When an elite athlete breaks down in tears during a session, revealing they've been struggling with depression, what's a sport psychologist supposed to do? This question sits at the heart of an ongoing debate within sport psychology, one that reveals deep tensions about professional roles, training gaps, and the personal cost of working in high pressure environments.

A recent study interviewed twelve experienced sport psychologists in the UK, gathering insights into their perceptions and experiences of supporting athlete mental health. What emerged was a complex picture of a profession grappling with unclear boundaries, mismatched expectations, and significant emotional strain.

The Identity Crisis

Perhaps the most striking finding was the lack of consensus among sport psychologists about whether supporting mental health is even part of their job. Some practitioners view their role as exclusively focused on performance enhancement. They see themselves as specialists in helping athletes improve focus, build confidence, manage competition nerves, and develop mental skills that translate to better results.

Others take a broader view, placing mental health and wellbeing at the center of their practice. They believe that supporting an athlete's overall psychological wellness is inseparable from helping them perform well. After all, how can someone compete at their best if they're dealing with untreated depression, anxiety, or trauma?

This fundamental disagreement about the scope of the role creates confusion not just for sport psychologists themselves, but for everyone they work with. Athletes might expect one type of support, coaches another, and sporting organizations something else entirely. Without clear consensus within the profession, these mismatched expectations become almost inevitable.

When Expectations Collide

The situation becomes even more complicated when sporting organizations and practitioners hold different views about the sport psychologist's role in mental health support. Many organizations hire sport psychologists specifically for performance enhancement. They want someone who can help their athletes gain a competitive edge, improve their mental game, and handle pressure better.

But then an athlete discloses a serious mental health concern. Maybe they're having suicidal thoughts. Maybe they're struggling with an eating disorder. Maybe they're experiencing panic attacks that have nothing to do with their sport. Suddenly, the organization looks to the sport psychologist to handle the situation, even though supporting clinical mental health issues wasn't part of the original job description.

The practitioners in this study described being in situations where they were expected to both focus exclusively on performance and somehow also manage serious mental health crises. This contradiction left them feeling caught in an impossible position. They weren't necessarily trained for clinical work, yet they were the ones receiving these disclosures and being expected to provide appropriate support.

Those who saw themselves primarily as performance specialists found this particularly challenging. They described feeling the weight of responsibility when athletes came to them with mental health concerns that went beyond the scope of what they felt competent to handle. Yet refusing to help wasn't really an option, both because the athlete needed support and because the organization expected them to step up.

The Weight of Disclosure

When an athlete discloses mental illness to a sport psychologist, it's a significant moment that carries considerable weight. Athletes often struggle with whether to share their mental health challenges, facing barriers like stigma, fear of being dropped from teams, and concerns about appearing weak. When they do open up, it's usually because they trust the person they're talking to and desperately need help.

The sport psychologists in this study spoke about the pressure they felt in these moments. They needed to respond quickly, appropriately, and sensitively. They needed to do the right thing, but what exactly that meant wasn't always clear. Should they try to provide support themselves? Should they immediately refer to a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist? What if the athlete resists referral? What if there are no good referral options available?

These decisions carry real consequences. Responding incorrectly could worsen an athlete's condition, damage the therapeutic relationship, or even put someone at risk. The practitioners described feeling this responsibility acutely, knowing that their response in these critical moments could significantly impact someone's life and wellbeing.

What's been largely overlooked until now is how these experiences affect the sport psychologists themselves. While research has examined athletes' experiences of disclosing mental illness, little attention has been paid to what it's like to be on the receiving end of these disclosures.

The Personal Toll

People who work in what are called "helping professions" are likely to experience distress and negative emotions as part of their work. When your job involves sustained emotional relationships with people who are struggling, you're inevitably exposed to their pain. Sport psychologists described the emotional toll of supporting athlete mental health, particularly when they felt underprepared or unsupported themselves.

This emotional burden can accumulate over time. If not properly managed, it can interfere with a practitioner's own wellbeing and potentially impact the quality of care they provide. Several practitioners in the study emphasized the importance of looking after their own mental health, recognizing that they couldn't effectively support athletes if they themselves were struggling.

The concept of practitioner self care has become increasingly recognized as important for long term careers in sport psychology. Some argue that maintaining one's own wellness is not just personally important but professionally and ethically imperative. If you're responsible for supporting others' mental health, you have a duty to manage your own.

However, self care isn't one size fits all. What helps one person manage stress and maintain wellbeing might not work for another. Practitioners need to reflect on personalized strategies grounded in their own values rather than following generic prescriptions. This requires ongoing attention and adjustment as circumstances change.

The study highlighted that more specific research is needed about how sport psychologists can maintain their own mental health while supporting the mental health of others. This is a unique challenge that deserves focused attention, particularly as expectations for sport psychologists to support athlete mental health continue to increase.

The Training Gap

Another significant issue emerged around education and training. While mental health education for sport psychologists has improved in recent years, many practitioners still feel inadequately prepared to support athletes dealing with mental health concerns and mental illness.

Research in healthcare more broadly suggests that insufficient training can result in fear and anxiety among workers. When you're faced with a situation you don't feel competent to handle, it's naturally stressful. For sport psychologists, this lack of preparedness is particularly problematic given the potentially time sensitive nature of mental health crises. You can't always defer making decisions until you've had time to research or consult with others.

The study suggests that both university education and practical training pathways need to be evaluated and potentially revised. At the university level, students should develop theoretical understanding of mental health and mental illness and begin considering their future role in this area. But theoretical knowledge alone isn't sufficient. Practical training also needs to address these issues.

Supervisors play a crucial role in preparing trainee practitioners. They need to recognize the importance of mental health support within the sport psychologist role and help prepare trainees for the demands they'll face. This includes working within organizations whose expectations may not align with the trainee's own values or preferred approach.

Professional bodies could require trainee practitioners to demonstrate their understanding of mental health and illness as part of qualification assessments. Trainees could be asked to reflect on any experience they've had supporting athlete mental health and consider how they would approach such situations in the future.

Beyond Qualification

The issue doesn't end with initial qualification. Unlike some other psychological professions, sport and exercise psychologists aren't required to engage in supervision once they're qualified. This represents a missed opportunity for continued professional development and reflective practice.

Ongoing supervision throughout one's career could help practitioners manage the risks involved in professional practice, including ethically and professionally challenging cases. It could promote continued growth and learning from more experienced practitioners. Peer supervision could offer social support and help reduce the emotional toll of managing athlete mental health concerns.

Continued engagement in reflective practice is also important. The landscape of sport psychology is constantly evolving, and practitioners need to regularly reconsider their role in supporting athlete mental health and how they can implement best practice.

Organizational Education

Professional bodies have a role to play beyond supporting individual practitioners. They also need to educate sporting organizations about the scope of the sport psychologist role. While it's not realistic to provide an exhaustive list of every possible responsibility, organizations need to understand the basic parameters of what sport psychologists can and cannot be expected to deliver.

This education should acknowledge that sport psychologists are increasingly expected to work on both performance enhancement and mental health support. Organizations should be encouraged to consider their own needs and hire accordingly. Sports with high incidence of mental health concerns might specifically need psychologists with experience in this area and familiarity with clinical referral processes.

By clarifying expectations upfront, professional bodies can help minimize the misalignment between what organizations expect and what practitioners feel competent to provide. This benefits everyone: the organizations get appropriate services, the practitioners work within reasonable boundaries, and most importantly, athletes receive suitable support.

The Performance Paradox

Interestingly, practitioners who focused exclusively on performance enhancement seemed to align more closely with organizational expectations, at least initially. However, even these practitioners noted that supporting athlete mental health was becoming an increasingly important aspect of their role, whether they wanted it to be or not.

Athletes and support staff tend to see sport psychologists as important resources for mental health support. Ironically, those who most strongly believe mental health support falls within a sport psychologist's professional boundaries are often people without psychological or medical training themselves, like strength and conditioning coaches and athletes.

This creates a paradox. Organizations hire sport psychologists for performance work. But when mental health issues arise, everyone looks to the sport psychologist to handle it, even if that wasn't the agreed upon role. The psychologist finds themselves expected to manage situations they may not feel prepared for, contradicting the original performance focused mandate.

The Need for Clarity

Establishing role clarity has long been encouraged in sport psychology practice. However, practitioners may be constrained by their environments when conflicting perceptions and expectations exist. It's difficult to maintain clear boundaries when the organization, athletes, and other staff all have different ideas about what you should be doing.

This doesn't mean role clarity should be abandoned as a goal. Rather, it needs to be approached more systematically. Professional bodies, sporting organizations, and individual practitioners all need to engage in clearer communication about roles and responsibilities related to mental health support.

Athletes' own expectations of the sport psychologist role should also be explored further. What do they think sport psychologists should be doing regarding mental health? These expectations likely impact athlete satisfaction with the services they receive, making them worth understanding and potentially shaping through education.

Context Matters

All participants in this study were based in the UK and had an average of fourteen years of experience. This means the findings reflect the perspectives of experienced practitioners in a specific context. Education and training pathways differ globally, and experiences in other countries might vary.

Early career practitioners might face different challenges than their more experienced colleagues. Some participants acknowledged that managing the dual demands of performance and mental health support might be particularly difficult for those newer to the profession. These early career experiences deserve investigation.

The study focused on practitioners' perspectives, but the full picture requires understanding other viewpoints too. How do athletes experience sport psychologists' mental health support? What about coaches and other support staff? Their perspectives could reveal additional dimensions of these issues.

The study reveals a profession at a crossroads. Sport psychologists are increasingly called upon to support athlete mental health, yet lack consensus about whether this is part of their role, often lack adequate training, and experience significant emotional strain in the process.

There's no simple solution to these challenges. They reflect fundamental questions about professional identity, scope of practice, and the boundaries between different types of psychological support. However, several steps could help address the situation.

First, there needs to be more comprehensive and consistent education and training about mental health and illness in sport psychology programs. This should include both theoretical knowledge and practical skills for responding to mental health concerns.

Second, professional bodies should provide clearer guidance for both practitioners and sporting organizations about the sport psychologist role in mental health support. This guidance should acknowledge the complexity and variation in practice while establishing some common expectations.

Third, ongoing supervision and reflective practice should be encouraged or even required throughout practitioners' careers. This provides support for managing difficult cases and helps practitioners continue developing their competence.

Fourth, the profession needs to take seriously the emotional toll that mental health work can take on practitioners. This means normalizing discussions about practitioner wellbeing, promoting self care, and ensuring adequate support structures exist.

Fifth, there should be continued research exploring these issues from multiple perspectives, including early career practitioners, athletes, and practitioners in different countries.

What's clear is that the traditional view of sport psychologists as solely performance enhancement specialists is no longer sufficient for the realities of contemporary sport. Athletes face mental health challenges that affect both their performance and their overall wellbeing. Sport psychologists are often the first or only mental health professionals these athletes have regular contact with.

Whether this expansion of the sport psychologist role is appropriate remains debated. But while that debate continues, athletes need support, and sport psychologists are the ones being asked to provide it. Ensuring they have the training, guidance, and support to do so effectively and sustainably should be a priority for the entire profession.

The work of supporting human beings in high pressure, high stakes environments is inherently demanding. Recognizing and addressing the challenges sport psychologists face in this work isn't just about protecting practitioners. It's about ensuring athletes receive the quality of mental health support they need and deserve.