From Setback to Comeback: Athletic Recovery through Kinesiology and Psychotherapy
Imagine the moment an athlete faces an injury: the uncertainty, the fear of never returning to peak performance, and the daunting road to recovery ahead. We dive into the holistic journey of athlete rehabilitation, with insights from a panel of experts in kinesiology, performance and sport psychology, who believe in a future where setbacks are merely the start of a comeback. Together, we explore how recovering athletes can leverage emotional support, skill-building and goal-setting to recover and return to sport and exercise.
Meet Our Expert Panel:
Jaime Glassman, Kinesiologist at The Movement Maven
Based in Toronto, Jamie strives to help her clients to embody confidence and independence, to develop an awareness of the needs of their bodies, and to practise patience and graciousness with themselves as they rehabilitate from injury and navigate challenging transitions.
Anjana Iyer, Supervised Psychotherapist at The Mental Game Clinic
Following a decade of psychotherapy experience in India, Anjana joined The Mental Game Clinic team in Toronto while working toward her licensure in Ontario. As a dancer and former theatre performer herself, Anjana deeply appreciates athleticism and the art of movement.
Gonzalo Osorio Ruchichi, Psychological Associate at The Mental Game Clinic
Gonzalo has over 8 years of clinical experience. While in Chile, he operated his own clinical practice and taught university courses in the field of psychology. Gonzalo currently works in supervised practice at The Mental Game Clinic. Gonzalo’s passion for sport and sport psychology is lifelong, having learned to play tennis as a child from his father who is a tennis coach.
Interview conducted by Noa Marley, Administrative Coordinator at The Mental Game Clinic and soon-to-be Doctoral Student of Clinical Psychology
The Power of Kinesiology in Rehabilitation
Understanding Your Body's Needs with Jaime Glassman
Jaime Glassman, known as "The Movement Maven," emphasizes the importance of a personalized recovery process. Her approach in kinesiology is not just about teaching exercises but also about empowering individuals to understand and listen to their bodies during recovery. Jaime highlights the necessity of compassion and empowerment, shedding light on an often-overlooked aspect of recovery: “When people are recovering, they're not used to how much energy they use towards that recovery”. Jaime sees her part as a kinesiologist as not only teaching people how to exercise, but also to support them with understanding their own body, accepting where they are in the present, and teaching the skill of goal-setting for movement and overcoming setbacks.
Personalized Treatment Plans: Beyond Physical Recovery
Recovery from an injury is as unique as the individual experiencing it. Jaime’s practice focuses on centering the person, understanding their specific barriers, goals, and experiences. She strives to provide support tailored to each individual's journey back to physical activity, recognizing the significance of meeting people where they are. Jaime explains, “[Recovery is] not as simple as saying, Go to rehab, Learn some rehab exercises. Go to the gym, work out. It really depends [...] What are their barriers? What are their goals and what are they experiencing now?” Jaime identifies the importance of offering people space to process their situation and support to explore what the possibilities may be to work toward optimal function and mobility following an injury or diagnosis.
The Role of Psychotherapy in Athletic Recovery
Self Compassion and Goal-Setting with Anjana Iyer
Anjana Iyer discusses the essential role of therapy in creating a supportive and non-judgmental space for athletes to safely express difficult emotions and work through fears of failure or anxiety about returning to sport following an injury. Therapy aims to address the pressure and anxiety that athletes and high-performers may feel on a daily basis, even in the absence of an injury or setback. Following an injury or setback, Anjana underscores for athletes the importance of goal-setting, coping strategies, and cultivating resilience and self-compassion. In therapy, athletes can receive the emotional support they need while working with their therapist to set goals and learn helpful coping strategies to manage the stress and the pressure throughout the recovery process and following their return to sport.
Rebuilding Identity and Confidence with Gonzalo Osorio Ruchichi
Gonzalo Osorio Ruchichi reflects on the psychological challenges athletes face in regaining confidence post-injury, and to trust that all the skills and resources that an athlete had before an injury will still be there when they have recovered and resumed their sport. He stresses the importance of working with a therapist to navigate the complex emotions and thoughts that arise during recovery, helping athletes to focus on their journey back to sport and life.
Gonzalo acknowledges that the time spent in recovery rather than practising can cause significant distress. Elaborating on the impact that an injury or setback can have on an athlete’s identity and sense of purpose, he shares: “[...] You're not able to actually do what you love to do and what you're aiming to do - probably what you have been preparing for your entire life.” An athlete who is dealing with these difficult thoughts and emotions can benefit from working with a therapist, to help them to slow down, rest in self-compassion, and focus on the recovery journey so that they can safely return to their sport and daily life.
How Therapy Can Help Athletes Return to Sport
Gonzalo and Anjana further highlight strategies from sport psychology and performance psychology that they use with athletes in therapy to support coping with setbacks, and describe how they adapt strategies to their client’s needs and goals in therapy. Common areas of focus in therapeutic work with athletes include motivation, performance anxiety, fear of failure or re-injury, stress, perfectionism, over-performance and burnout. Depending on the athlete’s goals and needs, therapeutic work may incorporate tools and practices such as visualization strategies and setting achievable goals, mindfulness techniques and practicing attunement to the body, to shifting one’s mindset and challenging self-talk, among many other techniques.
Strategies for Coping with Setbacks
Anjana, Gonzalo and Jaime all stress the importance of creating a safe space for athletes to express their emotions, fears, and concerns while providing them with tools to manage stress and set realistic goals. Setting realistic and achievable goals without exerting oneself mentally or physically can be a challenge; to overcome this challenge, our expert panel emphasizes flexibility, patience, managing one’s own expectations for their ability and recovery progress, listening to one's body in goal setting, and setting achievable goals, such as SMART goals.
The Mind-Body Connection: An Invitation to Re-learn and Adapt
As we age and have new experiences, and face things we might not have been prepared for, we can work with our bodies rather than against them as they change and face new challenges, to improve the functionality and mobility of our movement. Recovery and rehabilitation can be viewed, then, not only as a response to a one-time injury or setback, but rather as an ongoing invitation to re-learn how we can attune with our bodies, our minds, our selves, as they are in this moment.
The discussion underlines the intertwined nature of physical and mental health in the athlete’s recovery, emphasizing the benefits of seeking professional care and the need for a collaborative approach among healthcare professionals. By creating safe spaces and prioritizing individualized approaches, the path to recovery can lead athletes back to their peak physical and mental well-being.
Begin Your Journey Back to Wellness
Interested in working with Jaime Glassman? Learn more about kinesiology services and book a call with The Movement Maven here.
Want to work with Anjana Iyer or Gonzalo Osorio Ruchichi, or another therapist or Mental Performance Coach at The Mental Game? Book a Discovery call with the Intake team at The Mental Game Clinic here.
References
Bulchandani, S. (2024, January 25). The lessons I learned as an athlete. The Mental Game Clinic. Retrieved April 2, 2024, fromhttps://thementalgame.me/blog/the-lessons-i-learned-as-an-athlete
Foster Yardley, K. (2022, February 28). How to build resilience. The Mental Game Clinic. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://thementalgame.me/blog/how-to-build-resilience
Foster Yardley, K. (2022, 11 November). How self-compassion can help high performance. The Mental Game Clinic. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://thementalgame.me/blog/a-hrefhttpswwwthementalgamemebloghow-self-compassion-can-help-high-performancehow-self-compassion-can-help-high-performancea
Glassman, J. (2023, March 12). The 3 different types of coaching you can receive from a kinesiologist. The Movement Maven. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://themovementmaven.com/blog1/the-3-different-types-coaching-you-can-receive-from-a-kinesiologist
Glassman, J. (2023, March 28). A guide to advocating for yourself and your health. The Movement Maven. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://themovementmaven.com/blog1/advocating-for-yourself-and-your-health
Glassman, J. (2023, June 24). Understanding your body: From learning to mastering. The Movement Maven. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://themovementmaven.com/blog1/understanding-your-body
James, M. B. (2024, January 17). 5 essential tips for goal setting. Psychology Today. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/focus-on-forgiveness/202401/5-essential-tips-for-goal-setting
Marley, N. (2023, September 6). Self-talk changes results. The Mental Game Clinic. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://thementalgame.me/blog/self-talk-changes-results
The Mental Game Clinic (n.d.). Overcoming performance anxiety in sports. The Mental Game Clinic. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://thementalgame.me/blog/overcoming-performance-anxiety-in-sports
Spinarsky, V. (2024, February 7) Why somatics + embodiment matter in therapy. The Mental Game Clinic. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://thementalgame.me/blog/why-somatics-embodiment-matter-in-therapy
