The role of a clinical sport psychologist is to identify barriers that impede an athlete's performance and develop tools to help her/him overcome those barriers in order to achieve and maintain personal and performance goals. Some of these barriers include difficulty focusing, poor goal setting, perfectionism, or poor mental readiness to perform. Other times, the barriers may be more clinically or emotionally driven, such as depression, performance anxiety, relationship issues, anger, or difficulty with self-regulation.
A clinical sport psychologist is uniquely qualified to handle both mental skills development and psychological emotional issues that stand in the way of an athlete's performance.
Clinical sport psychologists understand the dynamic relationship between the performance and personal life that most athletes experience from day to day. For example, the tension between pushing oneself past mental and physical limits and maintaining a healthy sense of balance and self-care.
Getting this balance right leads to consistent elite level performance as well as a sense of personal thriving and emotional wellness.
Consultation with a sport psychologist can provide tools and strategies an athlete needs to achieve optimal performance and confidence on and off the field of play.