ordine psicologi « Alberto Cei

In Italy in the last 5 years, the number of members of the Order of Psychologists has increased by thousands of professionals, in 2016 were 100,566 and in 2020 became 117,762. In 2011 there were far fewer, 81,757.

At this time, I am busy organizing a master’s program in sport psychology and I am realizing that it is not easy to reach a large number of enrollees. Some colleagues tell me that this is due to competition from other masters, some online, which better meet the needs of young psychologists and consequently have a more limited cost.

This explanation, however, I do not find convincing for the simple fact that in the last 10 years the number of psychologists enrolled in the Order has increased 36,005 units and only in the last 5 years by 17,196; with an increase of about 5,000 new psychologists enrolled in 2020 compared to the previous year. Therefore, there is a large number of psychologists who after finishing their studies should undertake postgraduate training in one in the different fields of psychology.

Sport psychology is often not chosen because it is not clear what career paths this field of work can offer. In our country people often live sport psychology as a choice between two options, to be lucky enough to work with a Champion or to work at the level of youth activities (such as soccer schools), which is considered a job that does not require specific skills.

It is clear that if this is the reading of the labor market, it is useless to engage in a demanding training. As a result, being ill-prepared to deal with complex professional situations for lack of adequate training, job opportunities will concern only simple situations and easily manageable with the skills possessed.

The Master organized by Psicosport aims to fill this gap by providing a qualified training, with university professors and consultants of high profile recognizable by their curriculum, a five-month internship at sports clubs supervised and a program of involvement of psychologists even after the end of the Master.

Those interested in learning more about the topic of new professional orientations in psychology can write to me and I will send them the article I published on this topic in the magazine of the Scuola dello Sport.

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Sport for young people with intellectual disabilities, children and adolescents, especially with autism spectrum syndrome is a difficult wall to break down. There are too many dogmatic thoughts blocking the opportunity for the development in this age group, which is critical for the approach that can to provide at their life not only in these years but also for the future as adults.

Sedentary and overweight are the most common outcomes faced by these young people and their families. In Italian school system the young with disabilities are 216,013, equal to 2.4% of the entire population (close to 9 million students).

Of these, 68% are young people with intellectual disabilities.

How many of them practice sports or physical activity continuously? Unfortunately we do not know and this is already a rather serious fact that highlights the limited interest in sport. How many sports organizations are carrying out programs for these young people? Even on this point, information is very scarce and families have not places where to ask about this.

We could continue with many other questions, which at the moment did not find an answer.

Finally, the scientific data, not only in Italy, even internationally are reduced. Rather, it’s better to follow the motto: “sport is good, do it”. Little is known about the training programs carried out, about the characteristics of the professionals involved, there are no longitudinal studies.

In Italy, Even the recent book on “Good practices in autism” published by the Psychologist Register certainly interesting for the aspects related to diagnosis and relationships between School, Families and Services, ignores sports as a system of empowerment of young people with ASD. It is a pity that they did not inquire about this issue, because sport is instead an essential piece for the development of young people with ASD.

International Journal of Sport Psychology has dedicated a special issue on the subject and anyone interested can request it from the publisher Luigi Pozzi.