When is it Time to Add Mental Training?

Many athletes, musicians, and even executives wonder do I need mental training to help get me to the next level or get me through this phase that I’m going through. When is the right time? How do I know if I need mental training?

Everyone benefits from mental skills that help them process thoughts and work through situations. Sometimes the challenge is knowing when and how to learn these skills. Let’s talk about what to keep in mind when considering. If you are an adult and think you need to learn some mental skills, your intuition is telling you something. I always suggest listening to your intuition.

You’ve probably worked long and hard to craft your skill, but something still isn’t working.

Look for signs

Signs that indicate the importance of adding mental training may have been there for a while and are increasing in severity or are just beginning to show up. Here are some (not all) of the signs that may suggest the need for a consultation with Dr. Michelle.

1. Practice is good, but the performer’s skills don’t show up in competition.
2. Negativity or doubt about one’s ability to perform.
3. Uncontrollable nerves.
4. Increased levels of stress.
5. Inability to let go of mistakes.

Most of these signs are experienced by many. Some know they need to add a few skills to advance and some just keep working harder and harder on their physical skills but don’t add in the mental skills to bring it all together.

If you are experiencing these instances, the next best step is to schedule a free consultation just to get a different point of view and identify how mental training can help optimize a performer’s approach to performance.

If you are concerned about your performance situation or a child’s performance, set up a free 30-minute phone consult with Dr. Michelle about your concerns. There is no pressure and it’s free. It can help you answer so many questions. She is available to assist with decisions about whether mental training will be helpful. Sometimes it’s easily indicated and sometimes it is a judgment call.

The injured performer and the importance of mental skills

Performers have a strong sense of body awareness and take great pride in the capabilities of their bodies. Thus, injuries can be psychologically as well as physically devastating. The ability to train and compete well involves enormous ego. Performers often identify themselves by who they are as a performer. Thus, an injury places considerable stress on this self-identification. The more severe the injury and the longer the recovery-rehabilitation period, the more prolonged and profound the mood disturbance may be.

Injured performers commonly experience at least three emotional responses: isolation, frustration, and disturbances of mood:

1. Isolation. The injury forces the performer to become separated from teachers, teammates, and coaches. Peers may provide little support, and in fact they may shun the injured performer to avoid reminders of their own potential frailty.
2. Frustration. The performer becomes frustrated because he or she perceives the loss of months of training and skills mastery, although there are many instances where performers have used the recovery period to master mental and other physical skills to return successfully to competition.
3. Mood disturbances are common. The performer may be temporarily depressed or become upset by minor annoyances.

An injury can provide the athlete with an opportunity to work with caring professionals to reassess his or her reasons for being in sport, and for redefining goals in sports participation.

My approach

There is still a lot of negative stigma around working on developing mental skills. This is partly due to the nature of being a performer. It’s largely physical – if I work on physically performing, everything will be great. The problem is performers put in a lot of time but when there are mental obstacles, they put in more time and get frustrated because they’ve done everything, they know how to do but they still aren’t improving.

Unfortunately, everything they know how to do is physical and the problem is probably mental.

The second reason that there’s still a lot of stigma around developing a mental skills training program is because it’s attached to psychology. If you are seeing someone who works on your head, then something must be wrong with you. That’s far from the truth. The facts are that we aren’t born with optimal mental skills and we have never been taught them. When we are young, we figure out how to deal with our environment based on need and while those skills ‘work’ when you are younger, many of them probably won’t work as you get older. Hence, the ineffective methods of dealing with your environment.

My work is not about fixing what’s broken, it’s about helping clients develop the mental skills they need so they can deal with their environment in the most optimal way. Until you have the proper mental skills for you, the way that you are dealing with your environment is the only way you know how to deal with your environment. You really don’t have control over what’s happening.

Mental skills give you the ability to have more control over how you compete, negativity, doubt, nerves, stress, and how you view mistakes. Mental skills will also allow you to perform more consistently and learn to enjoy the process.

How to help them take the next step for mental training

Coaches, peers, and parents often ask me how to approach an athlete or any elite performer when talking about this next step. Here are some guidelines –

• Normalize the process of seeking help. Remind performers that this isn’t about them having a serious psychological problem. It’s to ensure they have the best skills possible to mature through the process of being a performer.
• Approach the performer in a gentle, caring, and non-judgmental way.
• State specifically why you are concerned. Describe the behaviors you see or things you hear.
• Suggest it as a possible resource rather than telling them to go because they need help.
• As extra support, you can suggest a call with Dr. Michelle to discuss the situation. The initial consultation is free.
• Dr. Michelle uses a short-term, C-B mental consulting model. Most performers start to see (small) changes in the first 2-4 weeks.

You can practice and train harder and put in a lot of hours, but the key to being the performer you want to be is practicing and training smarter. As I said, many performers will feel ambivalent about seeking help. It’s OK. The unknown is scary. Once clients start to see changes, the unknown is no longer unknown and the fear has washed away.

“You have a physical coach or teacher who works on developing and refining all the physical skills. Dr. Michelle is the brain coach. I help you develop the mental skills that align with your physical skills so that both parts can work together to perform the way you want to perform.”