Holistic Athlete Mental Health

In the world of sport psychology, mental toughness has been upheld as one of, if not, the most important skill we can teach athletes. While there are some aspects of mental toughness that can be thought of as helpful, there are also more well rounded, sustainable, and inclusive ways to prioritize athlete’s mental health. Yes, it is essential to think about athletes as a specific population, but it is also important to also view athletes holistically to provide care that will be applicable after their departure from organized sport.

1. Building Emotional Flexibility

Understanding that feelings are meant to be acknowledged, validated, and coped with gives individuals an interactive way to build comfort within emotional discomfort. Teaching athletes to validate themselves and understand their feelings helps build autonomy, agency, and confidence to navigate their mental health. It also is transferrable and can help build empathy for others within their team. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy has very concrete building blocks for learning how to sit with feelings, identify feelings, and cope with feelings in a way that builds emotional intelligence.

2. Cognitive Defusion 

In addition to addressing feelings, teaching cognitive defusion helps athletes recognize critical and negative self-talk. Cognitive defusion is a framework that emphasizes creating distance from one’s thoughts and works to help people see that their thoughts aren’t facts. This is wildly helpful for thought shifting and externalizing criticism and reduces the likelihood of thought spirals and dysregulation. 

3. Somatic Practices

Using body-based regulation techniques can provide awareness of how our emotions are attached to our bodily experiences. These practices are significantly helpful when an athlete needs to move out of a fight-or-flight state and into regulation. Somatic practices are also helpful when it comes to managing mental health symptoms for those living with anxiety, depression, and trauma. 

4. Individualized Care

Unfortunately, mental toughness can be limiting when it comes to the perception of those using the skills. As we know, not everyone’s lived experience is the same, so our care for athletes should be individualized. We want to be careful that an athlete doesn’t feel as though their experience in sport is their singular identity. This can help prevent assumptions as well as limit chances of subjecting athletes to systems of oppression like racism, sexism, ableism, etc. that aren’t always accounted for within sport psychology theories or practices. It is important to prioritize the differences within athlete mental health in order to prevent folks from falling through the gaps. People aren’t a monolith, and neither are athletes. 

5. Empathy without Solutioning

Athlete mental health can be challenging due to expectations during and after the game. Several spaces might not feel safe for athletes to discuss their feelings. It is important to try to be a safe space for an athlete by prioritizing empathy. Learning how to sit with someone else’s feelings and validate them instead of solving for them might be a game changer for a player who is feeling overwhelmed and alone. Trying to meet people with empathy and understanding can reduce guilt and shame significantly. As stated before, we don’t want to give the impression that an athlete is doing something wrong by trying to ‘solve’ their feelings for them, instead providing a space to process, vent, and sit with the feeling might be more productive. 

Moving Towards Inclusion

As athlete mental health continues to grow, it is important to remember that the systems we have in place are not perfect. Though they are leaps and bounds more helpful than they used to be, we can always be doing better. Mental toughness does have its place in the sport psychology setting, and it is important to not solely depend on it due to its shortcomings. By adding more holistic practices into athlete mental health regimens, we can bolster up the quality and increase the value of services provided to athletes. That being said, making sure athletes have referrals, resources, and recommendations for a broad range of specialists including therapists, coaches, and peer support seems like the right step moving forward. 

The information on this website is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical or psychological condition and is not a substitute for therapy. If you are experiencing an emergency please call/text 988 or go to your nearest emergency room.