Clinical Sport Psychology in Intercollegiate Athletics

Abstract

Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in participation in intercollegiate sports with over 380,000 student-athletes participating in nearly 100 athletic conferences at 1,100 NCAA membership schools. Simultaneously, the professional development in the field of sport psychology has paralleled the public draw of competitive sports. This paper explores, from the university athletics departmental perspective, the opportunities as well as the challenges that clinical sport psychologists may encounter within this interesting and stimulating field. The sport psychologist’s training and expertise uniquely prepares him or her to play an important and rewarding role in the lives of coaches, student-athletes and all those who support them.