Sport Psychology Competency Report

Words: 711
Pages: 3

After reading the assigned reading for this week I have come to the realization that there are a lot of people who are practicing outside of their area of competence. But then I questioned what does it truly mean to be competent in a certain area? I also questioned who qualifies you to consider yourself competent? I came to the conclusion that there isn’t one within the sport psychology field. I have spoken with counselors who do sports counseling with student-athletes. They stated that they feel competent in taking on certain clients in sports that they have prior working knowledge as a player and or coach. I also have spoken with PsyD students who completed coursework at Adler University and believe that because of their psychologist title and collegiate playing experience they can also work with student-athletes on sports performance. “Many …consultants have also had careers as athletes. In some cases, a big part of those careers was striving for excellence … it can also cause frustration …when practitioners and students realize that they are not the “perfect” sport psychology consultants they fantasized themselves to be.” (Andersen, …show more content…
In my search I found that there are few true sport psychology doctoral programs. There are several PhD Programs in Sport and Exercise Psychology, a few PhD in Sport Psychology and a few PhD programs in Kinesiology with a concentration in sport psychology and motor behaviors. Many of the other programs I’ve seen were PhD programs in Psychology with an individual studies option, where student athletes have to navigate the coursework of sport psychology with very little guidance. Often these types of programs often say up front in a disclaimer, that the coursework does not guarantee that you will be eligible for licensure in sport