During these tough times of the Corona Virus a growing number of people all over the world are experiencing heightened emotions of fear, anxiety and depression.
Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT is a useful method to help reduce emotional disturbances by systematically helping to change the way we think and behave in order to change how we feel.
Irritable bowel syndrome or IBS is a condition characterized by pain in the stomach, cramps, bloating, diarrhea and /or constipation. There is no cure for IBS and traditional medical care is not all that effective.
Fortunately relief is available through a specialized method known as clinical hypnosis, originally developed by clinical psychologist, Dr Olafur Palsson. In 1998, he published the results of a Standardized Treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) by hypnosis and found that 80% of those who participated in the program reported that their symptoms had substantially improved.
Many clients seek out cognitive therapy for treatment of depression and / or anxiety in the hopes of avoiding medication, looking to get off medication, or not be able tolerate the side effects or interactive effects of these drugs with other medications.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English.
Read More
Basketball great, Bob McAdoo recently shared his anxiety about watching his 15 year old daughter compete in tennis. Apparently, the 15 year old nationally ranked daughter at times fights herself rather than her opponent. The on-court outbursts interrupt her concentration and hurts her performance. McAdoo claims she inherited her temper from her mother. As a sports psychologist I don’t buy it. The greater likelihood is it is learned behavior that she has either observed in others or comes from her own overly perfectionist standards and unrealistic expectations of herself. It is also possible that she puts tremendous pressure on herself by demanding that she compete at the highest level as her father did. I have worked with a number of children of famous and successful parents that feel that way. Hopefully, she will learn how to channel her desire to win and become a pro one day, focusing more on “one day at a time” and “improving rather than winning”.
When sports announcers talk about mental toughness in individual players, they usually speak in generalities as if mental skills was a single attribute or skill, which it is not. Mental skills refer to a variety of attitudes, behaviors and coping skills which are usually taught and not inherent to the individual. Just as tennis skills consists of various shots along with strategy, foot speed and endurance, mental skills consists of techniques like relaxation and emotional regulation, concentration and imagery training and a host of other skills and training methods which might borrow from hypnosis, cognitive therapy and counseling.
Sports psychologists help athletes to identify their mental strengths and weaknesses and develop a systematic plan to strengthen skills essential to success in competition. In this way the sports psychologist is like a mental coach or mental trainer and can support the work of the individual or team coach. In today’s highly competitive athletic arena, mental toughness often determines the outcome more than raw skills. Working with a competent mental conditioning coach give the player and the team, “the winning edge” when it counts most.
As a sports psychologist who works with a lot of kids and parents I am often asked about how to pick a coach, when to change a coach and how to talk with coaches.
In team sports, it is the coach who selects the player. In individual sports, especially tennis and golf, it is the students and in most cases the parents who selects the coach. Since parents are investing time and money, they naturally are looking to see results. Unfortunately, parents are too eager to see results in terms of winning games and matches, rather than improvement in skills, attitudes and behaviors. At the youth level, it is often easy to produce wins early on. For example, in tennis, a player with a weak backhand may be taught to run around it and hit a forehand. This short term fix won’t last very long as better players will find the backhand anyway or hit rather easily to the open court on the next shot. Parents need to be patient and not switch coaches too quickly based largely on results.Over time, the athlete who patiently and systmatically works on improving their underling fundamentals will overcome the athlete who puts wins and results ahead of improvements. Consider these questions: Is your child enjoying the training? Has the coach outlined a specific developmental plan based on the needs, goals and abilities of you child? Does the plan and methods to achieve it make sense to you?
Sports parents need to keep in mind that to develop in a sport to compete effectively at a high level takes upwards of 10 years of training. So, it is most important to enjoy the journey!
Tennis legend Martina Navratalova talked about the importance of “soft hands” in becoming a good player. Since tennis is a game of “feel”, the ability to create softness in the hands translates to improved shot control.
As a sports psychologist who works a lot with tennis players, I am constantly looking to create effective ways to teach mental skills to my students and those who participate in my mental toughness training seminars. I recently found that holding a raw egg automatically creates a sense for holding the racket lightly. Too much pressure and the egg breaks.
Practice holding an egg in your hand for a few minutes each day for a week. Once you get a good feel for the degree of pressure, try to bring up the same feeling in your hand and racket grip when playing and notice the impact it makes on your shots.
Match the quote with the tennis champion who said it:
1.Tennis is 90% mental.
2. It’s not whether or not you choke, but when you do how you respond.
3. I never looked back or dwelled on my defeats. I always looked forward.
4. The softer the hands the better the player.
5. The most important point in any tennis match is always- the next one.
A. Martina Navratolova B. Chris Evert C. John McEnroe
D. Jimmy Connors E. Andre Agassi
To improve your mental game, reflect on what these quotes really mean and how you might apply them to yourself. Recognize that mental skills, just like physical ones need to be practiced many times in gradually more challenging settings to become natural, automatic and effective. As you develop your “outer game”-strokes, strategy, conditioning, leave time to work on your “inner game” – beliefs, attitudes, body language, thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Answers: 1.D 2.C 3.B 4.A 5.E