I love my young athletes and they love the privacy and regular support of short-term therapy sessions. They can rely on being validated, seen, and heard without judgment or pressure. It is an essential component to their athletic training and integrates seamlessly with strength and conditioning, rest and recovery, fueling and hydrating, coping with winning and loosing.
2020’s youth have much less stigma about mental health care. They know you don’t need a major mental illness to see a therapist. They know it can be brief in duration and they know they can return when they want. It is a therapist’s dream come true to have young people show up so confidently to the process. There is limited fear about sharing their insecurities.
They want to talk about what it’s like to leave the college environment and go home to their towns and neighborhoods and how to manage their evolving identity.
They want to talk about how it is for them to be students of color in their sport, on their team, at their university, or in their friend group.
Sometimes we work on re evaluating personal values. For the first time, they become aware that they are an independent person from their family and school and can choose to live in alignment with what matters most to them. (see my post on ‘Values Assessment’ for links to quizzes to discover your personal values).
Sometimes they want support on how to start a romantic relationship or how to manage a romantic relationship during the season or how to end one. Lots of these youth were in a pandemic lock-down during their teenage years, missing out on formative social skills. Not their fault. Where are we supposed to learn social and emotional skills? Therapy is the place.
Sometimes it’s about how to manage a narcissistic parent who pressures them to win or constantly reminds them of all they have ‘sacrificed’ for them to go to college. (p.s. Parenting is not a sacrifice. It’s a priority in life long love, attachment, and commitment.)
They all have some amount of nutrition, sleep, movement, or breath work protocols in their treatment plans. Things to enhance the body’s natural ability to move from sympathetic to parasympathetic states as needed. And if they are actively competing, we collaborate with their coach.
The phrase I hear the most in the first session is ‘Sorry for the word vomit.’ They are literally bursting to share and be heard. No need to apologize. I’m ready to hear it. I truly love this work.
This is just another good example of how short term therapy with a knowledgeable and skilled therapist can help us break through performance barriers and come out at a whole new level or really appreciate the level we are at.
