Posts Tagged therapist
The Psychology of Sports
I’m not much of an athlete but I have been described by others as being “a good sport”. That has more to do with my attitude than my ability. Over the past few decades the combination of Psychology and sports has become big business. Teams and individuals frequently seek out the services of a psychologist to help them improve their game and win in their chosen field. Imagine each of us as a triangle that is suspended from the ceiling in mobile fashion. The top angle is our thinking or cognition. The angle on the left side is our feeling or affect and the angle on the right side is our behaviour or choices. Each of us strives for and is most stable when the three are in balance. Unfortunately, our North American society tends to be heavy on the left or feeling side. Frequently I hear clients state “I don’t feel like doing that”. If we lead from our feelings, life becomes quite chaotic.
I am a Cognitive-Behavioural therapist in that I tend to focus on the top and right angles of the triangle. In fact, I encourage my clients to have the thinking (cognition) as the engine of the train and the feelings (affect) as the caboose. Sports psychologists also tend to work from the top of the triangle. They help the athlete to develop a mindset of success. Behaviour follows and the celebrations (feelings) result. Let’s put this in perspective. Imagine that Tiger Woods had ability but thought that he was a “loser”. We would likely have never heard of him! His thoughts opened up the possibilities that resulted in his achievement. There has been a great deal of research in the area of sports psychology.
Tags: alcohol, child, media, psychologist, psychologists, psychology, school, sport psychology, sports psychology, theory, therapistRelated posts
Adolescent Psychology and the Media
Parenting has often been referred to as life’s most difficult job, and it seems as though in recent years, this job has become increasingly more rigorous. Technological developments in recent years have given rise to novel methods for children and adults to access information. Many of these advancements are aimed specifically at the youth culture, though are responsible for a gradual transformation of the entire culture at large. Adults however, often seem a step slow in recognizing the magnitude that these new innovations will have upon all of our lives and the lives of today’s children.
In the United States in general, but especially here in Los Angeles, the media is extremely influential in our lives. Today, given the meteoric rise in the accessibility of new technology, more information is currently available for public consumption than at any other time in history. Children and adolescents are especially impressionable and often crave what Heinz Kohut termed “selfobjects” in order to help cope with the psychological rigors of youth. This hunger for connection to someone or something that feels bigger than one’s self is a normal psychological process, however in today’s media dominated culture in Los Angeles, pre-teens and adolescents seem especially vulnerable to potentially destructive influences…
Tags: adolescent, adolescent psychology, adolescents, alcohol, celebrities, celebrity, child, children, media, parenting, parents, psychology, teenager, the ego, therapist, therapistsRelated posts