A Qualitative Analysis of Swedish Sport Psychology Practitioners’ Experiences of a Continuing Education Program

• IntroductionAlthough sport psychology practitioners acknowledge the benefits of continued professional development (CPD), few studies have explored the influence of such activities on the practitioners’ practice and thinking (Quarteroli et al., 2021). This study aimed to examine qualified sport psychology practitioners’ experiences engaging in a CPD program and how it impacted their professional development.MethodsThe Swedish Sports Confederation offers a CPD programme that targets performance enhancement services and psychotherapy for sport psychology practitioners. We explored the influence of this CPD program on the professional development of thirteen graduates (five female; age in years: M = 41.2, SD = 8.3) via semi-structured interviews. Our stance involved a realist ontology and constructionist epistemology (Elder-Vass, 2012). We followed the six-step reflexive thematic analysis procedures to analyze data (Braun et al., 2019).ResultsFour themes of CPD emerged: (1) Critique (participants decided to do the CPD course because of perceived gaps in their knowledge and skills), (2) Change (participants discussed changes they experienced as a result of the course), (3) Context (participants discussed the aspects of the CPD course that helped them change), and (4) Challenge (participants mentioned issues related to having completed the course).DiscussionThe study provides insights into the value of CPD education for sport psychology practitioners, helps bolster confidence in current knowledge on practitioner maturation and illustrates how CPD fits within a practitioner’s lifelong learning. Future research could investigate the professional development of other mid-career sport psychology practitioners to confirm or extend this work.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Idrottsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Sport and Fitness Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Samhällsvetenskap/Humaniora

Social Sciences/Humanities

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)