Abstract
Psychological skills (e.g., goal setting, imagery, and self-talk) are effective strategies to overcome challenges experienced by injured athletes throughout the injury and rehabilitation process (Arvinen-Barrow & Clement, 2024). Athletic Therapists (ATs) play an important role in both the physical and psychological recovery of injured athletes (Tracey, 2008); however, many ATs report a lack of education and training in the psychological aspect of injury and rehabilitation (Alexander et al., 2015; Driver et al., 2017). Therefore, additional continuing education workshops are needed to address the ongoing knowledge gap of implementing psychological skills into clinical practice. The purpose of the study was to evaluate a sport psychology education workshop for ATs aimed at increasing the use of psychological skills in clinical practice. Eleven certified ATs (Mage = 38.73; SD = 11.63) participated in a four-hour online synchronous workshop developed specifically for this study. Their perceived effectiveness (i.e., Attitudes About Imagery Questionnaire; Hamson-Utley et al., 2008) and frequency of psychological skills use (i.e., Psychology of Injury Usage Survey; Stiller, 2008) at baseline and post-workshop were measured. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated significant changes pre- to post- workshop regarding ATs’ perceptions of the effectiveness of imagery (d = 1.17) and use of psychological skills in clinical practice specific to goal setting (d = 1.39) and additional skills such as self-talk, imagery, and relaxation (d = 0.87). Future research is needed to expand the availability and sustainability of continuing education workshops to address the ongoing knowledge gap of implementing psychological skills in practice.
