Private Practice Development - Becoming A Certified Brainspotting Therapist & Marketing Your Practice To Athletes The Field Of Sport Psychology
About the Author
Ben Foodman is a licensed psychotherapist & performance specialist. He owns his private practice located in Charlotte North Carolina where he specializes in working with athletes to help them overcome mental blocks (the yips), PTSD, ADD / ADHD and achieve flow states through the techniques of Brainspotting & Neurofeedback. If you are interested in services, use the link here! Enjoy the article below!
Becoming Certified In Brainspotting & Working With Athletes
There are many psychotherapy interventions that therapists can receive training in, but Brainspotting is one of the hottest interventions on the market. Brainspotting was developed by Dr. David Grand, a former EMDR trainer who was able to adapt the EMDR model into a more flexible tool that could be integrated with almost any style of therapy. Since its’ inception it has gained widespread acclaim amongst trauma-informed therapists and is gaining steam amongst psychotherapists looking for new methods to help their clients. For those that are interested in pursuing certification in Brainspotting, I wanted to take the time to explain WHY candidates should pursue this certification and also pitch why candidates should consider focusing on working exclusively with athletes.
Why Psychotherapists Should Pursue Certification In Brainspotting
In my experience as a Brainspotting Consultant, I see that many people will attend the trainings of Phase 1 & 2 but will then stop their training all together. This is a big mistake for several reasons. First, Brainspotting is constantly evolving and is incredibly technical. Because this technique requires an intimate knowledge of neuroscience, candidates will need to constantly spend time educating and training themselves.
But perhaps the most important reason candidates should pursue certification is because they need to learn the ART of Brainspotting and how to smoothly integrate the techniques of Phase 1 and 2 together. The letters of certification are NOT important, learning how to get the most out of the technique is, and certification helps candidates understand how to connect the lessons of Phase 1 and 2 together.
Why You Should Create A Brainspotting Practice That Only Focuses On Athletes
The field of sport psychology as it stands now is both boring and ineffective. Most ‘Sport Psychologists’ use only ‘evidence-based’ interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy, or motivational interviewing. Astonishingly, the vast majority of sport psychologists view mental health issues as separate from performance issues. While this is most certainly problematic for athletes, this gap in knowledge has created a vacuum for Brainspotting clinicians to fill. Brainspotting without a doubt is the perfect intervention to help athletes overcome mental blocks (aka the Yips), sports injuries, sports humiliations and many of the trauma that they will encounter in sports, which will inevitably prevent athletes from achieving peak performance. There is a huge need for this type of clinician, and Brainspotters can perfectly fill that void!
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Will Reward Unique Therapists
The vast majority of therapists are generalists, meaning that they will work with anyone who has depression, anxiety, ADD and trauma. The vast majority of therapists also never challenge themselves to become specialized. In a sea of therapists who all do the same thing, why would Google’s search engine put you on the top over them? You already know the answer to this…it won’t. That is unless you take a nuanced, unique approach when creating your space in the field of mental health.
Not only is Brainspotting actually an effective trauma-informed therapy, and not only is their a huge client population of athletes waiting to be served, but the knowledge space is virtually uncontested as most therapists either incorrectly think there are not enough athletes to work with, or they would rather use traditional approaches. By getting certified in Brainspotting and working with athletes, you will not only create a unique practice, but most importantly you will do MEANINGFUL and IMPACTFUL work. If you would like to learn more, use this link to get more information!
Note To Reader:
If you are an athlete reading this segment of the TRAINING REPORT, hopefully this content was helpful! I put the Training Report together because I felt like many of the discussions on issues such as the Yips/mental blocks, strength training & other subject matter on athlete performance concepts were really missing the mark on these ideas (e.g. how trauma is the direct cause of the Yips). If you are interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe below for when I put out new content on issues related to sport psychology & athlete performance! Also, if you are looking to work with a mental performance specialist, you are in the right place! USE THIS LINK to reach out to me to see if my services are the right fit for your goals!
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