Sports Psychology
The Guiding Principle
As an athlete, you know that you are always striving for improvement. You may physically train many hours a week to enhance your performance to gain the slightest edge over the competition. Much too often, however, we tend to ignore the psychological aspect of training. The growing field of sports psychology maintains the basic principle that the mind plays a central role on one's physical performance. It is clear that our thoughts, images and emotions are directly connected to our body's functioning and thus impact directly on our performance. As an athlete you can learn to pay close attention to your psychological and emotional well-being and utilize the powers of the unconscious brain in order to improve performance in any sport and at any level of competition.
The Approach
Generally, the sessions follow a goal-directed approach and intervention is of short-term duration. Using the fundamentals of behavioral psychology, creative imagery, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and peak performance training, a customized treatment plan is devised and implemented. Individual therapy is moulded around your needs as the client and works to promote optimal performance and health. The athlete becomes an active participant in the therapeutic process and will have 'homework assignments' between sessions to facilitate progress.
The Process
This approach will enable you to:
| Develop powerful images and simple anchors that you will be able to use while competing to enhance your level of performance. |
| Discover the contributing factors to your optimal athletic performance. |
| Develop a sense of mastery in your abilities. |
| Learn practical and powerful coping skills to deal with stress. |
| Learn to immediately rebound mentally from failure and stay sharp. |
| Learn about the general role of stress, emotions and mental processes on your performance and health. |
| Disconnect your self-esteem from your performance. |
| Discover the restorative and healing effects of the Relaxation Response through simple relaxation or meditation skills. |
| Learn key principles of peak performance training. |
| Develop tools to increase your motivation and discipline to train. |
| Train the unconscious mind to effect changes in your thoughts, emotions and images. |
| Transform unconscious patterns that may sabotage your success. |
| Find a place of equilibrium in your life. |
| Learn how to get yourself out of a slump. |
| Find out how to attract luck in your game. |