Sports Psychotherapy

£80 a session
Use the contact form below to book an initial phone call

Athletes often face unique pressures that can significantly impact their mental and emotional well-being, as well as the relationships with those supporting them. The mental strain of high-performance environments, managing injuries, or balancing personal and professional goals can be challenging to navigate without specialist support. Whether you are experiencing burnout, performance anxiety, or difficulties adjusting to transitions in your athletic career, psychotherapy can provide a valuable space to explore and address these challenges. The demands of an athletic lifestyle can sometimes shape our self-esteem, identity, and ability to cope effectively. Through an integrative approach, we can work on your current thoughts, emotions, and behaviours while exploring the underlying experiences and beliefs that may be influencing them. I offer a compassionate, safe, and non-judgemental environment to develop a personalised plan that equips you with healthy coping strategies, supporting your mental resilience and empowering you to thrive in all aspects of your life.

"I say put mental health first. Because if you don't then you're not going to enjoy your sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to"
-Simone Biles

Working with Sports and Performance
Block bookings can be discussed for a discount on a case by case basis

Being in high performance environments brings up a lot of unique circumstances, not least the pressure to perform but also often an environment that doesn't allow vulnerability to be shown. Due to this, we can start to feel out of control with no place to turn or find an outlet from these difficult emotions. We may be having worries about our performances, which leads us to freeze at the thought of an upcoming game or competition, or we may be dealing with life stressors and struggling to keep them out of the sporting environment. When you're trying to appear strong and under control all the time, eventually there is going to be a limit you reach and things can start to fall apart quickly. Negative behaviours such as avoiding training, substance abuse and expressing anger to teammates can become a way to try and cope. As an athlete, you're very unlikely to have been taught how to deal with this when all you have been taught is how to perform.

Sports and high performance environments also become a part of our identity and inner stories and because of this it often adds to the stress when things start to go wrong. There are also issues when transitions happen, whether changing teams, injuries or retiring and having to learn to adjust to a new situation and developing new aspects of yourself. Its easy to see how a positive inner story can turn negatively very quickly and we can begin to question whether we are good enough and sometimes, who we are as people. There aren't many other jobs or hobbies that are so black and white in terms of judging performances, and also have the potential become so central to one's identity.

We get praised when we perform well, we love seeing ourselves improve and we often develop a positive 'status' amongst peers when we are known as an athlete and unravelling this to understand the human behind it can help piece things back together. You will have a journey unique to you in and out of sports, and I am here to listen and provide support for you. We can work on putting strategies in place to improve your performance and training in sports, but also help you to understand your journey and what is best for you as a person overall.