Self-Care and Emotional Competence in Supervision: Helping Clinical Sport Psychology Trainees Foster Professional Well-Being

Abstract

Within clinical sport psychology (CSP), there is increased attention on factors designed to enhance professional well-being, such as self-care, for practitioners. Emotional competence is a relatively new supervision topic despite it being an ethical imperative within clinical/counseling and sport psychology. CSP trainees deal with stressors that could threaten professional well-being and are complicated by ethical challenges within the sport ecosystem. The purpose of this article is to describe self-care and emotional competence as they relate to the professional well-being of CSP trainees. We offer practical applications for supervisors to consider adopting in their work with trainees. Overall, it is of vital importance that those in CSP attend to their well-being, and we call upon the CSP field to be more intentional about integrating well-being factors into the supervision relationship.