Athletic excellence requires more than physical capability. To achieve peak performance, athletes must develop mental toughness to stay focused no matter the situation or setbacks they encounter.
Few athletes are born with the mental fortitude they need to excel. It’s a learned skill — and if you’re an athlete, our therapy team at Psychology Beverly Hills can help you get there.
Performance psychotherapy applies key principles of psychology to sports and athletics. Two effective, evidence based therapy modalities that can help are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mentalization-based therapy (MBT).
CBT and MBT are two types of talk therapy. Each method involves working with a trained therapist to explore your thoughts and emotions. When you seek psychotherapy for sports performance, your sessions center on the ultimate goal of improving your game.
The best technique for you depends on your situation, needs, and goals for treatment. Here’s how CBT and MBT can enhance your sports performance.
CBT is among the best-known psychological treatments today. It focuses primarily on the way your perceptions and thoughts affect your behavior. For many people, CBT offers an effective way to identify challenges they face, so they can implement coping strategies.
In CBT, your therapist helps you identify inaccurate and negative thoughts and the challenges you’re facing. Once you recognize the thoughts, you can evaluate and respond to them in more productive ways.
CBT is an evidence-based treatment that can enhance your performance in almost any aspect of life — including sports. In fact, we use this technique to help athletes of all levels:
Some benefits of CBT are direct. Imagery skills can help you visualize what you want to achieve in your sport, and goal setting can help you get there. Other benefits are indirect. For example, CBT can help you address anxiety and low self-esteem, which can have a positive effect on your game.
MBT combines tenets of a few therapeutic techniques, including CBT. It focuses on identifying and understanding your mental state and the mental states of those around you. You also learn how your state of mind influences your behavior.
Like CBT, MBT is an evidence-based therapy that can offer real benefits in sports performance. We recommend MBT for athletes who want to:
MBT can also be very effective for athletes who have suffered setbacks. Maybe you made a bad call that cost you a win, or maybe you missed a shot you know you should have made. MBT helps you identify and address the emotions around those mental blocks, so you can move past them.
You take your athletic performance seriously, and so do we. Contact us online or call our Beverly Hills, California, office at 424-331-1570 to learn more information or to schedule your first session.
