Clinical sport psychology is a rapidly growing field that brings together research and clinical interventions from both clinical psychology and sport and performance psychology. Complementary to sports medicine and clinical sport psychiatry, clinical sport psychology addresses the mental health needs and psychological well-being of athletes, coaches, and other members of the sport community. It offers scientifically informed conceptualizations of psychological distress as it manifests in sport settings, as well as empirically supported clinical interventions tailored to the needs of sport populations. This volume addresses the latest research findings regarding mental health among athletes and other sport professionals, including epidemiological research concerning depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and conduct and interpersonal problems. In addition, it explores the unique etiology of mental health problems among athletes, including psychological sequelae of injury and trauma, as well as concise practice guidelines for conceptualizing and treating psychological distress in sport populations. Strategies for thorough yet efficient psychological assessment of athletes, coaches, and other sport professionals are also provided. A compendium of relevant empirical research and clinical best practices for assessment and treatment, this handbook charts the course that clinical sport psychology has taken since its inception as a distinct clinical specialty and highlights future directions for this rapidly growing practice domain. It offers essential reading for psychologists and other mental health professionals who provide clinical services in sport and performance settings.

Now available in paperback, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is a definitive guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. It goes further than any other book in surveying the full variety of issues that practising sport psychologists will confront in their working lives. It introduces the most important tools and skills that psychologists will need to be truly helpful to their clients, and it also adopts a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychologist, explaining how effective counseling, assessment, and therapeutic models can add important extra dimensions to professional practice. The book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: counseling; assessment; theoretical and therapeutic models; issues for the individual athlete, from injury and overtraining to depression; issues for teams, from conflict resolution to travel; working with special populations; mental skills, such as imagery, goal setting, and concentration. Moving beyond the traditional tracks of clinical psychology and performance enhancement, the authors in this book argue convincingly that psychologists would benefit from attempting to understand athletes’ social and familial contexts, their health, happiness, and interpersonal dynamics in the broadest sense, if they are to serve their clients’ best interests. With contributions from many of the world’s leading sport psychologists, and with clear descriptions of best practice in each chapter, the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology is essential reading for all serious students and practitioners of sport psychology, counseling, applied sport science, health psychology, and related fields.

A growing body of evidence shows that physical activity can be a cost-effective and safe intervention for the prevention and treatment of a wide range of mental health problems. As researchers and clinicians around the world look for evidence-supported alternatives and complements to established forms of therapy (medication and psychotherapy), interest in physical activity mounts. The Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity and Mental Health offers the most comprehensive review of the research evidence on the effects of physical activity on multiple facets of mental health. Written by a team of world-leading international experts, the book covers ten thematic areas: physical activity and the ‘feel good’ effect anxiety disorders depression and mood disorders self-perceptions and self-evaluations cognitive function across the lifespan psychosocial stress pain energy and fatigue addictions quality of life in special populations. This volume presents a balanced assessment of the research evidence, highlights important directions for future work, and draws clear links between theory, research, and clinical practice. As the most complete and authoritative resource on the topic of physical activity and mental health, this is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners in a wide range of fields, including clinical and health psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, behavioural and preventive medicine, gerontology, nursing, public health and primary care.

Out of the broad arena of sport science and sport psychology, Roland A. Carlstedt presents a comprehensive collection on the neuroscience and associated psychophysiology that underlies and drives sport performance. Featuring sections ranging from the basics and foundations (anatomy and physiology) to the applied (assessment during competition, training, and mental training), Handbook of Sport Neuroscience and Psychophysiology is the first volume to provide students, researchers, practitioners, and coaches the latest knowledge on the brain, mind-body processes, and psychophysiological responding in the context of sport performance.

The psychological health of competitive athletes is of paramount importance to performance, retention, and well-being in sport, and national governing bodies are increasingly concerned with its promotion. Psychosocial Health and Well-being in High-Level Athletes offers students, researchers, and practicing sport psychologists an accessible and rigorous grounding in the manifestations of psychosocial health in athletes, the threats athletes face to their psychosocial health, and the interventions which can be designed to enhance it. Seeking to guide future research and expand professional understanding of psychosocial issues in sport, the book is based on a model of cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual health. It clearly defines these dimensions in a sporting context before discussing pertinent threats—such as career transitions, injuries and abuse—and interventions, including adversarial growth, life-skill interventions, prevention and organization policy, and mindfulness-based interventions. Providing an innovative and integrated perspective on psychosocial health and well-being in competitive sport, this book is essential reading for upper-level students taking any clincial sport psychology modules, and for sport psychologists, coaches, and administrators working with competitive athletes.

Mental Health in Elite Sport: Applied Perspectives from Across the Globe provides a focused, exhaustive overview of up-to-date mental health research, models, and approaches in elite sport to provide researchers, practitioners, coaches, and students with contemporary knowledge and strategies to address mental health in elite sport across a variety of contexts. Mental Health in Elite Sport is divided into two main parts. The first part focuses globally on mental health service provision structures and cases specific to different world regions and countries. The second part focuses on specific mental health interventions across countries but also illustrates specific case studies and interventions as influenced by the local context and culture. This tour around the world offers readers an understanding of the massive global differences in mental health service provision within different situations and organizations. This is the first book of its kind in which highly experienced scholars and practitioners openly share their programs, methods, reflections, and failures on working with mental health in different contexts. By using a global, multi-contextual analysis to address mental health in elite sport, this book is an essential text for practitioners such as researchers, coaches, athletes, as well as instructors and students across the sport science and mental health fields.

Applied sport psychology knowledge has advanced rapidly in recent years. Traditionally, literature focused primarily on a narrow range of topics associated with performance enhancement, giving rise to a model of helping labelled psychological skills training. Although the psychological skills training model has considerable value, the literature has broadened to address a greater diversity of athlete and team issues; a greater range of methods; and a greater recognition of the knowledge, skills, and attributes practitioners need to help clients. The first edition of the Routledge Handbook of Applied Sport Psychology was seminal work, bringing together the full range of knowledge and skills sport psychology practitioners needed to help clients. The second edition continues that vision and draws on the full range of related disciplines, including sport and exercise psychology, clinical psychology, and counselling psychology. This comprehensive range of topics provides professionals what they need to build strong relationships with athletes and enhance clients’ performance, mental health, well-being, happiness, and meaning in life. This new volume is the guide to the theory and practice of applied sport psychology. Adopting a holistic definition of the role of the sport psychology practitioner, it introduces the most effective tools and skills that sport psychology practitioners need to help their clients and explains how effective counselling, assessment, and therapeutic models add necessary dimensions to professional practice. This book is divided into seven thematic sections, addressing: Counselling Assessment Theoretical and therapeutic models Psychosocial issues presenting in individual athletes Psychosocial issues presenting in teams Inclusion in sport psychology Mental skills interventions