peer consultation program involves the use of a consultant team consisting of: a primary consultant, one or two secondary consultants, and up to three shadows. The primary consultant is the leader and mentor of the group. They are the contact person for the team and/or individual athletes. Additionally, they organize weekly meetings for the consultant team and arrange the sport psychology meetings with the team or individual athletes. The secondary consultant actively contributes during weekly planning sessions and shares the responsibility of leading team activities and discussions. They are responsible for supporting the primary and aiding in mentoring the shadows. The shadows main responsibility is to observe, learn, and ask questions. They are to assist in any way needed (i.e., passing out materials and dealing with distractions). The shadows rotate consultant teams three times a semester in order to observe the work of three different primaries.

Early Applied Experiences

My (RB) first experience working full time with a team came during my first year as a doctoral student. Prior to this, I had only worked with individual clients and done a few workshops with teams. Furthermore, all of my applied experiences had been working alone. As a new doctoral student, I was assigned as a secondary consultant to work with a junior college softball team. I had to learn how to work in a group with a primary consultant and another secondary consultant. Additionally, I had little background knowledge about softball. Therefore, I had to do my research to learn about the game and how I could contribute to improving their mental performance. This included gathering information about the team. The situation was unique because most players were only there for two years, maybe three at most. However, they were recruited similarly to a four-year college or university and were from all over the world. This particular team had players from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia as well as all across the United States. I not only had to learn about the sport of softball in general, but also had to learn about cultural differences.

During my first year with the team, I spent a great deal of time observing the team dynamics and norms. Unfortunately, our consultation team rarely had planning meetings, so I had to go with whatever the primary decided and go with the flow. This taught me that I knew more than I thought I knew about applied SEPP since I was still able to properly deliver my consulting skills. Since I would find out about the topic and activity we were covering the same day we were meeting with the team, I had to trust my educational knowledge and previous experiences. Furthermore, the primary had total investment into the team and would travel with them almost every weekend, covering his own financial expenses. However, due to my scheduling and financial situation, I was unable to make such a commitment.

My second year with the team, I took over the responsibilities of the primary consultant. At this point, I was able to plan the meetings with my secondary and shadows. This allowed for better communication between the consultant team and the softball team. During my initial meeting with the coach, she explained that she was hands off when it came to sport psychology and that I should schedule meetings through the players. However, she was there if I ever needed her assistance or input. From this point forward, we mainly worked directly with the players and scheduled our meetings through the leaders of the team. During this year, we had to make some changes from the previous year. We had to let the players know that we would not be able to travel with them to games, but we would do our best to attend all home games. Throughout the year, we had experiences that enabled us to develop as professionals. For example, the previous year, the team had done extremely well and had high expectations for this season. We had to help the team overcome the pressures being placed on them as a result of these expectations. Besides providing traditional mental skills training, we also provided them with life skills, which included time management skills. Furthermore, we assisted players with changes in their roles. One player specifically was expecting to play on a frequent basis this season after returning from an injury; however, she ended up sitting on the bench. We helped her identify with her new role and how she could help the team without physically being in the game.

My last year with the team focused on issues related to the assistant coach. According to the team, this coach was “bipolar,” meaning one moment she was providing positive support and the next minute she was screaming for no apparent reason. We spent a significant amount of time focusing on what the players can control and what they cannot. The team this year was filled with a majority of new players who had to adjust to college life and different coaching styles. This last year I had a unique experience because one of the volunteer assistant coaches was in the sport psychology program with me. She provided me with great insight into what was going on with the team and became a helpful ally.

Throughout my three years with the softball team I had to learn how to handle adversity. There were days when we would go in with a plan to work on a specific mental skill; however, we would have to drop our plan because something else had come up with the team that needed to be addressed immediately. Moreover, I learned about many different cultures and to be culturally sensitive. For instance, I had to be careful with my hand gestures due to cultural differences and respect to some players. Additionally, even though all of the players spoke English, it was sometimes difficult to understand their accents. Lastly, I learned that it is important to “be there” for the players. Some of them got homesick since they were so far away from their family, friends, and the life they know.

My (AD) first experience working as a supervised consultant began the second semester of my first year as a graduate student. I was extremely fortunate to be able to work with Division II athletes. Furthermore, as a graduate student I was supervised when consulting various individual athletes and teams at the university. This included, for example, working with a female soccer (i.e., football in countries other than the USA) player from Sweden. In order to be true to our confidentiality agreement, her fictitious name will be Sue.

Sue decided on her own that she wanted to seek assistance to improve her “mental game.” Three games into her junior season, Sue contacted one of my supervisors, stating that her game was suffering because she hesitates and takes too long to make a decision during soccer games. She felt this was a result of her not being confident about what decisions she should make during games. Additionally, she shared how she did not feel her teammates respected her as an upper classman and captain on the team and this, too, was impacting her self-confidence negatively. In the first two sessions I probed information from her regarding her current concerns (e.g., confidence, teammates, leadership), her goals of the consultation, and her history as a soccer player. After the first two sessions it was apparent to me that Sue wanted assistance increasing her self-confidence in order to facilitate deliberate decisions on the field. Also, enhancing her leadership skills would be vital in earning respect from her teammates as a captain. Further, the cultural differences made it difficult for Sue to lead and her teammates to follow.

After the first two sessions, I observed Sue in “action” at one of her practices. This observation assisted me in becoming more familiar with the game, Sue, and her interactions with her teammates and coaches. Additionally, I pl...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Practice of Service Delivery
• Training, Supervision, and Mentorship in the Applied Setting
• Conclusion
• Author Index
• Subject Index