Therapeutic Approaches to Counseling Student Athletes

OBJECTIVES

• To define what today’s student athlete prototype looks like, including unique lifestyle, issues, and life stressors
• To examine the unique identity of being a student athlete, including the Athletic Identity
• To integrate developmental psychology, especially identity development, toward a working therapeutic model designed to more effectively identify and respond to student athletes in need of life counseling and/or intervention
• To understand both the traditional and contemporary issues student athletes commonly experience, and the stress that often accompanies these issues
• To discuss cognitive-behavioral therapeutic approaches that provide the most help to assisting student athletes in counseling
• To provide specific career advice, strategies, and techniques to student athletes which allow them to parlay their previous athletic experience into successful post-sport career ventures
• To provide counselors hands-on tips and advice for developing practice strategies to help student athletes