Sport & Performance Psychology for Clinicians

The Mind-Body Connection: How Psychosocial Factors Impact Performance

• How to recognize psychology v situational risk factors
  • Fear of failure, performance anxiety, self-talk, and more
• Resiliency factors: psychology v contextual, how to support both
  • Team culture, self-confidence, effective preparation, and more
• The relationship between elite performance and psychomotor efficiency
• “Choking” in performance, what it means and how it happens
• Identify where clients are on the continuum of mental health and performance

Psychological Skills Training (PST) to Enhance Performance and Well-being in Athletes

• Setting the stage for PST: Help clients understand their ideal mindset
• Effective goal-setting including process and outcome goals
• Use imagery to support performance
• Build self-talk habits that promote best performance and resilience
• The importance of deliberate practice
• See competitive situations as a challenge as opposed to a threat
• Emotion regulation practices to help manage overwhelming feelings
• Help clients delineate what is within their control and what not
• Demonstration/Guided Practice on Imagery Practice

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to Clarify Values & Guide Actions

• Clarify clients’ values in athletic contexts as a compass to guide their actions
• Teach the benefits of mindfulness and skills they can use right away
• Explore willingness with clients
• Develop a values-based action plan for competition with clients
• Teach clients feeling and acting with confidence
• Help clients expand their identity beyond sport through self-as-context
• Live Demonstrations and Writing Exercise

Positive Psychology to Increase Enjoyment & Encourage a Growth Mindset

• Gratitude practices to manage pressure and cultivate joy
• Evidence journaling for shifting the negativity bias
• Relate to mistakes using a growth mindset
• Counsel athlete clients using a strengths-based approach
• Positive Psychology Writing Exercise

Neuroscience, Pain & Physical Health

• Be able to talk about pain, injury, and health behaviors
• Easy-to-understand metaphors about pain for psychoeducation
• Create holistic, biopsychosocial pain recovery plans
• Foster client engagement in the recovery process

Performance Psychology for Non-Athlete Performers: From the C-Suite to the Symphony

• Explore performance psychology across multiple contexts
• Know your patient population and take a person-centered approach
• The skills and dynamics associated with good leadership
• Healthy habits and emotion regulation and responding instead of reacting
• Help leaders hold people accountable while maintaining empathy and connection
• Guided Practice

Social Factors in High-Performance Cultures

• Traditional sports psychology versus contextual influences
• Help clients recognize the impact of contextual and sociopolitical factors
• Understand the coach-athlete relationship: touch coaching versus abuse
• Help high-performers express their needs assertively

Helping Clients with Maladaptive Perfectionism and High Inner Criticism

• Key self-compassion practices for perfectionism
• How to use language consistent with high-performance cultures
• Tackling social media use and tendency to compare oneself to others
• Discussion: Managing the inner critic, what works?