Personal Stance in Therapy: A Practical Guide for Sport Psychology Professionals
- Dr Paul McCarthy
- 5 days ago
- 15 min read
Your personal stance in therapy shapes every interaction with athletes, yet many practitioners struggle to state what drives their work. Sport psychologists are embracing comprehensive, athlete-centered approaches rooted in person-centered therapy principles. This change emphasizes the practitioner-client relationship as a foundation for practice that works. Understanding personal stance meaning goes beyond theoretical knowledge and requires self-reflection about your values and beliefs about how athletes change.
In this piece, I'll walk you through what personal stances are and why they matter for service delivery effectiveness. You'll learn core elements that shape your approach and practical strategies for developing authentic therapeutic presence.
What is Personal Stance in Therapy?
Personal stance meaning in sport psychology context
Personal stance in therapy represents the unique way you operate as a practitioner based on your individual characteristics, beliefs, and way of being. The Personal Style of the Therapist (PST) has been defined as a set of singular conditions that lead you to operate in a specific way in your work, referring to the normal characteristics you imprint on your practice because of your peculiar way of being, whatever the theoretical approach you use [1].
Your personal stance demonstrates itself through five bipolar functions that occur in every therapeutic interaction in sport psychology. These include your instructional approach (flexibility versus rigidity in setting boundaries), expressive style (emotional closeness versus distance with athletes), engagement level (degree of commitment to your work), attentional focus (broad versus narrow information gathering), and operational preference (spontaneous versus planned actions) [1].
Your personal stance extends beyond technical skills. The personal self who is the therapist is an essential element of the therapeutic process, because the human relationship with clients serves as the medium through which therapy works [2]. Athletes encounter you as you are at the present moment, not the person you aspire to become after further training. You work with your assets among your personal issues, such as fear of vulnerability, need to control, or lack of self-confidence [2].
How personal stance is different from theoretical orientation
Your personal stance reflects who you are as a person in the therapeutic space. Theoretical orientation provides a framework to understand athlete experiences and guide interventions. Choosing a theory means you synthesize academic information with your own view of people and the factors affecting their behavior [3]. Your stance operates at a deeper level, but.
Your theoretical orientation might be person-centered, cognitive-behavioral, or acceptance and commitment therapy. Your personal stance determines how you embody that theory. Two practitioners using person-centered approaches will deliver services differently based on their individual stances, to cite an instance. Students who were both personally and professionally congruent expressed more confidence than those who weren't aligned [3].
The difference matters because you can learn theoretical techniques. Your stance emerges from your fundamental beliefs about human nature, change, and relationships. The point is awareness: knowing what your working assumptions are, having an organized way of thinking about people and their problems, and recognizing how your assumptions affect your work [3].
The relationship between personal values and therapeutic practice
Personal values function as core beliefs tied to your emotional states. They influence where you focus attention, shape perceptions, and direct decision-making, often without conscious awareness [4]. Understanding personal values serves as a clarifying compass for psychotherapists, while unexamined values create blindspots that limit clinical judgment and narrow the therapeutic lens [4].
Your personal values influence treatment decisions, perceptions of athletes, and outcomes [5]. This occurs even when you're not attempting to alter an athlete's values. Some athletes may adopt values like yours over the course of work together [5].
Psychotherapy cannot be free of your personal values or the athlete's values. They integrate into who you are as an individual and influence every decision and action [5]. There's no requirement that you have the same values as athletes, nor must you exclude all influence of personal values from professional work [5].
You may impose values-based frameworks onto athletes whose values are different when you fail to recognize your own values. This demonstrates itself in micro-interactions that shape the therapeutic process in subtle but most important ways [4]. Treatment effectiveness suffers when values operate unconsciously, and what could be healing transforms into misattunement and invalidation [4].
Personal values may be beliefs and convictions held strongly that are everything in your identity. They influence decisions and actions in both personal and professional life, of course [5]. The integration of personal and professional values represents an optimal approach rather than focusing on either alone [5].
Why Personal Stance Matters for Sport Psychology Professionals
Research demonstrates that personal stance in therapy isn't merely a philosophical consideration but a measurable factor that affects athlete outcomes. How you show up as a practitioner directly influences whether athletes participate with your support, adhere to recommendations, and benefit from your work. The evidence reveals three critical areas where personal stances shape professional effectiveness.
Effect on the therapeutic relationship
The therapeutic alliance operates as a dyadic process with both your perspective and the athlete's perspective. Exploring the agreement between these viewpoints provides more useful information about the alliance than either perspective alone [1]. High alliance strength and agreement between both parties suggest a shared understanding. You both believe you're arranged about goals and tasks. A weak alliance for a practitioner-athlete dyad with high agreement means both recognize the strained relationship. This enables you to take corrective action [1].
Alliance congruence was associated with improvements in both practitioner and patient ratings of treatment targets, evaluation of global functioning, and self-rated interpersonal problems [1]. This matters because a weak alliance serves as a context where your efforts to help athletes learn strategies are less likely to meet with success [1].
Trust forms the foundation before attempting any performance interventions. Research suggests that you must establish and maintain trusting relationships with athletes. This enables them to speak openly about difficult experiences, including potential career-ending issues that might otherwise remain unaddressed [6]. The therapeutic relationship quality is the most substantial factor in facilitating treatment adherence and positive counseling outcomes [6]. During periods of injury, performance slumps, or competitive pressure, the alliance can strengthen or weaken depending on how you demonstrate empathy, involvement, and accessibility [6].
Influence on service delivery effectiveness
Therapists account for around 5-10% of unexplained variance in patient outcomes, with 8-9% being most commonly reported [3]. This therapist effect represents the amount of variability in outcomes attributable to you as the practitioner [3]. Research shows that therapist factors are more substantial than differences between the types of therapy delivered [3].
The data reveals substantial practical differences. Above average therapists were over twice as effective as below average therapists for patients who had eight sessions [3]. Recovery rates begin to level out for average and above average therapists but decrease for below average practitioners [3].
Therapist factors such as training, skill, and experience have been found to be only weak predictors of patient outcome [3]. The strength of the therapeutic alliance has been shown to be a stronger predictor instead. Evidence suggests that practitioners vary in their knowing how to recognize and repair ruptures to that alliance [3]. The therapeutic relationship quality accounts for approximately 30% of positive outcomes in psychological support [6].
Non-completion affects effectiveness substantially. Patients who did not complete therapy had poorer outcomes compared to those who completed. Non-completion reduced improvement by 6 points on average [3]. Your knowing how to maintain participation through a strong therapeutic relationship directly affects whether athletes benefit from your services.
Connection to practitioner authenticity and congruence
Congruence refers to the alignment between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This creates an authentic therapeutic space [1]. An analysis of 21 studies, representing 1,192 patients, resulted in a weighted total effect size of .23 or an estimated d of .46 for congruence's relation with psychotherapy improvement [7].
Congruence has two facets: one intrapersonal and one interpersonal. Mindful genuineness, personal awareness, and authenticity characterize the intrapersonal element. The capacity to respectfully and transparently give voice to your experience to another person characterizes the interpersonal component [7].
Congruence promotes trust and rapport. Athletes are more likely to feel understood and valued [1]. This trust is the foundation for a safe environment where athletes can explore emotions and challenges without fear of judgment. Congruent practitioners model authentic expression. Athletes often struggle with issues related to identity and self-esteem. Observing you welcome your own authentic self encourages athletes to do the same. This promotes self-acceptance and self-discovery [1].
Athletes are sensitive to insincere or role-bound behavior. Practitioners who model a false self or defensive style are unlikely to help them [2]. They also model this genuineness when you are congruent. Your congruence can support athletes to become congruent themselves [2]. The authenticity of congruence contributes to better therapeutic outcomes. Athletes are more likely to participate in meaningful self-exploration and make positive changes when they feel connected to you and the therapy process [1].
Core Elements That Shape Your Personal Stance
Four interconnected elements are the foundations of your personal stance in therapy. These components operate at the same time and influence how you interpret athlete experiences, structure sessions, and respond to challenges. Each element reveals the deeper architecture of your therapeutic approach when you take a closer look.
Your beliefs about athlete change and growth
How you envision athlete change shapes your interventions in a fundamental way. Therapists who notice they use their theory of change consistently and feel confident that the theory allows them to work with diverse problems and diverse clients develop higher alliances. They also terminate treatment with agreement more often [8]. Confidence in your theory of change functions as a time-varying factor that predicts alliance quality [8].
Your expectations matter a great deal. Athletes show better outcomes when you hold higher expectations that they can change [8]. This occurs through a synergy effect: you become aware of your worldview and adopt a model of change congruent with this worldview. You then grow in confidence [8]. This confidence guides you toward authenticity and precision in delivering interventions [8].
The transtheoretical model of behavior change offers a framework to assess athlete readiness. Athletes move through six stages that each require different strategies. Meeting athletes at their current stage reduces resistance to future change and increases participation. It also reduces dropout and increases buy-in to overall change [9]. Empathy and normalization become essential responses during relapse stages [9].
Views on the practitioner-athlete relationship
Your stance has specific beliefs about what makes relationships work. The 3+1Cs model defines quality relationships through four interpersonal constructs [5]:
Closeness: The emotional or affective tone describing key interpersonal feelings experienced between you and the athlete
Commitment: Your intention or willingness to maintain a close-knit and positive relationship over time
Complementarity: Collaboration or cooperation between you and the athlete
Co-orientation: The degree to which you and the athlete view, assess, and report the relationship in mutually similar and agreeable ways
Trust emerges as the most critical theme. Sixteen out of twenty participants mentioned trust right after the first open question about therapeutic alliance [4]. Trust includes professionality and trust in each other as persons. It also includes trust in the therapeutic process and trust that private conversations remain private [4].
Communication extends beyond injury or performance discussions. Small talk serves as a tool to discuss difficult subjects and strengthens social bonding [4]. Athletes expressed that conversing about life topics matters more than only addressing injuries [4].
Assumptions about human nature and motivation
Person-centered approaches rest on fundamental assumptions about human nature. Rogers argued that humans are motivated toward development, differentiation, and cooperative relationships [10]. The actualizing tendency represents the one natural motivational force always directed toward constructive growth [10].
This ontological view underpins non-directivity. People move toward fully functioning when optimal social environments exist [10]. The person-centered stance trusts that people are their own best experts. With the right social environment, athletes will be self-determining and move in autonomous and socially constructive directions [10].
Professional identity and role perception
Professional identity construction affects career outcomes by a lot [11]. Your understanding of core values and beliefs is recognized as essential to establish a congruent professional philosophy and develop coherent professional identity [12]. Alignment of core beliefs and values results in higher levels of authenticity, satisfaction, and meaning [12].
Role perception plays an important part in promoting positive and mature professional identity [11]. Teamwork was found to be the major predictor of professional identity and accounts for 82% [13]. Understanding your professional role, expertise, and interactions with other professionals sustains professional identity [12].
Practitioners with low professional identity sense experience challenges when they implement evidence-based interventions. They also face burnout risk [11]. Pride in and knowledge of the profession serve as key factors in professional identity development [12].
Developing Your Personal Stance as a Practitioner
Developing personal stance in therapy requires intentional practice rather than passive accumulation of experience. The process involves systematic dissection of your internal landscape, theoretical foundations, value systems and professional relationships. Each developmental pathway strengthens different aspects of your therapeutic identity.
Self-reflection and awareness practices
Self-reflection represents knowing how to mentalize yourself and dissect which circumstances and experiences in the past and present have led to current desires, thoughts and convictions [14]. This process is an essential prerequisite for professional work in the psychosocial field [14]. Reflecting on what matters most doesn't require isolated contemplation. You can use reflection cards to involve yourself in meaningful conversations with family, friends or colleagues. This makes the process interactive while you find each other's values [3].
A structured reflective practice follows six steps. Describe a specific therapy moment or session first. Reflect on the emotions and thoughts you experienced second. Assess objectively and explore potential reasons for your reactions third, including assumptions and biases. Analyze what this means fourth, including unresolved wounds or areas for skill development. Determine key learnings from the reflection process fifth. Decide how to apply this learning to your therapeutic practice sixth [15].
Post-session reflective questions are especially useful when you have time: "How did I feel during the session?" "What triggered these feelings?" "How might my reactions influence the therapy?" [15]. Journaling is a quickest way to develop reflective practice and forms part of a broader metacognitive strategy [15].
Learning about your theoretical influences
Psychologists draw on one or more theories of psychotherapy, which act as roadmaps that guide you through understanding athletes and their problems while developing solutions [16]. The theoretical part of professional training consists of content from psychotherapy schools, psychology, social work, medicine, ethics and law [14].
Many therapists blend elements from different approaches and tailor treatment according to each athlete's needs [16]. The type of theory matters less than the success of the relationship between you and the athlete [17]. Dissecting which theories appeal to your worldview helps you develop confidence in your approach and deliver interventions with authenticity.
Identifying your core values in practice
Values are qualities and principles that give your life meaning. They serve as guiding directions rather than specific outcomes [2]. Identifying values often reveals what brings you fulfillment, vitality and connection [2]. Daily routines, external expectations or emotional challenges can obscure values and lead you to make decisions based on what you think you should do rather than what matters [2].
Value congruence occurs when your behavior lines up with stated values. Achieving this consistency allows you to experience meaning in your work. Value incongruence makes it difficult to find meaning and increases procrastination [2]. Reflecting on meaningful moments when you felt alive, connected or fulfilled often reveals underlying values in action [2].
Supervision and peer consultation for stance development
Supervision offers a reflective space in which to develop practice and benefits athlete safety [18]. Regular peer consultation counters isolation and burnout by promoting community, collegiality and connection [19]. Peer consultation groups demonstrate greater effectiveness when content and process are valued, providing feedback on clinical cases while you explore your emotional reactions [19]. Successful consultation groups are self-directed, non-hierarchical, non-evaluative and non-judgmental, yet also honest and confidential [19].
Integrating Personal Stance with Person-Centered Principles
Person-centered principles provide a framework within which your personal stance operates authentically. Rogers defined three attitudes that are the foundations of this approach: accurate empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard [6]. These core conditions create the relational climate where athlete growth becomes possible. You must understand how your unique characteristics boost rather than compromise these therapeutic essentials when integrating your stance with these principles.
Arranging stance with empathy and unconditional positive regard
Empathy involves paying careful attention to the athlete's feelings and thoughts. You convey accurate understanding of their private world as if it were your own [6]. Reflection proves helpful for expressing empathy. You paraphrase and summarize the feeling behind what athletes say rather than just content [6]. Athletes can process feelings after hearing them restated.
Unconditional positive regard creates a warm environment that conveys acceptance without judgment or approval [6]. You experience unconditional positive regard for athletes by accepting each aspect of their experience as part of that individual in sport psychology contexts [20]. You accept the athlete's expression of negative, painful, or fearful feelings as much as positive or confident ones [20].
Unconditional positive regard presents a paradox. You accept athletes as they are at the current moment for change to occur, not for what they have been or could become [20]. Prizing and accepting athletes can challenge you because of your own biases and beliefs that influence perceptions [20]. Self-understanding gained from supervision and personal therapy helps identify and work through these biases [20].
Maintaining congruence between beliefs and actions
Congruence means conveying your feelings and thoughts to relate to athletes [6]. You are yourself within the relationship, not hiding behind a professional façade or deceiving athletes [6]. You may share emotional reactions. You should not share personal problems or shift focus to yourself [6].
Balancing non-directiveness with your personal values
Non-directive therapy represents the therapist's task to follow the athlete's lead [21]. You refrain from imposing your own values or solutions. Instead, you give athletes the ability to explore experiences and find their unique path [22]. The non-directive attitude does not imply lacking influence over athletes. Two people in a relationship influence one another [1]. Non-directiveness is not an attempt to remove influence but rather an intention to refrain from exerting influence in service of any therapist agenda for the athlete [1].
Value bracketing offers benefits when encountering value conflicts with athletes [7]. You can make a difference between your private domain and professional domain [7]. This does not mean affirming moral relativism but rather tolerating the diversity of athlete value systems in your professional work [7].
Common Challenges in Maintaining Personal Stances
You retain control of your personal stance in therapy, but this proves harder in practice than in theory. External pressures, organizational constraints, and personal well-being challenges test your commitment to person-centered principles daily.
Pressure to adopt directive approaches
Sport organizations often expect quick fixes and measurable outcomes. This creates tension with non-directive approaches. A crisis may just need structure, while reflection grows more in open space [23]. Flexibility in approach represents the real clinical art. Nonetheless, pressure exists to classify athletes, provide solutions, and demonstrate expertise rather than trust the athlete's self-actualizing capacity. Directive approaches can feel controlling and invalidate client preference when used without sensitivity [24].
Managing conflicts between organizational demands and personal values
Stress becomes chronic when your work environment forces you to compromise core values [25]. Misalignment between your values and organizational systems erodes your sense of purpose and identity [8]. Value conflicts show up as disconnection from your work, constant inner tension, and difficulty making decisions [25]. You might question whether disengaging from a setting represents productive critique rather than individual failure when patient care conflicts with your values [8].
Navigating ethical dilemmas while staying true to your stance
Ethical dilemmas occur when two principles from your ethical framework come into conflict [26]. Professional judgments in constantly changing and uncertain circumstances create difficulty [27]. No ethical code eliminates these challenges. Consultation with supervisors and colleagues supports your decision-making when facing conflicts between competing obligations [28].
Avoiding practitioner burnout through stance alignment
Burnout affects 76% of full-time employees at some point [29], with 50% of clinicians experiencing it [30]. Value misalignment represents a root cause [25]. Emotional strain and exhaustion follow when daily actions pull you away from core values. Interventions addressing burnout should focus on value fulfillment as the simple change mechanism [8].
Conclusion
Your personal stance determines in the end how well you connect with athletes and aid meaningful change. The human relationship serves as the medium through which therapeutic work happens, after all. Start by understanding your core values, theoretical influences, and beliefs about athlete change. Use supervision and reflective practice to identify areas where your actions might drift from your authentic stance.
Who you are and how you practice must be arranged to create the foundation for genuine therapeutic presence. Athletes respond to your authenticity, not your perfect technique. You create the conditions where transformation becomes possible when you show up congruently, rooted in person-centered principles while honoring your unique point of view.
Key Takeaways
Understanding and developing your personal stance in therapy is crucial for effective sport psychology practice, as it shapes every interaction with athletes and directly impacts therapeutic outcomes.
• Personal stance goes beyond theory - It's your unique way of being in therapy based on values, beliefs, and characteristics, not just theoretical knowledge
• Authenticity drives effectiveness - Congruent practitioners who align beliefs with actions create stronger therapeutic relationships and better athlete outcomes
• Self-reflection is essential - Regular examination of your values, assumptions, and reactions through journaling and supervision develops authentic therapeutic presence
• Trust forms the foundation - Athletes must feel safe and understood before any performance interventions can succeed, making relationship quality paramount
• Value alignment prevents burnout - When your daily practice conflicts with core values, chronic stress and disengagement follow, undermining effectiveness
The therapeutic relationship accounts for approximately 30% of positive outcomes, making your personal stance a measurable factor in athlete success rather than just a philosophical consideration.
References
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