1 The benefits of sport psychology intervention
Using psychological interventions for people with a sport injury can lead to several benefits, such as:
- increased adherence to rehabilitation programmes
- more positive attitude towards recovery
- increased motivation
- pain management
- enhanced coping skills
- reduced stress, anxiety and depression, and
- enhanced healing.
(Petitpas and Danish, 1995; Heil and Fine, 1999; Wiese-Bjornstal and Shaffer, 1999; Williams and Scherzer, 2006)
In the next activity you will explore Helen Richardson-Walsh’s experience of using psychological interventions while injured.
Activity 1 Using psychological techniques in sport injury
Timing: Allow about 30 minutes
- Watch the video below of 2016 Olympic hockey champion Helen Richardson-Walsh. What are some of the psychological strategies she used to aid her recovery from injury?
- Reflect on any role you have in supporting individuals with sport injury (e.g. coach, instructor, team mate, partner). Which aspects of your work could be considered to be psychological strategies or techniques? If you don’t hold such a role think about how you have been supported when you’ve been injured or how you might like to be supported if you were injured.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1 Helen Richardson-Walsh
Transcript: Video 1 Helen Richardson-Walsh
Helen
I almost think that experiencing an injury can actually make you stronger mentally. Because when I went through my first injury, I actually learned quite a lot about myself as a person and as a hockey player.
Before my injury, I probably wasn't the best trainer. But through my injury, because you can't skip anything, you have to do your exercises, you have to do A, B, and C that your physio tells you, it makes you really focused and able to set goals. I found goal-setting really helpful. And it helped me, not only through my injury, but also later on, throughout my whole career.
So I definitely became a stronger athlete and hockey player from being injured. And that was certainly from a mental aspect as well.
I would always visualise myself on top of that Olympic podium. When you're going through really hard training sessions and really boring, dull training sessions-- because rehab is just the dullest training ever-- it really helped me to have that very strong focus on why I was doing what I was doing.
Another thing I used for my back surgery was I wrote a blog. Because of my past injuries, I knew that I was going to isolate myself. I knew that's what I did as a person. And so I decided to write a blog to make myself speak to people. I put it online. And the amount of support I got from people that I didn't know. The hockey family was incredible.
But also another thing that I was hoping I would get from it was the support of my teammates. Which I knew they would anyway, but for them to support you, I knew I needed to give something. And with me opening up and talking about what I was going through in quite a candid fashion, it helped that dialogue between the two parties, and it really helped me in my recovery.
My advice to anybody who is injured and going through an injury would be to be kind to yourself. You will experience emotions that you possibly have never experienced before, and you don't want to experience. And you may feel, as a person, that you're changing or it's not who you are. But just be kind to yourself, because that's the injury talking in a way.
I think it's so easy to say, be positive, and it will be OK. But you're going through a difficult time. And that's important to accept. It's a difficult time. It will be tough. And there will be challenges along the way. I don't think it will be a smooth ride. But if you accept that and almost expect that in a way, then I think when those challenges come, it's a lot easier to deal with.
I think when you're in the injury, it's sometimes really difficult to think, I know this could be a positive outcome. But once you do get through it and you do get back into the sport that you love, then it really can have a positive effect. And you can come out much stronger, physically and mentally, and knowing yourself a lot better as well.
Video 1 Helen Richardson-Walsh
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
Discussion
- Helen describes three key strategies that she used, all of which are discussed in either this session or in Session 8. First, she used goal setting to help her focus. Second, she visualised herself achieving her goal of becoming Olympic champion (imagery), and finally she used a blog as a way of sharing and articulating her experience and connecting to other people (social support).
- You might find that you tend to use a lot of psychology in your day-to-day practice without even realising it. Sometimes this use of psychology is explicit (for example, recommending the use of psychological techniques or referring someone to a sport and exercise psychologist), and sometimes it is less explicit (for example, the way in which you choose to speak to an individual about their injury).
In the activity you have just completed Helen Richardson-Walsh describes how she used imagery while she was injured. In the next section you will explore imagery in more detail.