A group of licensed psychologists with varying levels of affiliation with NCAA institutions' athletics departments participated in a seminar earlier this month that provided them with an opportunity to understand the different mental-health counseling services institutions provide their student-athletes.

The two-day seminar, the first of its kind, also provided participants with the foundations to build a support network of other licensed psychologists who confront many of the same issues.

Organizers hope the event leads to the formation of a group of professionals that can exchange ideas, offer support and serve as a resource to the NCAA membership.

Participants also heard each other's presentations on different areas of expertise, including treating injured athletes; responding to crisis and trauma within the athletics department; addressing substance abuse, eating disorders and depression; and working to educate coaches on those and other topics.

Chris Carr, a clinical sports psychologist for the Methodist Sports Medicine Center in Indianapolis, also serves as a part-time licensed psychologist for the Purdue University athletics department. Carr and NCAA Assistant Director for Education Outreach Mary Wilfert built the seminar from interest expressed by the membership and the participating psychologists. Each participant contributed to the seminar by presenting from their own experience working with collegiate student-athletes. The focus of the seminar was to explore the counseling needs and resources to address the mental health of the student-athlete as an athlete and as a person.

Carr said many people in his field have been discussing such a seminar for quite some time, believing that the natural exchange of ideas and information could lead to a long-term relationship that promotes student-athlete mental health and well-being.

Target audience

Carr said getting the right participants was a key component to making the seminar work. The target audience was licensed psychologists (those with their doctoral degrees in clinical or counseling psychology and were licensed to practice) who have an established relationship of some kind with an athletics department.

The strength of that relationship varied from psychologists who serve as independent consultants to those who are integral parts of an athletics department and employ a staff of graduate assistants and others to assist with the workload. Even though the relationships varied, referral patterns still were similar, either from the sports medicine team, coaches or athletes. Triggers that might lead to a suggestion that an athlete seek a licensed counselor might be his or her threatening to quit the team, questioning sport participation versus academic achievement, or a noticeable decrease in performance without a reported injury.

While the seminar was about educating each other, Carr hoped it also would educate the NCAA membership.

"We can do some education, we can do some collaboration and really work to educate member institutions that if you really want to provide for the total health care of student-athletes, it's important to understand that there are psychologists who have backgrounds in and experiences with counseling issues regarding athletes," he said.

Participants used the sessions to discuss their individual programs and how they tackle different issues.

Leonard Zaichowsky, head of the Sport and Exercise Psychology Specialization at Boston University, said his program, affiliated with the Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine Program at Boston U., benefits from its relationship to the school of medicine and a graduate training program.

"We're getting the support, and I'm trying to make it move forward and be one of the best programs in the country," Zaichowsky said. Other programs that had full athletics department support included those at Ohio State University and the University of Oklahoma.

Oklahoma's Nicki Moore, an assistant director of athletics academic affairs for psychological services, presented information about working with injured athletes through a series of questions designed to help her colleagues think about their responsibilities and goals for the student-athletes they serve. Moore said that the student-athlete who is injured often goes through psychological stages after an injury that might be similar to the stages of grief. Included among phases for both models is anger.

"One of our roles is to work on establishing trust and (getting them) to recognize you are advocating for them," she said.

In the same session, David Coppel, who works with student-athletes at the University of Washington, spoke about repercussions of concussions that occur in between 5 and 12 percent of those who suffer a concussion. Possible effects include concentration and memory problems, feelings of vulnerability and emotionality, which affect both an athlete's success in the classroom and on the field.

In another session, Ron Chamberlain, a sports psychologist on staff with the Brigham Young University athletics department, talked about how he works with coaches and student-athletes at Brigham Young. Visibility is important, he said, so he attends practices about once a week and meets with each coach every summer.

"Sometimes they get so busy that they forget you're there and what you can help them with," he said. He also tries to travel with teams to build up a rapport with the student-athletes.

Continuing efforts

One of the agenda items that provoked a lengthy discussion was "Ethical Issues in the Provision of Psychological Care to Collegiate Athletes." The group explored issues arising from their specialized role in providing mental health counseling to individual athletes while at the same time acting as a resource on psychological health issues to the coaches and teams. The group agreed that the next meeting would include an expanded opportunity to address those issues.

Carr said he hopes NCAA member institutions learn as much from the weekend event as he and his colleagues did.

"I hope they go, 'Wow, I really didn't think about it, maybe when we're sending our kids to the student counseling center, they're not seeing somebody who knows what a 20-year-old collegiate athlete who plays in a revenue producing sport experiences, understands their stressors,' " Carr said. "They'll think, 'Maybe we need to look at being a little smarter at taking care of our student-athletes' psychological and mental health issues.' "

The group plans to meet again next year, and in the meantime, will act as a resource advisory group to the NCAA health and safety staff. The seminar ended with a commitment from those attending to assist the NCAA to continue its efforts to increase awareness among athletics departments of the need for mental health counseling for student-athletes.

For more information, contact Wilfert at mwilfert@ncaa.org or 317/917-6319.