Gold Medal Strategies for Athlete Mental Health: A Sport-Informed Lens to Therapeutic Treatment for High Performance Athletes

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Issue Date
2024-09
Authors
Tang, Jess
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Abstract
As high profile athletes increasingly share their mental health challenges, awareness of the need for mental help support in sports is growing. This capstone explores both the prevalence of mental health symptoms and disorders among high performance athletes and identifies sport specific risk factors for mental health within high performance sport systems. Understanding how mental health can impact both mental and athletic performance can lower mental health stigma in sports, increase help-seeking behaviours, and creates a distinct opportunity for Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCCs) in elite sport systems. It is time RCCs enter into the arena equipped with a sport-informed lens to therapeutic treatment that allows athletes to go for gold without sacrificing their mental health. This approach recognizes the complexities of being an elite athlete, the pressures of high performance environments, and importance of the coach-athlete relationship. By integrating therapeutic care into the athlete’s sport contexts and acknowledging both their mental well-being and performance goals, we can ensure they reach peak performance, competing at their best both on and off the field.
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Keywords
sport , sport-informed , athlete mental health , high performance , sport psychology , mental performance
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess
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