The goal of Sports Counselling is to help you reach your potential.
Sport counselling is for athletes who are struggling with their mental health. One of the biggest barriers as to why athletes don’t seek counselling is stigma. As elite athletes, you are encouraged to be mentally tough and to be the best athlete to excel in your sport. As a result, the discussion of mental health is deemed a sign of weakness and that you should be mentally tough to ‘get up and get on with it’. This mentality is counterproductive to your mental health and can be a detriment to your performance as an athlete. As elite athletes, several concerns can affect your mental health and performance:
Identity (who am I outside of being an athlete)
Transitioning (retirement, injury, or into a new club)
Injuries
Retirement & uncertainty about future
De-selection
Self-medicating for pain relief
Substance use
Gambling
Financial concerns
Living away from home/always travelling
Disordered eating/ Body image
Perfectionism
Burnout
Stress
Fear of failure
Depression
Anxiety
Anger
As well as worries and struggles within the sporting environment, there will be issues outside of your sport such as relationship/ family issues, grief and loss to name a few, that will contribute to your mental health struggles. It might not be just one thing, it could be a combination of things. Through Sports Counselling, we can work together to help you gain control and an understanding of your mental health. Also, develop new coping strategies and techniques that will help you reach your potential as an elite athlete but also as a person.
