Tag Archive for 'psicologo'

The future of the psychologist

Published on October 25, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: psicologo.

Here is the English translation of the provided text:

“The process of psychological counseling, not only in sports but in every field, is undergoing profound changes under the influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution driven by the widespread use of the internet and social media. The development and use of smart products (smartphones), easy access to information (the internet), and the proliferation of social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok), which enable individuals and organizations to continuously share content, have had and continue to have a strong impact on the actions and mindset of individuals.

This is in line with what Stewart Brand had predicted: ‘You can try to change people’s minds, but you’re just wasting your time. Change the tools they have in their hands, and you’ll change the world.’ Therefore, the development of digitalization has led to the rise of continuous interconnection processes that are changing the daily lives and work of people, thanks to the rapid sharing of information. Today, there is the opportunity to work with a larger number of athletes because Facetime, WhatsApp, or Skype allow instant connections with any part of the world.

Through YouTube, you can download videos of athletes that you find useful for conducting counseling activities for almost any type of sport. You can receive videos of competitions recorded via smartphones and discuss them with your athletes or coaches. You can record specific relaxation, activation, or concentration exercises on your phone to be performed remotely. Regarding the use of complex psychological assessment systems, Robert Nideffer was an innovator when, at the beginning of the new millennium, he introduced the ability to administer the Attentive and Interpersonal Style Test, a complex questionnaire composed of 144 items and 19 scales, directly on the web, provide immediate scoring, and offer athletes/teams/coaches a detailed description of the results obtained compared to the specific reference population considered most suitable (there are about 20 different types just for sports).

Furthermore, the use of blogs, Twitter, and other social networks allows psychologists to directly disseminate the culture and knowledge of sports psychology, serving as a means of spreading ideas, innovations, areas of intervention, and the practice of this profession. Additionally, the internet allows one to learn about the education and activities of psychological consultants in the world of sports. Alessandro Baricco, in his book ‘The Game,’ argues that: ‘From a certain point onward (from the iPhone onwards, if I were to hazard a date), nothing had a serious chance of survival if it didn’t have the genetic heritage of video games in its DNA. I can even go so far as to stop, for the benefit of all, the genetic traits of that species destined to survive:

Pleasing design capable of generating immediate satisfaction;
A structure that can be reduced to the basic problem/solution pattern repeated multiple times;
Short intervals between any problem and its solution;
Progressive increase in game difficulty;
Nonexistence and uselessness of immobility;
Learning from the game and studying abstract instructions for use;
Immediate usability without preamble;
Reassuring display of a score after a certain number of moves.’

Psychological counseling in sports must reflect on these aspects and adopt some of these characteristics if it wants to remain appealing to the new generations of athletes and coaches. Today, the quality of work is perceived by athletes in terms of the time it takes between a problem and its solution, psychological skills are learned through practice and must be immediately usable, performance (the score, in Baricco’s words) must show a clear improvement, and learning should not happen through the professional’s study but through practical situations and immediately accessible tools. Sports psychologists will need to increasingly align their work with these principles if they want to establish themselves in the sports professions market.”

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Being a psychologist counselor is not an easy track

Published on October 25, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: consulenza, psicologo.

Many psychologists rage against motivators and mental coaches who are not psychology graduates. They are right and should make their case to the psychologists’ association. That said, those who are not in a protected employment status such as a full-time job at the university, in the health care system, in public or private companies, and private institutions but have taken up psychotherapeutic work or a chosen counseling must be equipped to live with personal professional satisfaction in a world of sharks who want to occupy the same position.

Thus, premised on the necessary professional and human skills to achieve one’s goals, one must be aware that there are many other competitors with almost no specific skills who are working hard to achieve the same results. These people are more reckless than psychologists because they have to sell something in which they are not qualified. For them aggressive marketing, insistence, and networking that exhausts their possible interlocutors are the winning tools.

To be successful, the psychologist should know how to promote himself, knowing that this is an essential dimension of the job and not something extra that one has to do. I consider networking so essential that in every master’s program I have directed I have included it as a teaching module.

Being a counselor is not an easy track, you have to be one every day of the year, you have to know that every counseling will come to an end and, therefore never stop looking for new ones and feeling a part of the slice of the market in which you have decided to work.

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Does the psychologist practice what he teaches?

Published on July 11, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: meditazione, mindfulness, psicologo.

I wonder if the psychologists who teach breathing, relaxation techniques, meditation, or mindfulness to athletes also practice these on a daily basis and if so, for how long.

We are talking about teaching self-regulation and concentration processes. Personally, I am convinced that one becomes an expert in these areas not only because one knows their effectiveness and how to teach them, the expert is one who has years of personal daily experience. Athletes often say:

“I learned how to relax but I didn’t understand what I needed it for.”
“These concentration exercises are boring and then they are not for me.”
“I breathe, but then I still make mistakes.”
“I was easily distracted, it was just frustrating.”

Certainly these considerations are determined by the type of motivation of the athlete, his or her interest in the psychological aspects of his or her sport and competitions, and his or her willingness to train in a different way than usual.

Regardless of the athlete, only those who practice these self-regulation techniques on a daily basis know the obstacles our mind creates for us every day not to do. Teaching these techniques requires the psychologist to have experienced these difficulties and overcome them. If I relax and then when I am self I get angry because someone cut me off; that means I still don’t know how to put into practice the teaching provided by relaxation. So I’m like that athlete, who has learned how to relax but can’t apply it yet apply it in competition. Another example, if I too have not faced the difficulty of finding a time of day to practice these exercises because I am busy with different activities how can I teach it to an athlete.

In other words, all these techniques teach us a rule based on learning self-control: to achieve it you have to train yourself daily to solve problems. If as a psychologist I did not want to make time for myself, I will never be credible in the eyes of the athletes to whom I offer this path.

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Increasing demand for the role of sports psychologist

Published on May 23, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: psicologo, ruolo.

I am here at the Bonfiglio Tournament in Milan, one of the most important tournaments on the junior tennis circuit and one week before Roland Garros. Until a few years ago, there would be no psychologists at a junior tournament, because the few who did this work were not dedicated to adolescent athletes, unless they were early specialization sports like artistic gymnastics.

When I first started following national teams, the investment in this area was only for athletes who were likely to win an Olympic medal; one would never invest professional and econocratic resources on athletes who did not have that perspective. I first went to the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta as a psychologist for the national shooting team. The goal was clear, to work to enable shooting athletes to improve their performance and win a medal.

The topic of athlete wellness and mental health was not an area that was recognized as important, let alone working with junior athletes was of any interest.Over the next 32 years, leading up to Tokyo these issues became just as central as those related to performance improvement. It is something that has happened very gradually and should be good for everyone but is it really true?

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The psychological consultation for top sports

Published on November 25, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: psicologo.

The consulting work carried out by the psychologist in sports has traditionally been oriented toward the formulation and implementation of psychological preparation programs for high-level athletes. In fact, since the early 1970s, sports psychology has become significantly popular as a field of knowledge capable of making a valuable contribution to improving the sports performance of athletes on national teams. Suffice it to say that already for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 as many as 20 Canadian psychologists worked with athletes and female athletes who participated, and that in 1988 in Seoul most of the representative teams of industrialized countries included this professional figure within the staff, but in addition to these (Canada, USA, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Germany and the Soviet Union), developing nations such as Algeria, Nigeria, Colombia and Cuba also used sports psychologists. As for Italy, it has only been since the Atlanta Olympics that a relatively large number of sports psychologists have participated, placed on the staffs of shooting, archery, water polo, volleyball, judo, rowing and sailing.

The skills of the psychologist working in high-level sports are quite diverse, and although it is not the case here to list them, it may be useful instead to describe what are the services he or she should be able to provide:

Define the typical psychological skills of a sport, starting with the analysis of its characteristics
Identify the strengths and areas for improvement of the athlete or team.
Conduct team meetings for the purpose of improving communication among athletes, among staff members, and between these two g r o u p s .
Develop a mental training path consistent with the goals to be achieved, the time available, the athletes’ current needs and skills, the number of competitions and length of training periods, and the demands of the coach.
Teach athletes and coaches mental training strategies and techniques, including goal setting, activation/deactivation techniques. techniques for improving concentration, and others.
Provide cognitive and training tools to improve the ability to work under high competitive stress.
Collaborate with the coach, providing him/her with feedback related to the way he/she relates to athletes and staff and suggestions for changing any attitudes he/she may have that are not functional in achieving set goals. Collaborate with the technical, health and management staff.
Highlight any psychopathological issues (e.g., eating disorders, depression, antisocial behavior), suggesting to the athlete how to overcome them with the support of a psychotherapist.
Psychological management of injuries.
Evaluation of the results obtained at the end of the sports season and reshaping the program for the following year

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My work of sport psychologist

Published on August 4, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress and Tennis. 0 Comments Tags: psicologo, sport.

My work knows no vacations, there is no time of the year when sports and competitions stop. In the next few weeks there are the European table tennis championships, at the same time, the Italian sailing championships, while the girls’ tennis continue their tournaments and will now travel to North America. This is to talk about some of the sports I am involved in. It is a job that requires a strong dedication and interest in the lives of these athletes. It is work that is mostly done remotely. It is an almost daily commitment during competitions. These are collaborations that can last for years but also for a few months, especially when the families or the athletes/athletes bear the financial burden.

It’s a job, unfortunately, today based very much on the athletes’ stories, because it’s very rare to attend competitions. Before covid when I worked a lot with shooting with Italian athletes and foreign nationals the work is almost always in attendance, I would go to the most important competitions and you would live the experience with the team, being able to intervene at the precise moment when the need arose and to implement the mental routines pray.

Still, it remains a very interesting and helpful job. In particular, in recent years I have seen the great educational value that the sports psychologist can play with adolescent boys and girls 14 years old and up. They know nothing about how to approach competitions, the value of mistakes, how to learn, and more generally the rules of sports. No one teaches them these things while there is only an emphasis on physical fitness and technique, aspects that are obviously necessary but not sufficient to know how to compete and grow as a person.

If these aspects are missing, competitive sports at this age can be a source of insecurity. Sport is a school of life only if it teaches how to cope with difficulties and overcome obstacles, in this way developing the young person’s personality. Otherwise it will only be a form of technical expression without a soul.

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The sport psychologist career

Published on June 11, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: carriera, psicologo, sport.

I want to be repetitive by saying that, in Italy, probably one of the primary causes of the reduced recognition and affirmation of the professional role of the sport psychologist is the psychologists themselves.
This weekend the master’s program we organized in Milan ends, and the participants presented the project work of their internship period. Well in some sports clubs a psychologist was already present or had worked in the recent past. In one swimming club the colleague had left a totally negative perception of himself, in another as many as two psychologists had taken turns and never completed the work because after a few months they had left, in another case the psychologist only did online interventions, in another he was a relative of the president and was never on the field, and in yet another he only took care of the competitive team but did nothing with the younger ones.

Now in all these situations the Master’s psychologists intervened, and thanks instead to their effective counseling approach they managed to convey another perception of our profession and were ultimately appreciated for the work they did. Of course they had the supervision of Daniela Sepio and myself and were provided with appropriate tools but the success factor was their professional willingness to get in touch with the sports environment to understand its needs and formulate possible responses.

On the other hand, I regret that many colleagues lack this sensitivity and the enthusiasm necessary to understand that without proper training they will never be able to pursue this profession. I also regret that those who organize master’s degrees in psychology do not understand that only through internships, as is the case in every profession, can one really test oneself and how much one is learning.

I also wonder if this might not be due to the fact that many master’s degree directors, themselves, have had only a reduced experience in the counseling world and often limited to one age group or only one sport.
Those who would like to know more can contact me.

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Psychologist role in soccer school

Published on March 29, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: psicologo, scuola calcio.

Let’s say that the knowledge of the role of the psychologist is probably not clear to journalists. In fact, in Repubblica today we read: “Better the elite soccer schools: hundreds of structures throughout Italy that guarantee trained personnel and even the psychologist. One step: still too little”.

I want to remember that the psychologist in soccer schools was introduced twenty years ago, when I was in charge of the psychological area of the school youth sector of the federcalcio, so it is not new. The sports psychologist should play a supporting role in the continuing education of the instructors and the management of the soccer club. He should be less interested in children unless there are situations that require his intervention.

Typically, in soccer schools, the sport psychologist should promote the quality of teaching proposed by the club and individual instructors. In addition, he should explain to families the sporting and educational objectives of the soccer school and answer their questions. And many other things … including, for example, joint projects with local schools.

Unfortunately, I doubt that all psychologists know how to do these activities if they have not had training in sports psychology, this is not learned in the courses in which many participate.

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Sport psychology: a decision for a life

Published on March 21, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: master, professione, psicologia dello sport, psicologo.

Started the Master of Sport Psychology in Rome. Needless to say it was a great satisfaction to be able to realize two in the same time in Milan and Rome.

The master’s degree is part of a process of continuous education that also for sport psychology is taking place all over the world thanks to the work of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) and the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC). Enrolling in a master’s degree program and then continuing, as planned, with a phase of documented and partially supervised professional practice is the path that is expected and that in the coming years should spread in our field of work.

For an Italian psychologist, taking this path after graduation is a real existential choice because it is not only a matter of acquiring psychological strategies and techniques suitable for working in sports. In fact, it corresponds to a choice to become competent in a field that is not psychotherapy, not work, not research and not school. It is one in which the emphasis is placed on the knowledge and use of psychological knowledge in a world, that of sport and motor activity, which is very complex, since it is articulated in many specific areas and is aimed at people of all ages, levels of competence and psychosocial well-being. Moreover, it is intertwined with aspects of other psychological domains.

So let’s forget that it’s just a matter of acquiring some new psychological technique to be learned in online or short-term courses. The career path of the psychologist of the future will increasingly involve the whole person. In relation, to performance psychology many topics require a very strong personal involvement. When we talk about sport of domination, for example, or tenacity or working with disability, what is the existential position of the psychologist in the face of these issues, with what attitude do we approach these very engaging topics. These are precisely issues that challenge the professional even before defining what are the best strategies and techniques to work with.

In order to train effective professionals capable of maintaining high standards of operation with continuity, it is necessary to have training that takes these aspects into account, otherwise this profession will not withstand the wear and tear of time and the speed of change in our society and its increasingly pressing demands.

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