“I wouldn’t want to operate without it”: Experienced sport psychology consultants engagement in supervision

Objectives: The purpose of this investigation was to examine experienced sport psychology consultants’ (SPCs) perceptions of the role of peer support and supervision within their applied practice.Design: A qualitative research design was utilised.Method: A purposeful sampling method was used to recruit 10 experienced accredited SPCs (8 male and 2 female; 5 British, 1 Swedish, 1 Austrian/American, 3 American; M age = 50.44 years; M years consulting experience = 21.67 years) who provided psychological support to elite athletes competing in major national and international events in a range of team and individual sports (e.g., track and field athletics, basketball, curling, football, gymnastics, hockey, sailing, shooting, diving, winter sports, wrestling). SPCs participated in individual semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with the primary investigator that lasted between 70 minutes to 90 minutes and yielded 188 single-spaced pages of data. Results: A thematic content analysis approach was employed to search for common themes across all case data. Results emphasised the place of supervision and peer support as an essential tool to monitor, expand insight, support, and to gain perspective on themselves and their practice. Results highlighted variety in frequency, structure, and the challenges faced in maintaining peer support and supervision while working at elite sport competitions. Conclusions: Despite the extensive experience of these 10 participants; SPCs believed that peer support and supervision were essential to maintaining effective and ethical practice. The place of supervision and peer support should be considered by all practitioners working within applied sport psychology.