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AASP Newsletter - November 2017

Young Writers Corner (YWC): Transferring Applied Sport Psychology Skills to Counseling

Phil Imholte, MA, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Literature exploring the transferability of practitioner skills has focused primarily on assisting those making the transition from counseling-related fields to applied sport psychology (ASP) (Anderson, Van Raalte, & Brewer, 2001; Hays, 1995; Lesyk, 1998). The fact that in many settings and cases counseling skills prove useful for applied sport psychology practitioners (ASPPs), has most likely resulted in this one-directional emphasis in publications (Kornspan & Lerner, 2005; Petitpas, Giges, & Danish, 1999; Stainback, Moncier, & Taylor, 2007; Tod, 2007). Despite considerable merit regarding the transferability of ASP skills in the realm of counseling, thus far, limited attention has been devoted to ASP-specific skills that transfer to counseling. As a result, when students with training in ASP wish to improve their work by seeking training in counseling, they have limited direction from literature to guide their transitions.

There are various educational and training pathways for a career in ASP (Wylleman, Harwood, Elbe, Reints, & de Caluwé, 2009). However, students who pursue training in counseling may be unaware of how to best describe or utilize their ASP skills within the counseling domain. The ability to successfully apply this skill-set in counseling can help students remain competitive in interviews for graduate programs, clinical practicum experiences, internships, and when pursuing other employment opportunities and acquire additional training.

As an impetus for further investigation and guidance for ASPs transitioning into counseling, several skill areas can be identified as unique to ASP and transferrable to counseling. For example, knowledge of sport sub-culture (Schinke & McGannon, 2004) and sport science (Kornspan & Lerner, 2005) are two such areas that will benefit practitioners when counseling athletes. These knowledge areas can improve a practitioner’s ability to conceptualize athlete concerns, demonstrate appropriate empathy and understanding of the athletic experience, and guide interventions to best serve those whose lives have been impacted by sport. Additionally, due to the advantages of gaining access to athletic teams and/or performance organizations, it is likely that ASPPs will also possess a unique set of “sales” or marketing-specific interpersonal skills that differentiate them from the typical counselor (Petitpas, 2002; Ravizza, 1988). These particular interpersonal skills can help practitioners develop relationships with organizations within their community and implement various forms of outreach programming for hard-to-reach individuals in need (e.g., life skills programming for students in underfunded school districts). Another transferable skill area is a combination of “hanging out” (Tonn & Harmison, 2004, p. 334) and brief contact interventions (Giges & Petitpas, 2000). This skill area can help practitioners develop relationships with hard-to-reach groups as well. Whereas practitioners who have been primarily trained in clinical settings may need to develop skills to meet the unpredictable demands of non-clinical settings, ASPPs can transfer the ability to hang out and provide impromptu interventions (developed from the unpredictable nature of sport environments) to other non-clinical settings when providing outreach services.

Workshop skills (i.e., designing, implementing, and facilitating life skills via large and small group exercises and debriefs) constitute an additional skillset that ASPPs can transfer to the counseling domain in the form of outreach services. Particularly, the ability to provide large-group workshop programming at a moment’s notice is a valuable asset, because it can facilitate practitioners’ process to meet the needs of communities whose individuals are not as easily served through individual counseling interventions.

The ability to explicitly explain how ASP skills transfer to the practice of counseling – for example in the area of prevention programs – will not only help ASPPs compete for jobs and gain entrance into training programs, but also represent ASP as a united and unique field. Prevention programs are designed to hinder the onset of psychological difficulties and other undesirable health-related outcomes (Vera & Reese, 2000) and have recently gained attention from counselors as a way to promote social justice (Hage & Kenny, 2009). Examples include programs that have aimed to prevent issues such as school dropout (Shin & Kendall, 2012), intimate partner violence (Yoshihama, Ramakrishnan, Hammock, & Khaliq, 2012), and HIV (Hays, Rebchook, & Kegeles, 2003). In particular, the described workshop facilitation skills are easily transferable and valuable to preventive work, as 60% of exceptional prevention programs have featured life skills programming (Shin & Kendall, 2012). Practitioners can utilize the same skills they use to create engagement on athletic teams to implement life skills programming in non-sport environments through leveraging group attitudes (Thomas, Speight, Turner-Essel, & Barrie, 2013; Yoshihama et al., 2012). In addition, the likelihood of unpredictable practitioner-client interactions also makes “hanging out” and brief contact intervention skills transferable and valuable. Future investigators should further delineate ASP skills that transfer to counseling, both in prevention and therapy settings, to provide further guidance for ASPPs transitioning into counseling. By explicitly transferring ASP-specific skills to counseling, ASPPs (and the mentors and supervisors who guide their transitions) can strengthen the consistency, fidelity, and marketability of ASP altogether.

References

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Giges, B., & Petitpas, A. (2000). Brief contact interventions in sport psychology. The Sport Psychologist, 14(2), 176-187. doi: 10.1123/tsp.14.2.176

Hage, S. M., & Kenny, M. E. (2009). Promoting a social justice approach to prevention: Future directions for training, practice, and research. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 30(1), 75-87. doi: 10.1007/s10935-008-0165-5

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Hays, R. B., Rebchook, G. M., & Kegeles, S. M. (2003). The Mpowerment Project: Community-building with young gay and bisexual men to prevent HIV. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31(3-4), 301-312. doi: 10.1037//0735-7028.26.1.33

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