Optimizing Sports Performance
Are You Struggling To Realize Your Full Potential?
As a middle school, high school, club, or college athlete, are you wondering if you can do something more to improve your performance? Having invested countless hours in training (and perhaps countless dollars in performance equipment, supplements, and other products), are you disappointed by your progress?
Are you wondering how to deal with a sports injury? If you’ve just begun sports injury rehab, you may fear that your performance will never return to what it was. Or, if you’ve already completed physical therapy, your performance may not have improved along with your health, leaving you wondering whether you’ve truly healed.
Are you suffering from depression, anxiety, or fear that often result from psychological trauma? If you cost your team an important game, botched a solo performance, or failed to make the team in the first place, these emotions may hold back your improvements. You may even be considering leaving your sport altogether.
Athletes Encounter Both Physical and Mental Health Risks
Sports injuries are common, especially in basketball, running, soccer, football, and baseball, according to American Sports Data. Ice hockey, tennis, skateboarding, and gymnastics are also associated with above-average injury rates. While most athletes would agree that the rewards of sports participation are worth the risk, many worry that their continued participation may be endangering them.
In addition to the obvious physical repercussions of a sports injury, depression and anxiety commonly result. Memories of prior accidents can also cause hesitation and a loss of focus, causing some players to favor an uninjured limb or otherwise adjust their training or performance post-injury. This can limit their progress and, in some cases, set them up for new injuries.
Purely psychological injuries have a similar effect. If you accidentally injured a teammate, for example, the guilt and loss of confidence may make it difficult for you to continue practicing. Or, if you've been subjected to misguided attempts at motivation from overenthusiastic coaches, parents, or others, your self-confidence and performance may likewise be compromised.
Sports Performance Therapy
The right training, gear, and nutritional support are all essential to a developing athlete, but they shouldn’t stand alone. Offering a truly integrative approach to sports performance, The Southern Colorado Hope for Healing Institute offers psychologically-focused sports performance therapy for adults and young adults hoping to improve their skills.
After you’ve set up an appointment with us, we’ll explore whether past traumas may be holding you back. If painful memories of a past injury or psychological trauma are affecting your technique, we’ll help you process the emotional residues associated with those memories through talk and visualization. Because many performance issues are rooted in the subcortical brain (where traditional talk therapy can’t reach), we’ll also utilize a highly-effective, scientifically proven therapy called Brainspotting.
Our Brainspotting-certified therapists will use visual cues to access the memories and unhealed emotional wounds stored deep in your brain. Proven effective at alleviating the symptoms of trauma by The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation, Brainspotting will tap into your brain’s innate ability to process and heal the depression, anxiety, and fear that compromise your athletic performance.
In order to make our Brainspotting sessions as productive as possible, we’ll first help you to become better acquainted with the emotions you’d like to resolve. We’ve found that successful athletes are often so focused on their performance goals that they tend to repress any emotions they think will get in the way. To resolve these emotions, however, you must face them head-on, ideally with the help of a compassionate, nonjudgmental therapist.
If you’ve never incorporated mental health work into your training regimen before, you may be surprised by how effective it is. As you accept your difficulties, let go of fear, and gain confidence, your mental state will cease to be an obstacle to your success. With the clear head and confident attitude that you will develop over the course of our sessions, you may find that you begin to perform better, train more efficiently, and communicate more effectively with your coach and team.
If the verbal assaults of difficult people are affecting you, we’ll teach you emotional regulation skills and communication strategies that will help you respond to those people with greater calm. If fear of injury or reinjury has caused you to question yourself or lose focus, we’ll help you to remove that obstacle by rebuilding your confidence, bringing you closer to the optimal performance you’re capable of.
As you consider whether sports performance therapy is right for you, you may wonder. . .
Shouldn’t I be focusing on my physical health and conditioning?
If you’re struggling to achieve mastery of your sport, you might think that all you need to do is to increase your training time or use new methods. While physical training is certainly important, the mental blocks that often underlie weakened performance must also be addressed.
Traditional sports performance psychology, which can be beneficial, may also be insufficient. Many athletes know from experience that visualizing a perfect throw, landing, or pitch doesn’t always result in one. That’s why we incorporate scientifically proven techniques like Brainspotting into our sessions to increase your chances of success.
What if I haven’t experienced any trauma, or the traumatic event I experienced happened a long time ago? Can Brainspotting still help me?
Everyone has experienced trauma at some point in their lives. Even a relatively benign event, such as hearing a fan heckle at you, can have a lasting emotional impact for some people. This is especially true if the emotional distress you’ve experienced has occurred repeatedly (such as a coach or parent’s repeated verbal degradations).
Trauma-induced mental wounds don’t go away on their own, nor does traditional talk therapy usually help. Addressing the physiological root of mental dysfunctions through Brainspotting can help you heal emotional baggage you may not even realize you’re still carrying.
Does Brainspotting really work? It seems kind of “out there.”
Initially skeptical of Brainspotting’s effectiveness because of its uniqueness, we became more interested in the technique after hearing about it during various conferences and through client success stories. After studying it extensively, trying it on ourselves, and using it on hundreds of patients, our therapists have come to regard Brainspotting as the most effective form of trauma treatment available, making it a powerful tool for athletes looking to offload mental baggage and refocus on physical conditioning. Numerous peer-reviewed studies have proven Brainspotting’s efficacy as well.
Strengthen Your Mind-Body Connection
If adding new training techniques, nutrition, apparel, or gear to your athletic practice haven’t resulted in the gains you’re hoping for, adding even more of these things probably isn’t the solution for you. When you take the fear, depression, anxiety, and uncertainty out of your practice sessions, you can unleash the potential that has always been inside of you.
The Southern Colorado Hope for Healing Institute—serving Pueblo and Colorado Springs—offers an experienced, compassionate staff. Our therapists are specialized in sports performance therapy and certified in Brainspotting. For a free, 15-minute consultation or to schedule your first appointment, call us at 1-719-271-6677.