Personal issues

ASPN sport psychologists are also qualified in clinical psychology, and are able assist athletes with a range of personal matters, including family and relationship problems, anxiety, depression, anger, and eating disorders.

Motivation

From time to time, most athletes struggle to maintain high levels of motivation. Sport psychologists can assist athletes to develop strategies to improve levels of motivation.

Click here for some quick tips for improving motivation.

Stress and anxiety

Stress management skills can help you deal with off-field challenges, and help you keep your mind focussed on the demands of your sport.

Depression

Depression is well recognised to be a common problem, affecting both athletes and non-athletes alike. For athletes, a depressed mood is often associated with feelings of fatigue, irritability and tension, which have a negative effect on the quality of sporting performance.

Eating and weight

Many athletes struggle with issues of eating and weight management. For some, difficulties with the control of eating lead to more serious complications, such as the restriction of food intake to keep weight down, or bingeing and inducing vomiting.

If left untreated, eating difficulties can become progressive worse. affecting both sporting performance and general daily living. Psychologists can assist athletes with these problems to regain control of their eating and weight.

Relationships

From time to time, most people struggle with difficulties in personal relationships. For athletes, some difficulties develop as a result of the time and efforts devoted to training, or to commitments with the sporting team.

Career changes

All things come to an end, and one of the certainties of sport is that the time will come when the athlete's career reaches its end. For some, retirement from sport comes after a long and successful career, and the challenge for the athlete is to the timing is to answer the question "what next?" For others, the timing is not of their own choosing, but results from injury, or delisting by a professional team. Read more