Beyond performance: Training sport psychologists in Australia

From research and anecdotal evidence, it seems that the general public, sports people and other psychologists believe that sport psychology practitioners work primarily (or only) in the areas of motivation and teaching psychological skills to athletes for performance enhancement. For much of the world, this perception is close to the mark because, historically, most of the training of practitioners has occurred in exercise science departments where the main focus is on psychological skills training (PST) for performance. Australia, however, sits apart from the dominant training pathways. At the two institutes in Australia where sport psychologists are trained, the University of Queensland (UQ) and Victoria University (VU), future practitioners are educated as general psychologists first, and then as psychologists with expertise in working with people in sport and exercise settings second.

Approaching training and service delivery in this way need not be mutually exclusive to performance enhancement agendas. Athletes and coaches are a lot like the rest of us. They have all the same strengths, weaknesses, joys, hopes, fears and frailties as anybody else, and they experience psychological issues both in and out of sport. Some commentators have suggested that acknowledging broader psychological (and even clinical) issues in the sporting environment is disruptive to sport performance. This myth is perpetuated by old-school sport cultures that reward athletes for silencing emotions and not showing signs of weakness. On the contrary, helping athletes acknowledge and address their psychological issues (e.g., depression, relationship concerns, eating disorders; see boxed information) may have an indirect positive influence on their sporting performances. Also, the effectiveness of PST interventions can be undermined by unaddressed psychological concerns in the broader context of an athlete’s world. For example, after winning his first tennis Grand Slam recently, Andy Murray spoke about his work with a sport psychologist, highlighting the importance of holistic service delivery (McDaid, 2012).

I spoke about things away from the court that may affect you and stop you from being fully focused on tennis… that’s really what’s helped me rather than talking about breathing or taking your time between points… there’s a lot more that goes into your life, and an athlete, than just what goes on on the court.

In the last 10 years there have been many elite Australian athletes who have come out and spoken about their struggles with depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Ian Thorpe’s revelations of his repeated bouts of depression and self-medication with alcohol is a recent example that even those in sport who appear to be highly functional may be suffering in silence.

In this article, we hope to dispel the common misperception that sport psychologists are only performance enhancers and motivators who use PST with athletes. Sport psychologists trained in UQ and VU programs treat whole people, not just a narrow band of behaviours that occur on playing fields.

Brief history of applied sport psychology

In the 1960s, sport psychology research and training emerged as a growing discipline across Europe and North America. At the first World Congress of Sport Psychology in 1965, the International Society of Sport Psychology was formed, providing an impetus for continued growth of the field world-wide. Much research and training during this era occurred in human movement and physical education departments in Europe and North America, with a large focus on skill acquisition and motor behaviour.

In the 1970s, the growth of sport psychology in Australia followed a similar path. Professionals returning from overseas training programs were often employed in physical education departments of tertiary institutions and colleges of advanced education. Training and research into the broader aspects of sport psychology were rare, and no institution offered focused programs in this area. A landmark for the professionalisation of sport psychology in Australia was the formation of the APS Board of Sport Psychologists in 1991. A major priority of the Board was the development of agreed standards for training and qualifications of practice in sport psychology. The Board decided upon a different approach to qualification from most of the rest of the world, adapting a training model from the APS Board of Clinical Psychologists (Morris, 1995). Postgraduate coursework degrees in applied sport psychology were developed in four Australian universities, but only two (UQ and VU) still exist.

Current training in Australia

Unlike many professional pathways to becoming a sport psychology practitioner across the globe, students studying at UQ and VU undertake training that is jointly taught in schools of psychology and human movement studies or sport science. The curriculum comprises subjects and practicum experiences that most mainstream general psychologists in training must complete. This training includes units in counselling skills, professional ethics, assessment and evaluation, and psychological theories and interventions. Applied professional degrees at UQ and VU have accreditation from the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council and lead to general registration as a psychologist. Graduates completing an additional period of supervised practice are eligible to apply for area of practice endorsement in sport and exercise psychology with the Psychology Board of Australia and for full membership of the Australian Psychological Society College of Sport and Exercise Psychologists. This system is perhaps the most integrated training and registration model of sport psychologists in the world (Andersen, 2001). The pathway in Australia is unique and unambiguous; as stated before, future practitioners are educated as general psychologists first, and as sport psychologists second.

The training of sport psychologists in Australia has implications for graduates’ boundaries of practice. Few graduates end up working full-time in sport and exercise settings, but rather find other psychology-related work in academic, counselling, sports medicine and clinical roles. These diverse professional pathways are likely due to the limited full-time sport psychology positions in sport institutions, but also, in part, because working with a registered psychologist for sport performance enhancement is not covered by Medicare rebates. With a foundation in general psychology, and with continuing professional development, graduates may work with both athlete and non-athlete clients, and with both performance and non-performance related therapeutic goals. It is knowledge and competencies that define the boundaries for practice, not labels.

In an effort to move beyond the popular perceptions of sport psychologists as motivators and performance enhancers, the two course coordinators at VU and UQ (second and third authors, respectively) collaborated on editing a comprehensive text illustrating the potential breadth and depth of sport psychology practice (e.g., working with different models, special populations, clinical and counselling issues). Only nine of the 57 chapters in the text are dedicated to PST (Hanrahan & Andersen, 2010).

Student experiences in training

Research suggests that the Australian applied sport psychology training models at UQ and VU provide students with experiences that foster professional development and competence. Tod and colleagues conducted a series of studies (e.g., Tod, Andersen, & Marchant, 2011) investigating the experiences perceived to contribute to the development of service delivery competence by interviewing practitioners during and after their formal education. Participants cited role plays, supervised experience, theory and research, and social interactions with classmates and staff as important experiences contributing to professional development. Several participants also noted that a PST approach was often not suitable for their clients and the many issues they present.

Holistic training at VU and UQ prepares students for a substantial range of presenting concerns they may encounter during practicum experiences and after graduation. Typical group supervision classes at UQ and VU often feature as many stories of students navigating adjustment problems, relationship issues, body image concerns, mood disturbances and anxiety with their clients, as they do stories about PST interventions for performance. With ongoing supervision and continuing professional development, students are able to develop the skills to work with issues that they are likely to encounter in their professional careers. Collectively, research and anecdotal evidence about student experiences in training lend credence to the broad foci of the current UQ and VU programs.

Comprehensive and holistic sport psychology services

The current training pathways in Australia, and student and graduate experiences, reveal a different reality of service delivery than the popular perception of sport psychologists as mental skills trainers and motivators. This reality reflects the ‘psychologisation’ of the field. People are put before behaviours (e.g., sport performance); practitioners mindfully consider the broader contexts of individuals’ lives, and client health and happiness (not necessarily just performance) are essential and foundational concerns. Bona fide service delivery requires practitioners to forge strong therapeutic relationships, conceptualise cases using sound theoretical frameworks, and work collaboratively with clients on agreed upon goals – much the same as traditional psychological service delivery (Hanrahan & Andersen, 2010).

Conclusion

The international recognition of the excellent training of sport psychologists in Australia is reflected in the students who have studied in the programs at VU and UQ. To date, students from 15 different countries have enrolled in the sport and exercise psychology programs at these two institutions. Universities in other countries are following Australia’s lead and beginning to offer sport psychology degrees through departments of psychology. We are not dismissing the importance of sport psychologists having grounding in the sport sciences, but instead we are indicating the importance of them having solid training as psychologists. As practitioners, we need to not only understand the content of interventions that address performers as people, but also be cognisant of the interpersonal processes of service that begin with our relationships with our clients.