ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we bring our experiences as two early career sport psychology consultants to our peers. While you read, we encourage you to listen to the questions that we ask and not necessarily the answers that we give. This chapter is not meant to be a protocol for how to work individually with clients. These are our experiences! We see our roles as active learners of our clients’ passions and expertise. They are, after all, the experts of their own lives, and we are fascinated by the experience that an individual takes when choosing to pursue a diffi cult task. Our roles are to be astute listeners, to deeply appreciate the process of the person’s development, and to offer support and training of evidence-based mindset skills when appropriate. This approach does not change when we are working with teams. We believe that in order to have an authentic and productive relationship, it is vital to protect our relationship to the best of our abilities. Throughout the chapter, we invite you to refl ect on our developmental approach as we discuss the process of sitting down across from our fi rst individual clients. Notice the focusing on the self and on the client, and the ways in which we balance the two.
