Helping Coaches Meet Their Own Needs: Challenges for the Sport Psychology Consultant

Abstract

Sport psychology offers many services to athletes to help them deal with the demands of competition. Although coaches are faced with many of the same types of stressors as athletes are, little has been offered to help them with their own needs. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the issues that are experienced by coaches and to stimulate interest in providing sport psychology services directly to them. These services include strategies to increase coaches’ self-awareness and to help them remove or cope more effectively with any psychological barriers (thoughts, feelings, wants, or behaviors) that interfere with their performance.