Sport and Exercise Psychologist Duties & Responsibilities
The role and function of a Sport and Exercise Psychologist includes the following duties and responsibilities:
- Provide athletes with psychological counseling related to their performance.
- Develop mental strategies that enable athletes to cope with and overcome setbacks or injuries.
- Conduct research on an athlete’s mental, emotional and physical attributes in order to effectively coach and improve performance levels.
- Identify mental strengths and weaknesses that contribute to or affect an athlete’s performance.
- Facilitate counseling and/or workshops that focus on goal setting, visualization and relaxation.
- Enhance an athlete’s performance through visualization techniques.
- Advise and treat athletes with mental health conditions.
- Counsel athletes that have endured sports injuries.
- Help athletes to manage on and off-field pressure and anxiety.
- Apply modern and improvised concepts to enhance physical potential.
- Providing counselling and consultations to a cross-section of the public including people who are depressed, GP referrals, people in prison or groups of employees as part of a workplace exercise programme.
- Counselling clients who are ill, in poor physical or mental health and who may benefit from participation in more regular exercise;
- Advising individuals about the benefits, both physical and psychological, that can be derived from exercise;
- Working with individuals and groups in a wide variety of settings including GP surgeries, employers’ premises, the client’s home, clinical settings and local fitness centres;
- Devising, implementing and evaluating exercise programmes based on the needs of the client;
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of Sport and Exercise Psychologist duties and responsibilities. Job functions for specific Sport and Exercise Psychologist roles may vary, depending on the industry and type of employer.
