Life Development Intervention for Athletes: Life Skills through Sports

The purpose of this article is to describe sport psychology and a model for its practice that is consistent with the training of counseling psychologists as teachers of life skills. Following an examination of the role that sport plays in our society and its importance for the development of identity and personal competence, what is meant by sport psychology and why it is a relevant area of study for counseling psychologists will be specified. A psychoeducational model for the practice of sport psychology, life development intervention (LDI), will be delineated and some examples of sport psychology consistent with the LDI model proposed. Using LDI as a base, dilemmas that counseling psychologists face when doing sport psychology will be considered Finally, some of the training issues for counseling psychologists doing sport psychology will be presented.