Athletes, This One’s for You!
Have you ever been injured while playing sports? (Who hasn’t?) Do you experience a mental block or intrusive thoughts when taking a shot or making a pass? It’s possible you don’t have to live with it. Keep rea ding.
What’s the problem?
rainspotting Therapy (BSP) Understanding how our bodies respond to stress, excitement, and movement is helpful in grasping the impact sports have on our bodies and minds. When our body is heightened and launches into fight or flight responses to stimuli: our blood flow changes, our heart rate increases, our vision narrows and focuses, our digestion is halts, and we access instinctual muscle memory and involuntary muscle responses similar to life-threatening events. When we add on how performance pressure affects our psyche—equating self-worth and identity with how we perform—the stakes get higher. Next, consider loyalty to parents, coaches, teammates, friends, and fans. Letting anyone down is not only humiliating, but viewed (and felt) as a betrayal. With all of these factors in mind, we begin to enter the inner experience of an athlete.
When athletes practice grueling exercises and drills, receive constant critiques from coaches/parents/teams, play high-stakes games, they often internalize a demand for perfection and an imperative to win at any cost. In the context of the central nervous system, the athlete’s body responds to competitions or games similarly to a life-or-death battle. This heightened state, compounded with injuries, mistakes, or losses, means that the athlete’s body and mind are impacted more severely than spectators realize. Dr. David Grand, creator of Brainspotting Therapy (BSP), states that for athletes, “A physical injury is a trauma to the nervous system that is felt in the site of the injury and stored in the brain. But a physical injury, especially during sports, is also a psychological injury to the nervous system. The simultaneity of the physical and psychological traumas leads them to be recorded together, and as such, are interwoven and locked together in the brain and the body” (Grand, 2013). Because of the psychological impact of sports injuries, merely treating the physical symptoms leaves the underlying trauma untreated to be reinforced again and again through future sports injuries which deepen the cumulative negative impact on the athlete.
Grand and Goldberg (2011) describe the terms Sports Trauma Stress Disorder (STSD)—a version of post-traumatic stress disorder specific to cumulative trauma in athletes—and Repetitive Sports Performance Problems (RSPPs)—mental blocks that make well-rehearsed movements impossible for the athlete to achieve. Sports psychologist Dr. Alan Goldberg states that all RPPs (like the yips, slumps, etc.) stem from trauma, often unbeknownst to the athlete, and will remain a problem until the traumas are specifically addressed and processed (2011). STSD has symptoms that align with PTSD which stem from sports and non-sports injuries, bullying, abuse, fear, humiliation, severe heckling, failing in a performance, etc. The mind organizes around these overwhelming events and then triggers the body to experience pain, fear, avoidance, or other emotions when something similar occurs. The root of all significant performance problems stems from the athlete’s trauma history (Grand & Goldberg, 2011).
What can I do about it?
Grand and Goldberg have experienced great success in helping elite athletes overcome STSD and RPPs through the use of Brainspotting Therapy. Grand discovered BSP while working with a female figure skater whose trauma was impacting her triple loop (2013). As an athlete processes his or her traumas through Brainspotting, the root of the traumas are resolved and released, and the athlete is able to conquer and heal from his or her STSD or RPPs. Grand and Goldberg have used BSP to treat athletes from golf, baseball, football, gymnastics, bike racing, etc., and regardless of the sport, BSP yielded results. Brainspotting therapy has been effective in resolving physical pain associated with sports injuries, overcoming negative thinking patterns, and even improving performance abilities and creativity—especially for top tier athletes.
If you are curious about Brainspotting Therapy, want to overcome sports trauma, or want to improve your sports performance, reach out to schedule a session or consultation today.
Resources:
Learn more about what Brainspotting looks like here.
References:
Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: The revolutionary new therapy for rapid and effective change. Sounds True.
Grand, D., & Goldberg, A. S. (2011). This is your brain on sports: Beating blocks, slumps and performance anxiety for good! Dog Ear Publishing.