IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES AFTER SPORTS INJURY: NARRATIVE-BASED THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION

Abstract

Mental health issues in elite athletic settings are less often respected, understood, and treated. Athletes that experience sport-related injury struggle with mental health due to the salience of their athletic identities, pressure to return to performance, and lack of previous coping mechanism. Dominant narratives in sports injury encourage focus on performance and maintaining pre-injury state, but these narratives can be harmful in long-term mental health. This paper examines narrative therapy as a mechanism for aiding injured athletes in developing their own sustainable and healthy working stories of their injuries and identities to prevent burnout, depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and longer physical injury symptoms. Combining personal experience with literature review to provide a complete picture of the layout of navigating sports injury while in this specific environment.