Tame those emotions!

Clinical psychology is not just about mental health. Clinical psychology covers all aspects of us as humans. Therefore we can be helpful in all areas, I am choosing to improve the well-being and performance of sporting athletes.

My training enables me to understand and work with all aspects of the individual and/or team. I work at greater depths to yield greater results. One focus is to improve functioning outside of, as well as within, my clients' sporting arenas. If we can function better outside of the sporting arena we can train better, be more focused on diet, follow plans better etc. This enables better performance within the sporting arena. I also provide the services that a Sports Psychologist can.

For the purpose of this blog, and to keep things simple, one key aspect to improving performance is emotion regulation. The ability to understand and manage one's emotions, and then have the skills to deal with the difficult situation. Our ability to function and perform can be significantly hindered by shifts in our emotions, both positive and negative emotions, e.g. excitement as well as anxiety. Managing our feelings helps us with our daily living as well as at moments of performance.

Our genetics, experience and interaction with our environment, crucially our caregivers, all shape the hard-wiring of our brain and our ability to cope with stress. This occurs prior to birth, is most crucial as an infant and toddler, but continues through to later stages of adolescence (up to 25). Importantly, these experiences lay the foundation for a child's and adult's ability to cope with stress / emotions later in life.

As you may know there are many parts to our brains, however, we function best when we are able to use all of it, when all parts are well connected and work in an integrated way. Simplifying it, when we are emotional the emotional parts of the brain take charge, hindering our ability to think clearly, be logical, plan well and make good decisions. When it comes to sport, as well as daily life, "people who are able to manage stress well, can think well under pressure... they are the lucky ones" (M. Sunderland, 2016).

Realistically, we could all benefit from support in managing our emotions and dealing with stressful situations, especially in sporting arenas. Let me help you 'be one of the lucky ones' and help you manage your feelings, improve your functioning and your performance!