I often get asked what it’s actually like to work with a sport psychologist. It can sound a bit mysterious if you’ve never experienced it before, but really, it’s just a structured process designed to help you understand yourself better, how you think, feel, and perform, so that you can get the most out of your sport and life.
The process is something we go through together. It’s not me telling you what to do; it’s a collaboration where we explore what’s working for you, what might be getting in the way, and how to build helpful habits that support your goals. Here’s what that usually looks like.
Our First Meeting (Intake)
The first meeting is simply a conversation between you and I. We’ll talk about what’s brought you here, maybe you want to feel more confident, manage nerves better, or perform more consistently. I’ll ask some questions to understand your background, what you’re hoping to achieve, and what’s currently challenging you.
It’s also your chance to get a feel for me and decide if you’d like to work together. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable and able to be yourself, that’s where the best progress happens.
Understanding You
Once we’ve had that first chat, I’ll start learning more about you as a person and an athlete. That might mean watching you train or compete, asking more questions, or using short questionnaires to learn how you think and respond to pressure.
The goal here is to build a clear picture of what’s helping your performance and what might be holding you back, not in a judgmental way, but to understand the patterns behind how you operate.
Building Your Profile
After gathering this information, I’ll put the pieces together to create what’s called a case formulation, though really, it’s more like your performance profile. It helps us both see your strengths, your challenges, and the key areas we can focus on to support your development.
This part is really valuable because it gives us direction. Instead of guessing what might help, we’ll have a clear plan based on what’s actually going on for you.
Choosing an Approach
Once we understand your profile, we’ll decide on the best way forward together. This might mean working on focus, motivation, confidence, recovery, or building habits that help you perform under pressure.
The approach we choose will always be tailored to you, your personality, your sport, and how you like to learn. There’s no one-size-fits-all method in psychology, and that’s what makes it effective.
Making A Plan
After we’ve chosen an approach, we’ll create a plan for how to put it into action. Just like you’d plan your training schedule, we’ll set out when, where, and how to practice the mental skills we’re working on. We’ll also decide how to measure progress so you can see what’s changing over time.
This part helps turn the ideas into something practical and real, something you can use every day in your sport and beyond.
Putting it into Practice
The final step is where the real learning happens. You’ll start applying the strategies we’ve talked about in your training and competitions, and I’ll check in with you regularly to see how things are going.
Sometimes we’ll find that certain tools work really well for you; other times, we’ll need to tweak or change them completely. That’s normal progress is rarely a straight line. The key is that we keep learning, adjusting, and building on what’s working.
Working with a sport psychologist isn’t about fixing a problem; it’s about helping you become more self-aware and confident in how you approach your sport. My goal is to help you build skills that last — so you can perform better, handle challenges more effectively, and enjoy what you do even more.
Written by: Natasha Bains
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