Recovering from an injury or illness, and wanting to resume work outs and/or team sports?

Individual athlete wanting to recover from and deal with fear, anxiety, a new experience of being concerned about bodily function issues? It can be a big shock, very difficult especially if it’s a new experience for you.

I can help with that, and have been doing the work with athletes of all kinds for years.

One of the earliest experiences I had was with a top level female squash player, she was #4 in the country at the time. She had never had an injury before – it was a twisted ankle – and was experiencing a lot of difficulty dividing her attention between paying attention to her ankle and her fear that it wouldn’t hold up, and her attention to playing the game.

Anyone who has played competitive sports knows that attending to what is happening in the game is crucial. One needs to pay attention visually,  following many cues about what is likely to happen in the next few seconds. We need to prepare for several options for best responses. People who don’t compete don’t fully know all that is involved.

Although it becomes second nature to prepare, to react to the vibe in play, it’s hard to describe fully. We have all heard the phrase “in the zone” – an attempt to describe what it’s like to be fully present, fully involved, not distracted by other thoughts etc.

When anyone is recovering from an injury, it naturally interferes with being in the zone. It’s very troubling and anxiety provoking. Knowing it’s to be expected for a period of time is helpful. It’s part of the recovery process itself.

Depending on how severe the injury has been, and how long the physical recovery process takes, the psychological recovery process follows. Planning and accepting that the emotional recovery is part of the total recovery is really helpful. More folks are aware of and accepting of this reality now than they were before, but it is still very challenging.