Psychology Practitioners Research Articles

Collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching in sport and exercise: Lessons from the development and delivery of an equity, diversity, and inclusion workshop

Training in sport and exercise that is collaborative and interdisciplinary allows for the delivery of key knowledge and skills that help shape trainees’ practice. Such training also demonstrates how collaborations can take shape and how individuals can work together in the future. We present an example of collaborative and interdisciplinary training used within an equity, diversity, and inclusion workshop that was provided to trainees enrolled on the Sport and Exercise Psychology Accreditation Route (SEPAR) training program offered through the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. The SEPAR program was designed to allow trainees to gain knowledge, skills, and experience to apply and register as Practitioner Psychologists with the Health and Care Professions Council in the United Kingdom. The workshop was a collaboration between individuals trained in sport and exercise psychology and clinical social work. Overall, the workshop helped trainees gain an understanding of key terms and definitions concerning equity, equality, diversity, inclusion, and social justice as well as legal responsibilities. The workshop also demonstrated a variety of perspectives from sport and exercise psychology and clinical social work as to how inclusive and socially just approaches can be used to create safe environments that can foster strong therapeutic relationships with clients.

Performance Mindfulness: Integrating ACT Matrix, Imagery and Mindfulness for Performance Enhancement

Mindfulness, imagery, and acceptance-based interventions have been widely applied within the sport and performance psychology domain. This paper presents a novel imagery method termed ‘Performance Mindfulness,’ which synthesizes insights from the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Matrix tool, the Physical, Environmental, Task, Timing, Learning, Emotion, Perspective (PETTLEP) imagery method, and principles of mindfulness. As existing imagery techniques are limited in effectively capturing the motivational and emotional dimensions of athletic performance, this integrated approach introduces a well-conceptualized, evidence-based framework rooted in Contextual Behavioral Science. This framework translates insights from the ACT Matrix into a practical tool within the imagery process and integrates principles of mindfulness to enhance the effectiveness of imagery. Performance Mindfulness is tailored for sport psychology practitioners who seek to incorporate acceptance and mindfulness principles into the mental preparation of athletes at various levels. The paper provides a detailed explanation of the technique, including concrete examples, and discusses its advantages and disadvantages comprehensively.

Ensuring that psychological interventions are delivered as intended on mental health inpatient wards.

Talk, Understand and Listen for InPatient Settings (TULIPS) was a multi-centred randomized control trial of an intervention that aimed to increase patient access to psychological therapies on acute mental health wards. This paper aims to: (i) describe a strategy for designing a psychological intervention that is implementable in inpatient mental health settings; (ii) describe methods for assessing the fidelity of interventions within these settings; (iii) report on the extent to which fidelity was achieved in the TULIPS trial. The TULIPS intervention was designed using information from a systematic review, stakeholder interviews, pilot work and a consensus workshop. We assessed fidelity to the model in terms of the delivery and dose of essential elements of the intervention, quality of intervention delivery, engagement of participants with the intervention and differentiation between the intervention and usual care. Although the TULIPS intervention targeted known barriers to the delivery of psychological interventions on mental health wards, we found issues in implementing aspects of the intervention that were dependent upon the participation of members of the multidisciplinary team. Psychologists were able to overcome barriers to delivering individual therapy to patients as this provision was not reliant on the availability of other staff. The intervention period in the study was 6 months. A greater period of time with a critical mass of psychological practitioners is needed to embed psychological interventions on inpatient wards. Our fidelity framework and assessment methods can be used by other researchers implementing and testing psychological therapies within inpatient environments.

THE IMPACT OF THE WAR-INDUCED, UNSTABLE LIVING CONDITIONS ON PERSONALITY’S MENTAL HEALTH

The purpose of the article. Our work examines the psychological features of the main types of destructive ways of responding to unstable living conditions and their impact on one’s mental health and personal efficiency. The growing number of people facing unstable life conditions and those needing effective psychological strategies to overcome stress and crises are the basis of our study's relevance. The majority of the trauma studies in the field of psychology are devoted to studying the impact of the most common short-term trauma, but the conditions we find ourselves in recently are forcing people to adjust to uncertainty and the traumatizing events that happen to have no visible ending point. The adjustment to long-term trauma means that one comes to realize that there’s no point in postponing life until after the trauma, but rather learning to live one’s life to the fullest and grab every possible opportunity for self-actualization. It is well known that one’s reactions to stressful and unstable situations can be constructive or destructive. The paper aims to identify and analyze the main types of destructive reactions, such as somatization, distress, depression, and anxiety, as well as to study their impact on personal traits that correspond with personal growth and self-actualization. Research methods. We applied the following methods to meet the research tasks: psychological testing, analysis of psychological literature, and statistical methods of data processing, which enable a deeper understanding of the ways the mechanisms of destructive responses to unstable living conditions are formed. Results. The paper examines theoretical approaches to understanding destructive behavioral patterns and their application in psychological assistance. We were able to prove the suggestion that destructive ways of responding, such as anxiety, distress, depression, and somatization complicate the process of self-actualization significantly, reducing the level of personal growth and self-knowledge. We also offer recommendations on the optional techniques for reducing the impact of destructive reactions and supporting positive personality development for psychological assistance and mental health protection. Conclusions. The study results can be effective for psychology practitioners, psychotherapists, and other mental health professionals. They can also become the basis for further scientific research in stress management psychology and psychotherapy. As such, some of the results were presented at the round table “Mental health during the war: challenges and perspectives”. Keywords: distress, unstable living conditions, self-development, self-actualization, influence

Predicting student burnout in blended environments: a complementary PLS-SEM and machine learning approach

ABSTRACT Despite student burnout has attracted the attention of researchers and practitioners in education and psychology, little is known about the factors that contribute to it in blended contexts. This research aims to formulate and verify a predictive model elucidating how social support and self-regulated learning predict student burnout within blended learning contexts. Utilizing data collected from a sample of 303 students, a complementary method that combines partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with machine learning (ML) algorithms was implemented. The favorable impact of perceived social support and self-regulated learning in mitigating burnout was demonstrated by the PLS results. Additionally, it was discovered that self-regulated learning fully mediates the correlation between offline social support students received and learning burnout. Furthermore, the employed ML algorithms achieved a prediction accuracy rate exceeding 70% in the majority of cases. Employing a complementary analytical method is believed to offer a substantial contribution to the current body of research on learning burnout generally and blended learning in particular.

“I always just viewed it as part of sport”: Psychological maltreatment and conformity to the sport ethic

Sport environments have the potential to be advantageous to one’s development and well-being; however, they are also plagued with the normalization of excessive pressures and extreme expectations that can enhance athletes’ susceptibility to experiencing harm, especially psychological maltreatment. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore athletes’ experiences of conforming to the sport ethic and experiences of psychological maltreatment in sport. Semi-structured interviews were completed with thirteen retired, competitive, women athletes. Each interview was transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Findings demonstrate that the sport ethic influences the vulnerability of athletes to experiencing psychological maltreatment and athletes’ experiences of psychological maltreatment influence their conformity to the sport ethic. The desire to please is identified as central to this nexus between conformity and experiences of psychological maltreatment. The paper concludes with applied recommendations for sport psychology practitioners.

Two Confessional Tales of Trainee Sport Psychology Practitioners’ Experiences of Operating in Trinidad and Tobago

Two Confessional Tales of Trainee Sport Psychology Practitioners’ Experiences of Operating in Trinidad and Tobago

How do university students experience using photos to self-identify their character strengths? A Thematic analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated demand for mental and emotional well-being support. As a result of the pandemic and the prevailing economic climate, individuals and businesses in the UK have been ‘taking stock’. Positive Psychology Interventions provide the prospect of meeting these needs through strengths-based approaches which demonstrate a host of benefits. One of these is the use of photographs to transform the narratives that people ascribe to their experiences. This intervention may have a range of advantages, including a positive impact on well-being. However, there is relatively little research into the use of photos as a potential tool for self-identifying strengths. To gain an understanding of the lived experience of using photos to elicit strengths, a homogeneous participant sample of nine students studying psychology at a UK university were recruited. The participants undertook an intervention based on that used by Steger et al. (2014) in their pilot study. Each participant was asked to take 9-12 pictures of things that were meaningful to them over the period of one week. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection, and reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken to analyse the data. Four themes were identified: Experiencing the strength, Feeling uplifted, Being reflective, and Looking to the future. It was found that that the participants experienced the intervention as profound and enriching. The use of the photographs was instrumental in the self-identification of strengths. This study provides valuable insights into the experience of this PPI and may have implications for positive psychology practitioners and coaches.

Clinician- vs non-clinician-supported eTherapy for anxiety and depression

Purpose The efficacy of supported computerised therapy (eTherapy) for anxiety and depression is established; however, questions remain regarding supporter type. This paper aims to examine differences in client outcomes between clinician- (Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner) and non-clinician-supported, low intensity eTherapy. Standardised outcome measures were collected and analysed pre- and post-intervention in two eTherapy services as part of National Health Service (NHS) commissioned, Improving Access to Psychological Therapy provision – now known as NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression (TT). Design/methodology/approach This study is a routine service evaluation comparing two eTherapy services. In total, 494 clients (including 455 clients meeting caseness) accessed the service over a year as part of routine care for anxiety and depression. The Patient Health Questionnaire and Generalised Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire scales were administered pre- and post-treatment as part of the TT data set (NHS England, 2024). Findings Following adjustment for demographics, baseline assessment scores and clinical variables, the authors found no evidence to support differences in the likelihood of recovery between clients in the non-clinician-supported site and clients referred to the clinician-supported site: OR = 1.24 [95%CI: 0.71 to 2.17] for TT recovery, OR = 0.83 [95%CI: 0.47 to 1.49] for TT reliable improvement and OR = 1.11 [95%CI: 0.65 to 1.92] for TT reliable recovery. Originality/value Non-clinician-supported eTherapy is as effective as clinician-supported eTherapy. This finding supports the case for expansion of non-clinician-supported eTherapy services in TT services.

An Athlete-Centered Career Assistance Intervention Program for the Chinese Sport System: Reflections Into Polyphonics

The aim through this manuscript is to share our career intervention situated in individual, group, and meta-reflective practice, to help elite athletes manage changes in their careers and support their autonomy and development within the Chinese Whole Nation System (CWNS). Translating findings from a science to practice project, we provide an athlete-centered reflective intervention integrating the perspectives of sport psychology practitioners (SPPs), coaches, athletes, and parents from a Chinese collective vantage. First, we introduce how athlete career transition scholarship and theoretical frameworks guided this intervention. Second, we explain how different levels of reflective practice can be used as a part of a career intervention. Third, we provide a brief summary of recent research project from which the intervention was derived, and fourth, we describe a six-step intervention to inform future implementations.

Reading a liberation psychology archive in South Africa

Those working from within the liberation psychology paradigm strive to remould psychology so that it might be put to work for the task of liberation – a task with which most psychologists have, historically, been wholly unconcerned. In practice, liberation psychology tends to be porous, multiple, and under-resourced. Indeed, much of what we might think of as liberation psychology is not referred to as such by its practitioners. Surfacing liberation psychology, then, requires reading into its undocumented histories. In this article, we attempt to develop a picture of liberation psychology in South Africa (SA) by reading the archives of Mohamed Seedat, a pioneering practitioner of liberation psychology. Grounded in the working-class south of Johannesburg and underwritten by expansive global commitments to liberation, Seedat’s archive spans almost four decades, passing through many disciplines, communities, political traditions, and affective registers. We suggest that his archive offers us insights into the affective components of history, developing community praxis in apartheid and post-apartheid SA, and humanising knowledge-making. We conclude by reflecting on how liberation psychology archives like Seedat’s serve as under-appreciated resources for grappling with the psycho-political constitution of emancipatory struggle.

Defining and developing operational psychology competency.

Establishing competency in new or emerging areas of psychological practice is always difficult. For practitioners of operational psychology, it is even more challenging due to the requirement for highly specialized skills, novel applications, and the fact that many organizations employing operational psychologists operate in classified or sensitive settings. Despite the ethical obligation to do so, operational psychologists may face challenges in establishing and maintaining their credentials and competency. This article outlines the core competencies of operational psychology based on the extant literature, provides case examples illustrating their application, and identifies recommendations for training and consultation necessary for establishing and maintaining competence. Given the scarcity of current training opportunities, limited mentorship, and the lack of training standards, many operational psychologists may develop only some, but not all, of their specialty's core competencies. Furthermore, establishing and maintaining competency may take years of post-graduate study and experience for most practitioners. To accelerate this process and codify core competencies and training standards, the formation of an operational psychology society or association may be necessary. Such actions could create a collective agency among practitioners, securing advocacy for the needs and equities of this practice community, and advancing its policies, practices, and scholarship.

“When You Understand the Environment, You Can Navigate the Transition Better”: Supporting Professional Football Players in Transitions to Clubs Abroad

The aim of the present paper is to share the outcome of a series of professional conversations among three scientist practitioners on how the new concept of transition environment (TE) and two related models may inform a sport psychology practitioner’s (SPP) work with football players in their cultural transitions to foreign football clubs. The center of the discussion was the applied work of one of the authors who is in a position to help Danish professional footballers with transitions abroad. After outlining his professional philosophy, developed for working within the context of professional football, we explore the tasks and challenges for practitioners working with footballers in a cultural transition. We explain how the context of professional football constrains the services. Ideally, the SPP would like to optimize the players’ environments during transition but ends up using specific strategies to compensate for a lack of access to this level of work. Finally, we promote the importance of SPPs possessing contextual intelligence in order to help players understand and navigate their TE.

“Choose Your Own Adventure”: Examining School Psychology Trainee and Practitioner Clinical Reasoning in Unfolding Cases

“Choose Your Own Adventure”: Examining School Psychology Trainee and Practitioner Clinical Reasoning in Unfolding Cases

BPS DSEP position statement: Psychological skills training in youth sport

Young athletes have become an increasingly important client group for sport psychology practitioners and a population whose physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development should be carefully considered by a practitioner when delivering their services (Visek et al., 2009). The aim of this British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology (DSEP) position statement is to summarise existing knowledge about psychological skills training (PST) interventions and discuss optimal service provision of PST in youth sport. In the first section of this position statement, we provide a brief overview of the literature exploring PST during childhood (5–11 years), early adolescence (12–15 years), and mid-to-late adolescence (16–18 years). Within each sub-section, key developmental considerations (i.e. physical, cognitive, emotional, and social) are provided followed by short summaries of research on basic single strategy (i.e. goal setting, imagery, relaxation, and self-talk) and alternative strategy interventions (e.g. mindfulness, music, perceptual training, and self-modelling) with young athletes. In the second section, optimal service provision of PST is discussed by drawing upon practitioners’ experiences of working with young athletes, concluding with 10 recommendations for youth sport organisations, training and accrediting bodies, researchers, and practitioners.

Continuing education in sport psychology: a survey of where we are and where we need to go

ABSTRACT A fundamental competence for psychology practitioners is to practice according to ethical standards and principles. One way to achieve these standards includes continuing education (CE). Sport psychology practitioners (SPPs) have frequently noted the importance of engaging in CE to improve professional practice, yet more research is needed on the effectiveness of the CE available to SPPs and what SPPs think they desire in terms of CE. In this exploratory study, a multinational sample of 291 (female = 158; male = 128) SPPs at different levels of professional development participated in an online survey to gather information about their CE opportunities and their perceived effectiveness. Most SPPs (n = 223) reported that CE was mandated by their professional organizations, believed in its importance, and had experienced eight CE events on average in the previous 12 months, which were generally focused more on service delivery-related issues. Participants also offered their views on the effectiveness of the CE programmes they attended and their hopes for future topics offered by CE programmes (e.g., ethics, EDI, effective service delivery). Based on the results from this study, we share some reflections on the current status quo of CE within the sport psychology profession and offer recommendations to support professional organizations to provide effective CE opportunities to their members.

Preemptive listening: a roundtable discussion about sirens

ABSTRACT Nested within the crisis of our attention economy, the siren is undergoing a profound transformation, prompted by our ongoing alarm fatigue and noise pollution, as well as the near-obsolescence and inefficiency of public sound system broadcasts. Employing an interdisciplinary approach from specialists in the field of sound studies, behavioural psychology, policy advisors and creative practitioners, this roundtable article aims to unpack the critical potential of reimagining sirens, extending physically beyond ear-centred listening, conceptually beyond immediate timeframes, and opening up to new collaborative methodologies across academia, industry, artistic networks and more, to tackle today’s urgent need to recalibrate emergency signals for the immediate and the distant future.

Talking sh**! – are we doing enough?

This paper is a discursive piece on whether clinical psychologists and psychological practitioners are taking the time to consider bowel, urine and toileting issues sufficiently in their work. It draws on the disgust literature and the links to compassion in care giving. It seeks to explore experiences in direct therapy, in caregiver work, within teams and aims to encourage greater reflection on our relationships to these issues. The hope is to draw attention to the extraordinary work of those completing personal care tasks and the impact it has, with an attempt to position ourselves alongside people tolerating incontinence in order to grasp the psychological impact on self.

“What Goes on Tour, Shouldn’t Stay on Tour”: Composite Vignettes of the Challenges of Being on Tour, Emotional Labor, and Self-Care for Sport Psychology Practitioners

Sport psychology practitioners (SPP) are often required to work unsociable hours and in atypical settings (e.g., during transport, in a gym or canteen). To maintain competence while facing the demands of their role, SPPs regulate their emotions and demonstrate emotional performativity in line with perceived role requirements. Grounded in the first author’s experiences, we critically reflect on how being on tour exacerbated these professional challenges wherein the demands became more prevalent and pervasive across time and settings, leading to negative emotional (e.g., burnout) and professional (e.g., poor quality of service delivery) outcomes. In two composite vignettes, we illustrate the impact the demands of touring can have in the face of significant emotional labor and the absence of adequate SPP self-care. Finally, we share several lessons learned, pragmatic self-care strategies, and implications for SPPs and supervisors, and offer our vignettes as a developmental resource to be used in education and training.

From Barcelona to Tokyo: Counseling a High-Performance Center Through the Disruption Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic and the Postponed Games

As part of a growing line of interventions, sports psychology practitioners focus on supporting organizations and their members to better cope with the demands of career transitions. The aim of this article is to share our experience of counseling a High-Performance Center through two concurrent non-normative transitions: the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption to the Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic Games. We report our reflections on what it means to consult for an organization rather than for individuals, and what adaptation to a period of constantly changing circumstances means in and for an organization. We also describe the lessons learned and share our evaluation of strengths and points of improvement for future interventions.