61. Dr. Chris Stanley, PhD: Train them, Then Trust Them

In episode #61 of the podcast, Dr. Kate and Dr. Kacy interview psychologist, Dr. Chris Stanley who is also an author, researcher, and mental performance coach. He specializes in sport and performance psychology and currently works at Florida State University as an associate in research. Chris has worked with endurance athletes at many levels and has been involved with USA Track and Field since 2014. He has also been involved as a psychology faculty member at multiple universities in the United States. During the interview, Chris talks about how to optimize mental health in athletes and the importance of a collaborative approach between trained psychologists and other healthcare providers. He explains some of the principles that he uses to teach healthcare providers and coaches how to screen for athletes who may benefit from further trained psychological help, how to support athletes with positive practices like self-care, and some ideas on integrating mental rest into athlete’s routines.
Chris begins the interview discussing the possible stigma of seeking mental health services for athlete and the common theme that he often sees of using performance enhancement as a gateway to gaining interest from athletes about the power of psychological strategies and coaching. He also talks about empowering athletes with tools to better self-manage their mental health and how leveraging strategies like self-care, mental rest breaks, and physiologic down regulation with techniques like deep breathing exercises can help with overall health and performance gains. Chris discusses some approaches that he has used with different athletes to help them understand the idea of taking mental rest from sport. Some of these include finding times without having reminders of training and sport, such as being in environments without sports related pictures, medals, or other visual displays. He also talks about how the analogy of “training cycles” can resonate with athletes who are used to taking recovery weeks from physical training, but may struggle to identify the need for mental rest.

If you are interested in the mental side of performance as an athlete and optimizing your mental health as a human, you will want to give this one a listen!