Reflections on Being a Neophyte Sport Psychologist in the Media: Conversations With My Younger Self

Abstract

The mass media focus on sporting events (Kristiansen, Hanstad, & Roberts, 2011), coupled with the inter est in reporting the psychological aspects of sporting performance (Jones, 2005) can place practitioners in stressful situations (Fletcher, Rumbold, Tester, & Coombes, 2011). Concerns over "misrepresentation," "misquotation," "misinterpretation," and being "incorrectly reported or understood" by the media can be at odds with a practitioner's honest desire to disseminate findings and provide informed commentaries related to the discipline. This article aims to highlight the ethical, professional and personal challenges faced by Pete Lindsay while working as the resident sport psychologist for an international television broadcaster during a World championship sporting event. The autoethnographic account provides a series of reflective fragments that were abstracted from professional development documentation, supervisory meeting records of the time, and the authors recalled reflections of when Pete undertook the role. Practical implications for the training and certification of practitioners in relation to working within the media are considered.

A systematic review exploring the reflective accounts of applied sport psychology practitioners

“…We also speculated that reflective practice allowed practitioners to become more aware of how their own motivations and needs might be influencing the relationship developed with the client (Tod, 2008). Applied practitioners reflected on their need to 'protect' their clients (Lindsay & Thomas, 2014;Wadsworth et al, 2019), becoming more aware of the power dynamic between themselves and their clients (Tod, 2007), and how this understanding made them REFLECTIVE ACCOUNTS OF APPLIED SPORT PSYCHOLOGY 13 more conscious of potential transference and countertransference (Anderson, 2014;Tod, 2007). Ethical Practice.…”

“…Negotiating with the Media and Self-Promotion. Newly qualified practitioners focused on the desire to build credibility (Lindsay & Thomas, 2014), while being cautious of the ethical challenges' media involvement could create (Haberl & Peterson, 2006).…”

“…Practitioners discussed how media involvement presented direct challenges to confidentiality, which would inevitably be damaging to the practitioner-client relationship (Haberl & Peterson, 2006). Practitioners discussed the need to establish clear expectations before engaging with the media (Lindsay & Thomas, 2014) and how topics needed to be addressed broadly rather than on an individual basis (Carr, 2007) to avoid further challenges to confidentiality. In addition, newly qualified practitioners discussed experiencing conflict between the need to promote their services (and gain clients) and the lack of confidence they had to sell their services (Collins & McCann, 2015) and negotiate fees (Howells, 2017) while not making false claims about competency (Fifer et al, 2008).…”

“…The experienced practitioners were able to highlight that anxiety was a consistent feature of service-delivery and something that practitioners needed to accept (Tod, 2014). However, despite understanding that anxiety and self-doubt would inevitably accompany initial applied experiences, the trainee and newly qualified practitioners consistently discussed feelings of fraudulence earlier in their careers (Colins et al, 2013;Lindsay & Thomas, 2014;Williams & Anderson, 2012), which led to further feelings of helplessness (Rhodius, 2006), isolation (Lindsay et al, 2007), and the overwhelming feeling of being 'thrown in at the deep end' (Collins et al, 2013).…”

“…In summary, the trainee practitioners reflected on: their attempts to integrate within sporting environments (primarily as a way of proving their worth as applied practitioners; Christensen & Aoyagi, 2014); adopting multiple roles within these environments (Collins et al, 2013); experiencing inauthenticity and incongruence (Holt & Strean, 2001), and feelings of self-doubt and pressure (Woodcock et al, 2008). Newly qualified practitioners also reflected on their experiences of self-doubt; related to their perceived level of competence (Cropley et al, 2007), but in contrast to the trainee practitioners, also chose to reflect on: their lack of contact time with athletes (Rowley et al, 2012); the importance of practitioner self-care (Jackson, 2006); conflicts between selfpromotion and sound ethical practice (Lindsay & Thomas, 2014); and becoming more aware of the connection between their beliefs and their applied approach (McGregor & Winter, 2017). The experienced practitioners were able to reflect on themselves (developing a congruent professional identity; Andersen, 2014), but also chose to discuss how they as individuals were able to effectively integrate within the culture in which they were situated to support the needs of both individuals and organisations (Brooks, 2007;Fifer et al, 2008;Tod, 2014).…”