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• INDIVIDUAL SPORT PSYCHOLOGY • TEAM SPORT PSYCHOLOGY • ATHLETE INJURY AND REHABILITATION SUPPORT • ATHLETE RETIREMENT SUPPORT • ADVISOR TO SPORT COACHES • ADVISOR TO SPORT ORGANIZATIONS • MUSIC PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY • ADVISOR TO ENTREPRENEURS, COMPANIES, AND WORKGROUPS • PSYCHOTHERAPY • SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS • MINDFULNESS FOR ATHLETES •
Individual Sport Psychology
In sports, you often find stories of athletes who seem to have had the ability to get ahead in high-pressure situations. Athletes who have achieved victory despite the obstacles they encountered in the pursuit of excellence, doing so with a "mental edge" over their opponents. This mental advantage can be attributed to the influence of factors, strategies, and tools that sport psychology possesses.
On many occasions, I have come across athletes who work very hard to achieve their goals, but fail to achieve the desired results as they lack the skills and mental strength that can propel them to the next level. Physical and tactical training are very important but by themselves, they are not enough to achieve consistency and the mental edge that elite athletes are looking for in their careers.
As a sports psychologist I can help the individual athlete to achieve that mental edge while assisting the athlete to overcome:
Lack of concentration during competitions.
Lack of confidence during competitions
Anxiety or fear of failure before or during competitions
General stress
Communication problems with the coach and/or the team
Choking during important competitions
Loss of emotional control when performance is low
Team Sport Psychology
Sports teams are made up of athletes who use their collective effort and performance to achieve a common goal in training and competition, with each athlete contributing their own individual performance to the performance of the group. Although this may be obvious, in many cases directing the group to achieve common goals is not so simple and will require a greater effort and collaboration from all parties. Thus, part of the psychological work that must be carried out within a team will be the need to balance both the collective and the individual, integrating and coordinating a system of reciprocal influence in the most positive and balanced way possible, in search of the desired team performance. This can be achieved through:
Structured season planning
Goal setting
The previous preparation of the competitions
Improved communication
Specific preparation for important competitions
Problem solving among group members
The development and training of mental abilities
etc.
Athlete Injury and Rehabilitation Support
Sports injuries are a traumatic experience for the athlete. During the rehabilitation period, injured athletes not only lose strength and mobility, but the injury and the recovery process also can become very stressful and distressing. This can happen immediately after the injury or during the recovery process The athlete no longer has the physical, psychological and economic benefits that their sport provided them. In addition, they find themselves in a situation with diminished autonomy and control, and a decreased ability to cope with stress, affecting their self-esteem and self-confidence. Likewise, athletes who cannot cope with the negative effects of an injury jeopardize the recovery process. On the other hand, athletes who do have the necessary tools during the recovery process tend to recover faster and have a more successful return to competition. While injured athletes harboring negative emotions during the rehabilitation process can harm their recovery, making the return to competition more difficult.
There are many variables and imbalances that must be prevented during recovery, such as:
Unstable emotions
Lack of adherence to rehabilitation
Stress
Fear of the future
Fear of pain
Fatigue
Anxiety
Anger
Low motivation
etc.
My role as a sports psychologist in the recovery of injuries is not only limited to rehabilitation but also focuses on helping the athletes to improve their long-term performance, providing tools that benefit the athlete by teaching them to manage stress and develop resilience during competition.
Athlete Retirement Support
When an athlete retires, either due to an injury that prematurely ends their career or due to a decline in individual performance or due to their age, the individual is exposed to social and professional changes that can cause distressing reactions. These athletes, who have belonged to professional or high-level sports, find themselves without the sport that occupied a large part of their lives and without the gratification that their sports brought them. Consequently, various psychological and personal aspects can be adversely affected, and since these athletes lack the necessary preparation or the psychological tools to cope with the transition away from competition; it might be quite hard to accept their current reality. They have trained for many years to reach their best, and when their performance is not what it used to be and retirement is looming in their future, feelings such as fear, anger, or stress might appear.
The psychological work that can be carried out with the athlete in this situation can focus on:
Eliminate or alleviate adverse emotional responses
Eliminate or alleviate depression
Improve self-esteem
Planning of objectives in the new stage
Search for new sources of gratification
Orientation and work with family and friends
Acceptance of the situation
etc.
Advisor to Sport Coaches
Coaches deal with great responsibility. They are the ones who motivate, make important decisions, plan the season, guide and objectively evaluates athletes, coordinate individual, and group work, solve conflicts between athletes, etc. At the same time, the coaches know that they must do all of this while controlling their emotions and impulses under pressure.
From the point of view of sports psychology, and to help facilitate the coach's work, it is important to: advise, train, and optimize their performance. This is achieved with multiple tools and strategies that are useful in the management of their athletes and the situations inherent to the important position they occupy. Some of these tools and strategies are:
1- Advice to the coach in:
Decisions on athletes and technical staff
Relationship with managers
General behavior with athletes
Performance in meetings with athletes and managers
Acting in critical moments
Problem-solving
2- Skills training when interacting with their athletes on:
Environmental strategies
Negotiating and communication skills
Direction and management of human resources
Specific techniques to influence relevant psychological variables
3- The optimization of one's own performance through:
Setting personal goals
Time planning
Stress management
Evaluation of own performance
Personal preparation for training and competition
Techniques to optimize your own performance in training and competition
Self-regulation techniques after the competition
etc.
Advisor to Sport Organizations
When working with sports institutions such as professional clubs, sports federations, universities or schools with sports teams, what I intend is to serve their requirements by helping to facilitate their internal rules and guidelines. Therefore the institution can provide the best possible service to its athletes, workers and members. Likewise, during this process, I will address the particular needs of each group within the organization, from the training of personnel working with the youth, to the staff working with the senior or professional athletes of the organization.
Among the work that can be done with the organizations are:
Define, review and design the internal regulations of the institution
Define, review and design the regulations for operating standards in teams and in groups of athletes
Conflict resolution
Mediator between a group of experts
Orientation to the different sections of the club or institution
Guidance and specialized advice to coaches, parents, and managers in grassroots and initiation sports
Detection and intervention of relevant psychological variables that may affect the organization system or athletes.
Planning and general advice
etc.
Music Performance Psychology
Many of the mental skills that help athletes to cope with the competition are very similar to those that musicians demonstrate during performances. Both must maintain concentration while executing actions of great technical complexity, both are exposed to highly stressful situations, and both perform under the scrutiny of the audience and other professionals.
Musicians tend to be perfectionists, so rehearsals, performances, auditions, and daily work can lead to exhaustion and frustration. This can generate a lack of confidence, stress, distracting thoughts, lack of concentration, memory lapses, muscle tension, shaky hands, rapid heart rate, restricted breathing, excessive fear, negative self-talk, etc.
In addition, the musicians as it happens with the athletes can be exposed to physical injuries that can affect their career over time, putting their mental abilities to the test during the rehabilitation process.
As a performance psychologist, I understand the importance of being able to deliver tools and develop strategies that are useful to achieve peak performance. This can be achieved through:
Managing anxiety and stress
Developing frustration tolerance
Controlling stage fright
Increasing motivation
Increasing self-confidence
Muscle relaxation
Goal setting
Increasing concentration
Memory enhancement
Assistance in recovering from injuries
etc.
Advisor to Business Organizations and Teamworks
Entrepreneurs can be compared to high-performance athletes or coaches, as their company and team depend on their talent and ability to perform at a high level. In the search for high performance within sports psychology, there are many techniques and strategies that are transferred and applied to the business world.
As a sports and performance psychologist, my services are based on addressing the emotional and mental challenges faced by entrepreneurs and their workgroups. Structural planning and preparation to achieve these objectives, and developing resilience to stress and psychological exhaustion or burnout, are key to success in business.
Business performance at the enterprise level can be improved through:
Individual work with the employer
Cohesion of workgroups
Resilience development
Goal setting
Keep motivation high
Increase self-confidence
etc.
In the context of therapy sessions, whether online or in person, the client is in a safe place, where he or she can express their emotions with the guidance of the psychologist, and discover your personal well-being by addressing the symptoms that affect you. Through therapy, the client can come to accept the responsibility of being proactive and taking control of their own lives, actively generating changes to guide them in the desired direction.
The therapeutic necessities of each person are different, therefore, each case is treated individually and adequately to their unique needs that may have their roots in:
Low self-esteem
Stress
Conflicts in personal relationships
Conflicts in professional relationships
Anxiety
Depression
Panic attacks
Phobias
etc.
Seminars and Workshops
Sports clubs, schools, universities, and companies all seek the best possible performance and well-being for their athletes, students, members, and workers. Sports psychology provides knowledge and tools that are useful in many of these scenarios.
My seminars and workshops aim to provide attendees with useful information, easy to understand and that they can adapt and apply to their own fields of work. Some themes included are:
Stress control in academic performance
Team cohesion
Coaches working with athletes
Leadership and performance
Regulation of the activation in athletes
etc.
Mindfulness for Athletes & Performers
For a few years now, the workshops and courses that I have been conducting on mindfulness focused on the performance of athletes have proven to be of great help to the individuals and teams with whom I have worked. Whether online or in-person, these individuals and groups have been able to observe positive changes in the ability to regulate attention, motivation, focus, and control of emotions; thus being able to achieve optimum performance during competition by entering the maximum performance “zone”, where everything runs smoothly and efficiently. At the same time, the individual can achieve general well-being that touches other facets of the athlete's life.
Likewise, this program can also be adapted and applied to other groups of individuals such as musicians, artists, and to any group that seeks better performance in their disciplines and activities.