(Page Two – Psychological Interventions)
The first suggested version of intervention is educational intervention (Santi, 2013) where the education makes athletes aware of their situation and as such this increases understanding of what they need to do to recover which can decrease the length of time the process takes. This can be coupled with goal setting. Setting goals ensures the athlete will maintain commitment and they will, when working with other health professionals such as physiotherapist and nutritionists, return to competition in form to contend at the highest level. Weinberg (2009) suggests that the athletes goals set should be specific, measurable, realistic, stimulating and time-based. During the rehabilitation process proper goal setting will allow our athlete gain a sense of control which will also aid her recovery.
For our athlete specifically she will be working closely with a nutritionist, physiotherapist and personal trainer which will link to Santi (2013) as due to her working with such professionals she will become completely aware of how to recover as swiftly as possible without risk of worsening her injury. As well as her increased knowledge, working with these professionals will allow them all to set realistic and achievable goals to again aid her recovery.
Imagery is a broad yet well investigated form of psychological intervention and can be differentiated in several ways; the perspective (external vs. internal) or the sensation involved (visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) During training or competition our athlete like many others use imagery to succeed, but they lose this habit during rehabilitation. However, research by Cupal & Brewer (2001) has shown how athletes using imagery in rehabilitation have a better return to the competition.
This can be coupled with the fourth and final intervention for our athlete to use is self-talk based. This intervention has a suggested system to follow set out by Naoi & Ostrow (2011) and is as follows:
Stage One) Expressing feelings and thoughts while at the same time identifying negative thoughts such as ‘This injury will have me out of competing for several months’. Once these negative thoughts are identified try to look at them positively for example ‘the quicker I recover the quicker I can compete again’
Stage Two) A personal aspect of the intervention where the athletes identify positive thoughts and write them down then reading the statements to the sports professional involved i.e. their coach or physiotherapist
Stage Three) Maintaining – participants keep the paper and should read and repeat to themselves at least once a day.
The reason why these two particular interventions work so well together is that during the self-talk intervention if the athlete were to use imagery to aid her thoughts this could increase drive to recover to the next level for example at Stage One where the athlete expresses her feelings of recovery if she imagines herself back on the track physically taking part and competing once more this will massively increase her motivation and self efficacy to get back in the sport.
With regards to psychological interventions Johnson (2000) performed a study to explore the effectiveness of these interventions for a sample of competitive athletes with long-term injuries. By using mood as the variable, 58 patients were tested with 14 being in the experimental group and 44 in the control group.
Johnson used three intervention strategies: stress management and cognitive control, goal-setting skills, and relaxation/guided imagery. Three of which I have touched on already. The results of the experiment show that the 14 participants in the experimental group had a higher overall mood level at the midpoint and end of rehabilitation and were also feeling more ready for competition than the control group. This study is excellent to use to support my work with our athlete as it promotes the idea that a short-term intervention has the potential to elevate mood levels in competitive athletes with long-term injuries.
| Fig. 1. Comparison of the Control (n = 44) and Experimental (n = 14) Groups P on chiSquare Test at Beginning (DCL:1) and End of Rehabilitation (DCL:2 and PSQ)* by Johnson, U. |
In conclusion based on both the studies and papers I have researched I will be ensuring that our athlete uses the four interventions I have previously stated; educating the athlete, imagery, goal setting and the self talk based intervention. By using all four of these intervention methods our athlete will theoretically have elevated moods, increased motivation, an increased sense of control and limited if any psychological distress such as anxiety or depression.
Working with both myself and the rest of the group our athlete will have psychological interventions, specific dietary plans, physiological rehabilitation and a fitness programme to return her to the level of competing she was once at. Furthermore and possibly more importantly, she will have gained an in depth knowledge of how to recover as productively as possible to return to her sport if the unfortunate does happen and she becomes injured at some point in the future.
Bibiography:
1) Brewer, B.W. (2009) “The role of psychological factors in sport injury rehabilitation outcomes” International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 3 (1), 40-61
2) Wiese-bjornstal, D.M., Smith, A. M., Shaffer, S.M. & Morrey, M. A. (1998). An integrated model of response to sport injury: Psychological and sociological dynamics. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 10(1), 46-69
3) O’Connor, E., Heil, J., Harmer, P. & Zimmerman, I. (2005) “Applying sport psychology” Human Kinetics, 187-206
4) Ryan, R. & Deci, E.L. (2000) “Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being” Am Psychol, 55 (1), 68-78
5) Hagger, M.S., Chatzisarantis, N.L.D., Barkoukis, V., Wang, C.K.J. & Baranowski, J. (2005) “Perceived autonomy support in physical education and leisure-time physical activity: a crosscultural evaluation of the trans-contextual model” 97 (1), 376-390
6) Santi, G. Pietrantoni, L. (2013) ” Psychology of sport injury rehabilitation: a review of models and interventions” Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 4 (8), 1029-1044
7) Weinberg, R. (2009) “Motivation” Sport Psychology, 7-17
8) Cupal, D.D. & Brewer, B.W. (2001) “Effects of Relaxation and Guided Imagery on Knee Strength, Reinjury Anxiety, and Pain Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction” 46 (1), 28-43
9) Naoi, A. & Ostrow, A. (2008) “The effects of cognitive and relaxations interventions on injured athletes’ mood and pain during rehabilitation” The Online Journal of Sport Psychology, 10 (1)
10) Podlog, L. Eklundb, C. (2005) “The psychosocial aspects of a return to sport following serious injury: A review of the literature from a self-determination perspectives” Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8 (4), 535-566
11) Johnson, U. (2000) “Short-Term Psychological Intervention: A Study of Long-Term-Injured Competitive Athletes” Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 9 (3), 207-218