Looking for therapist with sport's psychology experience for teen
My early teen-age son has always had a lot of difficulty with emotional regulation, particularly around sports. He becomes very disregulated, frustrated, and angry at himself and others on his team if things don't go the way he wants. His team mates are definitely beginning to notice. This is also noticed in other areas, such as frustration with teachers who he considers unfair, etc., self-critical if he doesn't do something well right away, and difficulty with perspective taking to some extent. I've been thinking about the best way to get him some help. Since he is incredibly competitive, sporty and interested in sports, I thought that a therapist who has experience with sport's therapy and/or is very into sports can at least initially approach emotional regulation/composure/frustration tolerance issues from this perspective as a way for him to connect and have buy in. I am interested in a family/parent component as well so that we can create consistency for him, and help him with generalizing what he learns to other areas in his life. Any recommendations appreciated-but looking for a seasoned child-teen therapist and think individual rather than group would be most helpful at this point. Thank you.
Parent Replies
I think a regular therapist could help your son. (Added bonus if they’re familiar with competitive sports) That’s probably easy enough to find.
Speaking as a mom of an 18 yr old boy headed to play sports in college & who recently saw “on zoom” a real sports psychologist- they work with high level athletes getting over a rough patch with specific difficulties (missing easy puts, dropping the football at the snatch) rather than a young child with frustration difficulties showing up in sports & elsewhere. Does your son get frustrated with his own sports performance or others? Our son got angry at his less skilled team mates- we addressed that by helping him get on higher level teams.
just my 2 cents.