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A Qualitative Exploration of Neophyte Sport Psychology Practitioners Self-Care Experiences and Perceptions

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Dan MartinORCiD

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Abstract

Scholars from the psychology and mental health professions have previously identified the value of self-care for enhancing practitioners personal and professional well-being, and fitness to practice. Despite these advances, self-care in sport psychology practitioners has received limited attention from scholars, with the few extant studies investigating senior practitioners’ self-care. As such, there currently exists little understanding of how neophyte practitioners understand, experience and enact self-care. In the current study, we aimed to better understand SPP self-care early in individuals’ professional development. Grounded in ontological relativism, we recruited 18 self-identified white neophyte SPPs residing in the United Kingdom (12 females and 6 males), aged between 24 and 52 years (M_age = 31.94, SD_age = 7.81), to take part in semi-structured interviews in which we explored their experiences of enacting self-care during their training. Five main themes were constructed following a reflexive thematic analysis of data. These themes were: (a) What self-care means to neophyte SPPs, (b) The cornerstones of self-care, (c) What facilitates neophyte’s self-care, (d) The self-care hurdles that neophytes face and (e) The self-care actions that neophytes implement. These findings contribute to the nascent body of literature exploring self-care within SPP populations and serve to better illuminate neophyte SPPs’ understanding of self-care and how they perceive their interactions with the profession to impact their ability to enact self-care. The current lack of emphasis on self-care in SPP training pathways and employment settings as well as key considerations for the development of greater self-care awareness within current and future neophyte cohorts is discussed.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Martin DRF, Quartiroli A, Wagstaff CRD

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Applied Sport Psychology

Year: 2023

Volume: 35

Issue: 5

Pages: 874-896

Online publication date: 11/04/2022

Acceptance date: 22/02/2022

Date deposited: 23/08/2023

ISSN (print): 1041-3200

ISSN (electronic): 1533-1571

Publisher: Routledge

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2022.2046659

DOI: 10.1080/10413200.2022.2046659

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