Sports Psychoanalysis
As a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, I have worked, and continue to work with patients who compete professionally in various sports, including football (Premier League, Champions League, La Liga, Turkish Super Ligue, Women’s Super League, English Championship, League One and Non-League), basketball (British Basketball League) and boxing (Professional and Amateur).
The objective of sports psychoanalysis is for the patient to better understand themselves, through a minimum of once-a-week sessions. We work together to explore childhood experiences, memories, and past and current relationships (personal, romantic and professional), all of which can impact an individual’s ability to focus on their professional performance. By working together, we strive to understand how unconscious defences formed in early life might profoundly affect relationships with teammates and/or coaches - and subsequently, the quality of performance. By better understanding their inner world - why they feel, think and experience emotions the way they do – athletes might find that the internal traffic (anxiety, stress, depression) clears, thus allowing them to reach their full potential, and compete on the field, court, or ring at their highest standard. Furthermore, it can yield better relationships with teammates, creating space for a more harmonious team dynamic.
Changes in one’s personal life can greatly influence an athlete's performance, as they can be destabilising, stressful and difficult to manage. Psychoanalysis can assist in navigating these changes, so that they have less of an impact on professional performance. We work together to understand what emotions and past experiences might be amplified by, for example, moving to a new team or a new country, taking on leadership roles, or coping with the internal demands of sporting successes and disappointments. I also work with athletes who are nearing the end of their careers, and transitioning into the next chapter.
Every patient is different. One size does not fit all, and everyone responds very differently to psychoanalytic psychotherapy, just as different players play different positions on a team, and different athletes approach their respective sporting disciplines in different ways. The clinical psychoanalytic consulting space regards each individual as precisely that: an individual.
Sessions are fifty minutes in length and follow the free association format, in which we work with whatever the patient brings, whether that be a memory, current difficulty, or even a passing thought. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.