Defuse Me: An exploratory qualitative study of long distance runners' subjective experience of Defusion running
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Authors
Saltarelli, Guido
Issue Date
2014
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
endurance athletes, acceptatnce commitment therapy, defusion, content analysis
Alternative Title
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of endurance athletes going through a defusion intervention cite source. Endurance athletes use several techniques to push through fatigue or pain during training and races, and defusion has been shown in clinical settings to help with pain management (Treanor et. al 2011), so defusion may be beneficial for endurance athletes when pushing through fatigue and pain. Five endurance runners from northern Michigan and northern California participated in the study. The participants went through a defusion intervention, applied the exercises learned in practice, and shared their experience in an interview. The interviews were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Current research by Hayes and Strohsahl on defusion interventions corroborated the universal experience each participant reported - fused language was prevalent in the beginning and defused talk prevalent at the end of the intervention. Understanding the experience of athletes learning and applying defusion will aid future research designed to measure the impact defusion may have on performance. Furthermore, research on the effectiveness of defusion can provide sport psychology practitioners with another resource to help athletes reach their potential.