Dean Watson

Perfectionism is complex and ambiguous. However, there is little known about the experiences of sport psychology practitioners when working with perfectionistic athletes. This article presents a commentary on my personal insights when working with perfectionism and the challenges that I have faced. Here, I also draw on the literature from my work and from others to help illustrate these challenges. Recommendations for sport psychology practitioners in conducting these specific challenges are then presented. The article ends by outlining a personal reflection of working with perfectionistic athletes, followed by recommendations for good practice.

There is currently limited understanding of how to reduce perfectionism in sport. With research outside of sport as impetus, in the current study we evaluated the effectiveness of an online ACT-based intervention for reducing perfectionism and improving pre-competition emotions in soccer players. Following a pre-registered protocol, eighty-one female soccer players (M age = 24.28 years, SD = 6.77) were randomly allocated to either an intervention group (n = 41) or a waitlist control group (n = 40). The intervention group had access to a set of online ACT-based modules for 8-weeks. Athletes completed measures of trait perfectionism, perfectionism cognitions, and pre-competition emotions pre-intervention and post-intervention. A 2 (group) x 2 (time) ANOVA revealed significant interaction effects for trait perfectionism, perfectionism cognitions, and pre-competition emotions. Following the intervention, the two groups displayed significant mean differences for trait perfectionism, perfectionism cognitions, and almost all pre-competition emotions. However, due to lower reliability of some instruments, findings regarding post-competition emotions were discounted. The findings suggest that online ACT-based interventions may be a viable and effective way to reduce perfectionism in soccer players (but not necessarily improving pre-competition emotions).

Psychological skills training (PST) is a common and effective form of support provided by sport psychologists. Nevertheless, its use in helping support athletes with perfectionism and some of the problematic issues they can face is unknown. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of PST in reducing perfectionistic cognitions and improving emotion experiences in athletes. Using a single-subject multiple baseline research design, we recruited five national level basketball players (M = 21.8 years) based on their concerns over mistakes (a key dimension of perfectionistic concerns). All participants received eight, one-to-one PST sessions over a four-week period. Participants completed self-report measures of perfectionistic cognitions, cognitive appraisals, pre-competition emotions, and performance satisfaction on a weekly basis, before, during, and after the intervention, as well as three-months later. Results suggested that PST improved at least some of the cognitive appraisals, pre-competition emotions and performance satisfaction in most participants. Minimal changes were observed for perfectionistic cognitions. The findings support the general use of PST but other interventions may be required to reduce perfectionistic cognitions.

In this chapter we draw on our applied experiences and research to highlight how perfectionistic athletes can be supported using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The first part of the chapter describes ACT and research that has examined its use for perfectionism. In keeping with other chapters in this section of the book, the second part of the chapter presents a case example of a perfectionistic athlete. Our case example is an aspiring young athlete who in making the transition to the senior performance squad has begun to experience emotional and behavioural problems. Our novel contribution to previous work of this kind is our focus on ACT. Few studies have adopted ACT interventions to reduce perfectionism even though we believe it to be a valuable way of doing so. In addition, there are even fewer exemplars of how to implement this type of intervention in sport. As such, our intention is that the chapter serves as a guide for practitioners unfamiliar with ACT and is a useful addition to other illustrative examples of how to work effectively with perfectionistic athletes.

Attitudes towards help-seeking will contribute to whether athletes ask for support for performance and mental health issues when needed. While research outside of sport has found perfectionism is related to negative attitudes towards help-seeking, no studies have examined the relationship in sport. We provided the first test of whether perfectionism predicted attitudes towards both sport psychology support and mental health support. One hundred and sixty-six collegiate athletes completed measures of perfectionism and attitudes towards sport psychology support and mental health support. Multiple regression analyses revealed that perfectionistic concerns positively predicted closedness and stigma to sport psychology support and mental health support, and negatively predicted help-seeking towards mental health support. However, perfectionistic strivings negatively predicted stigma to sport psychology support and mental health support, and positively predicted confidence in sport psychology support and help-seeking towards mental health support. Athletes higher in perfectionistic concerns are less likely to seek support when required.