Athletes spend countless hours training their bodies. They lift, run, practice their skills, study film, work on technique, and build the physical strength and endurance they need to perform. But the mental side of sport deserves that same intentional attention. Confidence, focus, emotional regulation, handling pressure, responding to mistakes, and staying present under stress are all skills that can be developed with practice.

Maybe you know exactly what you are capable of, but struggle to execute when the pressure is on. Maybe you perform well in practice but find yourself overthinking during competition. Maybe one mistake stays with you for the rest of the game, or you are constantly worried about disappointing your coach or letting your team down. Maybe you are returning from an injury and your body has been cleared, but you are still working on trusting it again. Or maybe you are doing well on paper but feel burned out, anxious, or disconnected from a sport you used to love.

You may also be in a place where nothing feels particularly “wrong,” but you know you want to strengthen your mental game. You want to feel more confident, handle pressure differently, or learn how to perform more consistently when it matters most.

This is where a sport psychologist or sport therapist can help. But what exactly do they do, and how do you know when working with one might be helpful?

What Does a Sport Psychologist or Sport Therapist Do?

A sport psychologist or sport therapist helps athletes understand and develop the mental skills that influence performance and their overall experience of sport. This can include working on confidence, concentration, motivation, performance anxiety, pre-competition nerves, self-talk, imagery, goal setting, emotional regulation, and strategies for responding to mistakes or setbacks.

The work, however, is not limited to what happens during competition. For many athletes, performance and mental health are closely connected. Anxiety can affect performance, perfectionism can make it difficult to feel satisfied with an accomplishment, and burnout can make something an athlete once loved feel exhausting. An injury can affect an athlete’s confidence and identity just as much as it affects their physical abilities.

This is where working with a sport psychologist or sport therapist can be particularly helpful. They can incorporate the mental health side of the work when an athlete is also navigating concerns such as anxiety, depression, burnout, body image, disordered eating, grief, relationships, or major life transitions.

In other words, sport psychology is not simply about teaching an athlete to “think positively” before a game. It is about understanding what is getting in the way and developing practical, evidence-based strategies to help the athlete respond differently.

When Should an Athlete See a Sport Psychologist or Sport Therapist?

There is no specific point when an athlete “needs” a sport psychologist. You do not have to be in crisis, and you do not have to wait until your performance is falling apart.

Some athletes seek support because they are struggling with a specific issue, such as performance anxiety, confidence, injury, or burnout. Others seek out sport psychology because they want to strengthen the mental side of their performance in the same way they would work with a strength coach to improve their physical abilities.

You might consider working with a sport psychologist or sport therapist if you consistently feel anxious before competition, perform differently in competition than you do in practice, have difficulty moving past mistakes, or find yourself constantly questioning whether you are good enough. It can also be helpful if you are experiencing perfectionism, burnout, fear of reinjury, body image concerns, eating concerns, or significant pressure from yourself or others.

Transitions can also be a good time to seek support. Changing teams, moving from high school to college athletics, returning after an injury, graduating, or stepping away from competitive sport can bring up emotions and questions that are difficult to navigate on your own.

And sometimes, there is no major problem at all. You simply want to understand yourself better and develop the mental skills that can help you perform and feel better over the course of your athletic career.

You do not need to have a diagnosis or a “serious enough” problem to benefit from sport psychology.

What Can a Sport Psychologist or Sport Therapist Help With?

One of the biggest misconceptions about sport psychology is that it is primarily about visualization, positive self-talk, or learning how to calm your nerves before a competition. Those tools can absolutely be part of the work, but they are only one piece of it.

Sport psychology can address the mental skills involved in performance while also creating space to work through the emotional and psychological experiences that often come with being an athlete.

Performance Anxiety

Performance anxiety is one of the most common reasons athletes seek support. You can be well prepared, know your sport inside and out, and still find yourself overwhelmed by nerves when it is time to compete. Your heart may be racing, your thoughts may move quickly, and you may become so focused on avoiding mistakes that it becomes difficult to focus on what you actually need to do.

Sometimes athletes describe it as knowing they are capable of performing at a certain level but feeling unable to access that performance when the stakes are higher. Sport psychology can help athletes understand the relationship between their thoughts, emotions, physical responses, and performance and develop strategies for managing those experiences.

The goal is not necessarily to eliminate nervousness. Nerves are a normal part of competition. Instead, the goal is to learn how to perform effectively even when those nerves are present.

Confidence

Confidence is rarely as simple as having it or not having it. It can change after a poor performance, an injury, a coaching change, a position change, or even a difficult stretch of the season.

An athlete may feel confident one day and then question everything after making a mistake the next. When confidence becomes completely dependent on the most recent result, it can be difficult to feel steady.

Sport psychology can help athletes develop a more sustainable sense of confidence by focusing on what is within their control, identifying unhelpful thought patterns, strengthening self-talk, and learning how to respond when doubt shows up. The goal is not to convince yourself that you are always going to be the best athlete in the room. It is to develop greater trust in yourself and your ability to handle whatever happens next.

Overthinking and Fear of Mistakes

Some athletes spend so much time thinking about their performance that they have difficulty actually experiencing it.

After one mistake, they may replay what happened, worry about what their coach or teammates thought, and become increasingly focused on not making the same mistake again. Meanwhile, the next play is happening.

Sport psychology can help athletes learn how to recognize when they are getting caught in that cycle and develop strategies for redirecting their attention. This might involve a reset routine, changes in self-talk, attentional strategies, or learning how to acknowledge a mistake without carrying it into the next moment.

Perfectionism and Pressure

Having high standards can be a strength. Many high-performing athletes are driven, conscientious, and constantly looking for ways to improve. The challenge comes when those high standards become a belief that nothing is ever good enough.

An athlete may achieve a personal best and immediately focus on what could have been better. They may win but spend the entire car ride home thinking about one mistake. Over time, this can make success feel surprisingly unsatisfying and create a tremendous amount of pressure.

Therapy and sport psychology can help athletes distinguish between healthy striving and perfectionism. The goal is not to make athletes care less about their performance. It is to help them pursue excellence without making perfection the requirement for feeling worthy or successful.

Burnout

Burnout is more than simply being tired after a difficult week of training. Athletes experiencing burnout may feel emotionally exhausted, disconnected from their sport, less motivated, or increasingly frustrated by something that once brought them a sense of purpose and enjoyment.

It can be tempting to respond by simply pushing harder. But sometimes the more useful question is not, “How do I make myself work harder?” but, “Why am I running on empty?”

Therapy can help athletes look at the factors contributing to burnout, which may include perfectionism, unrealistic expectations, insufficient recovery, lack of boundaries, identity concerns, or pressure from themselves or others. The goal is to help create a relationship with sport that is sustainable rather than one that requires an athlete to sacrifice their overall well-being.

Injury and Returning to Sport

An injury can affect far more than an athlete’s physical ability to compete. Being sidelined can bring grief, frustration, isolation, anxiety, and a temporary loss of identity or routine. Then, when an athlete is physically cleared to return, they may discover that their confidence has not returned at the same pace.

You may be afraid of getting hurt again, hesitant to make a particular movement, frustrated that you are not immediately back to your previous level, or constantly monitoring how your body feels. These experiences are common parts of the psychological side of injury recovery.

Sport psychology can help athletes navigate the emotional experience of injury, rebuild confidence, develop trust in their bodies, and work through the uncertainty that can come with returning to competition.

Sometimes recovery is not about getting back to exactly who you were before the injury. It can also be an opportunity to understand yourself differently and discover who you are becoming as an athlete.

Body Image and Eating Concerns

Body image and eating concerns can be particularly complicated in sport because athletes receive so many messages about what their bodies are supposed to look like, weigh, or be capable of doing.

An athlete may compare themselves to teammates, feel pressure to change their body, become anxious around food, or believe that looking a certain way will automatically make them a better athlete. They may also be performing at a high level while privately feeling disconnected from or critical of their body.

A sport therapist can help athletes explore body image concerns, disordered eating, food-related anxiety, and the pressure to change their bodies while still understanding the demands and culture of sport. When appropriate, this work may also involve collaborating with other members of an athlete’s care team, such as a physician or registered dietitian.

Identity and Life Transitions

For many athletes, sport becomes an important part of their identity from a young age. That can make transitions particularly difficult.

Graduating from college, changing teams, losing a roster spot, experiencing a significant injury, or ending an athletic career can bring up questions that go well beyond sport. Who am I if I am not competing? What comes next? What parts of myself exist outside of being an athlete?

Sport therapy can provide space to explore these questions and develop a sense of identity that is broader than performance. This does not mean minimizing how meaningful sport has been. It means recognizing that being an athlete can be an important part of who you are without needing to be the only part.

Team Dynamics and Relationships

Sometimes the most difficult part of being an athlete is not the training or competition. It is navigating the people around you.

Difficult relationships with coaches, conflict with teammates, unclear roles, comparison, communication problems, or feeling disconnected from a team can all affect an athlete’s confidence and mental health.

Sport psychology can help athletes identify what is within their control, communicate more effectively, navigate challenging relationships, and develop strategies for managing interpersonal stress.

Mental Skills and Performance

Athletes can also seek sport psychology simply because they want to become stronger mentally.

This might involve developing a pre-performance routine, learning how to use imagery effectively, improving focus and concentration, developing more helpful self-talk, practicing emotional regulation, creating a reset routine, or preparing mentally for a particularly important competition.

These strategies are not magic tricks. Mental skills are skills, and they become more effective with intentional practice.

The same way an athlete would not expect to improve their strength after doing one lifting session, they should not expect one conversation about confidence or focus to completely change their performance. The goal is to build skills that can become part of how you approach training and competition over time.

You Don’t Have to Wait Until Something Is Wrong

One of the things I wish more athletes understood is that you do not have to wait until you are falling apart to ask for support.

You can reach out because you are tired of overthinking. You can come in because you want to feel more confident. You can seek support because you are nervous about an upcoming season, trying to return from an injury, struggling with burnout, or navigating a complicated relationship with food or your body.

You can also come in because you simply want to better understand yourself and learn how to perform in a way that feels sustainable.

Sometimes the work is about helping you perform better. Sometimes it is about understanding why performing has started to cost you so much. And often, it is a combination of both.

The goal of sport psychology is not to create athletes who never feel nervous, never make mistakes, or never struggle. Those experiences are part of being human and part of being an athlete. The goal is to help you develop the skills and self-awareness to respond to those moments differently.

You train your body because you know it affects how you perform. Your mind deserves that same attention.

At Papakyrikos Performance, I work with athletes and high-achieving individuals on both the mental side of performance and the mental health side of being human. This may include sport psychology and mental performance coaching, as well as therapy for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, body image, disordered eating, injury, and life transitions.

The goal isn’t just to help you perform better. It’s to help you feel better while you do it.

Looking for a Sport Psychologist or Sport Therapist?

If you’re looking for a sport psychologist or sport therapist who understands both the demands of high-level performance and the mental health side of being an athlete, we would love to connect. We are accepting new clients in Boston as well as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, and Vermont.

At Papakyrikos Therapy & Performance, we work with athletes and high-achieving individuals navigating performance anxiety, confidence, perfectionism, burnout, injury, body image, disordered eating, life transitions, and the everyday pressure that can come with performing at a high level.

Whether you’re looking to strengthen your mental game, work through something that’s been weighing on you, or find a healthier and more sustainable way to perform, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Learn more about sport psychology and therapy for athletes at Papakyrikos Therapy & Performance.