Practising what we preach: self-care as an avenue for effective practice

Sport psychology practitioners face unique challenges associated with the nature of their profession, resulting in potentially negative consequences to their personal and professional wellbeing. To engage in a positive professional experience, practitioners must learn how to face and overcome these challenges, by developing a clear understanding of their self-care needs and integrating effective self-care practices in their lives. Scholars have recently developed a sport psychology specific definition of Self-Care which forms the basis of the recommendations made in this chapter about why self-care is important for SPPs, how self-care works, why intended outcomes of self-care are important from the outset, the barriers sport psychology practitioners s may face, and practitioners may choose to develop and engage in a self-care plan.