The Many Hats a Sport Psychologist Can Wear

Alex Auerbach, the Toronto Raptors' ex-Director of Wellness and Development, examines the range of roles sport psychologists can take on - and outlines how practitioners can expand their remit

The most impactful sport psychologists aren't confined to their office chairs.

The biggest mistake practitioners make is limiting themselves to traditional one-on-one athlete consultations. This waters down the value of the work we do (not to say it isn’t important), and limits the impact we can have on an entire organization - and thus limits our ability to benefit everyone.

Research shows that sport psychologists who integrated their services across multiple organizational levels reported significantly higher perceived effectiveness scores (p < .01) (McDougall et al., 2016). Yet, most sport psychologists can’t — or won’t — take the fully integrated approach.

I made this same error early in my career, believing my value came solely from athlete meetings. Like many other practitioners, I was missing countless opportunities to create lasting organizational change.

Break free from the counseling room - your expertise is needed everywhere.

The Hidden Cost Of Limited Scope

Research consistently shows that individual interventions alone are insufficient to address the full scope of performance challenges in elite sport (Fletcher & Wagstaff, 2009). Performance issues often stem from complex organizational and systemic factors that require broader interventions beyond one-on-one consultation. For example, Olympic athletes often cite organizational stressors — not the pressure of competition — as a key barrier to success (Fletcher & Wagstaff, 2009).

This statistic reveals a crucial blind spot in our field.

When we focus solely on one-on-one work, we ignore the systemic factors that shape athlete performance. Your unique understanding of human behavior and performance psychology could be transforming talent identification, shaping team culture, and influencing organizational decision-making… but it takes putting yourself out there and articulating your added value to make that happen.

Let's explore how to expand your impact across the organization.