Turn sports psychology into performance psychology, expert advises
Several times over the past 10 years, We’ve talked about the marketing advantages of incorporating sports psychology into your practice. It’s virtually all cash and there are no insurance hassles to deal with.
But there’s the implied requirement that the therapist must be a participant in the sport the client is seeking help for. You should know how to speak the client’s language.
While that’s true to a great extent, some therapists have expanded the definition of sports psychology to include the broader category of performance psychology. This can apply to almost anything, but particularly to the business world, where the right frame of mind can make all the difference between success, mediocrity or even failure.
Now, the American Psychological Association has hopped onboard with its own recommendations in this area. In its new Psychology Help Center, the APA’s Robert Singer, former president of Division 47 (Exercise and Sports), discusses how sports psychology can help anyone on the job.
“Psychologists aren’t just sharing sport psychology ideas with patients; they’re also working with corporations eager to think of themselves as winning teams in an era of downsizing,” Singer says. “Although their employees aren’t facing Olympic competition, they are facing the stress of trying to increase productivity while lowering costs, the stress of working long hours on jobs that might take weeks or months, and the stress of fitting into a team where individual goals have to fit into group goals.”
Approaches to success include using visualization to reduce stress and build confidence — just as athletes do before a big game.
As a clinician, you may not be all that interested in golf, tennis or football or baseball. But you can still expand your practice by using many of these techniques and calling it performance psychology. People are looking for an edge in a very competitive job market these days, and they’d pay good money to fine one.
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The idea of mobile mental health services pops up now and again. This time it’s happening in Salt Lake City, where Mayor Peter Corroon has gotten behind it in a big way.
Last week, he announced the creation of a mental health crisis unit for county residents. It’s a partnership between Salt Lake County, OptumHealth (United Behavioral Health) and the University of Utah. It operates 24/7 and will be dispatched when someone calls the county crisis line, or if requested by a law enforcement officer.
Each team has a licensed mental health and a professional and a Certified Peer Specialist.A psychiatrist is available by phone.
The team conducts a psychiatric assessment with the goal of stabilizing the individual. The person is then referred to community mental health resources and someone from the team later follow up to make sure the individual is keeping the appointments.
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Psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and psychologists have been breathing sighs of relief now that the “Medicare Fix” is in place for the remainder of 2012. But as Psychiatric News points out in this week’s issue, each time a permanent solution is put off, a larger cut looms down the road.
The next cut on the horizon, in January of 2013, will be 32%, according to the magazine.
The American Psychiatric Association’s Medical Director, James Scully Jr., complained in a statement: “Every year that Congress puts off repealing the [Sustainable Growth Rate] just adds to the final cost. We are also deeply concerned that the ‘doc fix’ is paid for by cutting bad debt and disproportionate-share payments to those hospitals that are caring for the nation’s indigent patients.”