What is CBT for Sport and Exercise

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a well-established treatment for negative thoughts, low motivation, traumatic memories, low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression—challenges that affect athletes and individuals in various ways. The techniques of CBT, along with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), are well-suited to help you understand what’s impacting you and to develop effective strategies to manage your symptoms and perform at your best. Manage you MANTA and you will perform your best!

MANTA

  • Motivation affects everyone. Understanding what hinders you and identifying what drives you toward your goals can be explored through motivational interviewing, imagery, and reflective practice.

    You don’t need to be a professional athlete to benefit from this service. Whether you’re looking to overcome barriers to becoming more active or addressing motivational challenges, these techniques can help.

  • Anxiety is a natural emotion that is necessary in some sports, but too much can hinder your performance. Together, we can find the optimal level and develop strategies to manage excessive anxiety. You do not need to let anxiety effect your race day.

    If anxiety is preventing you from exercising or returning to a sport, we can work on building your confidence so you can re-engage in activities that benefit your physical health.

  • Maybe you doubt your abilities, and intrusive thoughts and images can disrupt your training or affect you on the day of your event. Self-esteem can fluctuate and impact anyone at any time.

    While positive self-talk is valuable, it’s not always easy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help you challenge these thoughts, practice self-compassion, and use visualization to overcome them

  • Incidents in professional and amateur sports can affect your performance, whether or not they are classified as traumatic. You might find the incident playing over and over in your mind making it difficult to engage fully in your sport.

    Processing these memories is crucial to overcoming setbacks and regaining peak performance. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an excellent option for this.

  • If you’ve trained as an athlete from a young age and are now retiring, whether due to injury or choice, it can be difficult to understand who you are without your sport. Together, we can explore how to rediscover meaning and purpose in your life.

    Perhaps you were once very active, but health issues or injuries now prevent you from doing what you love, which is affecting your mood.

What Peak CBT can help with 

Performance anxiety

Confidence Building

Motivation issues

Emotional control

Low mood

Self Criticism

Worry and generalised anxiety

Low self esteem

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

Recovery from traumatic incidents

Social anxiety

Dealing with Negative thoughts

Perfectionism

Techniques used

  • Together we will map out what is maintaining the problem to look at what you can do to manage it.

  • Goals can be identified, we can address how to work towards these while considering any motivational issues.

  • We can look at what behaviours are working for you and which are not, linking this to how it impacts on your mood and motivation. Consideration of your personal values is crucial in this process .

    This can help with starting and maintaining exercise patterns.

  • Techniques to manage emotions before, during and after your activity can be explored.

    This can include pre performance routine planning

  • Increasing awareness of your thoughts, how this impacts on how you are feeling and ways to challenge any unhelpful thoughts and thinking patterns.

  • Using imagery to help deal with pre, during and post anxiety.

  • How to reconnect with the present, not let past rumination or future worries effect you.

  • Eye Movement Desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) is a technique to manage trauma memories, deal with future events that are impacted by the past events.

  • Learn to accept thoughts and feelings, become more present focussed and work towards a valued based life.

  • Learn how your critical thoughts can impact on your performance and then learn how being kinder to yourself can help drive you forward