Sports Psychology Specializations: A Complete Guide to Every Branch

When the U.S. Olympic Committee embedded its first full-time sport psychologist in the early 1980s, the role was so unfamiliar that athletes called it "head shrinking for jocks." Today the field spans performance enhancement, clinical treatment, injury rehabilitation, youth development, team dynamics, and research, each branch requiring distinct credentials and training pipelines.

Sports psychology, broadly defined, is the scientific study of how psychological factors affect athletic performance and how participation in sport affects psychological well-being. You will encounter both "sport psychologist" and "sports psychologist" in practice: the singular form is the academic convention used by the American Psychological Association and AASP, while the plural is the term most people search for and say aloud. The distinction is stylistic, not substantive.

The real tension for aspiring professionals is specialization. Licensure requirements, degree length (seven to ten years for the doctoral track versus three to five for the CMPC path), and scope-of-practice restrictions vary sharply across branches. Whether you are drawn to clinical vs performance sports psychology or to emerging niches like esports and corporate consulting, the specialization you choose will shape every educational and career decision that follows.

The Core Branches of Sports Psychology at a Glance

Sports psychology is not a single discipline but a family of specializations, each with its own focus, clientele, and skill set. The table below maps six core branches so you can see the full landscape before diving into the details that follow.

Performance Enhancement: The Branch Most People Think Of

When most people picture a sport psychologist at work, they imagine someone helping an elite athlete visualize a winning performance or calm pre-game nerves. That image is not wrong, but it only scratches the surface. Performance enhancement is the most visible branch of sports psychology, and it draws on a well-established framework that practitioners use every day: the ABCs of sport psychology.

The ABCs: Affect, Behavior, Cognition

Performance consultants organize their work around three interconnected pillars. Affect refers to the emotions and moods an athlete experiences, from competitive anxiety to the joy of flow states. Behavior covers observable actions such as pre-performance routines, body language, and practice habits. Cognition encompasses the thoughts, beliefs, and mental images that shape how an athlete interprets pressure and processes feedback. Nearly every intervention in sports performance psychology targets at least one of these three domains, and the best plans address all three in tandem.

Evidence-Based Techniques That Actually Work

Performance consultants do not rely on motivational speeches. They draw on a toolkit of techniques supported by decades of research.

• Visualization and mental imagery: A Bayesian multilevel meta-analysis found that imagery practice produced meaningful improvements in agility, muscle strength, and sport-specific skills.¹ A companion analysis reported a moderate effect size of 0.50 on mental health outcomes (reduced anxiety, increased confidence) with a 95 percent confidence interval of 0.34 to 0.56.² Athletes are often advised to spend just five to ten minutes a day on structured imagery to see benefits.³
• Goal setting: Consultants help athletes move beyond vague aspirations ("play better") and toward specific, measurable, process-oriented targets that keep motivation anchored during long seasons.
• Arousal regulation: Techniques like diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and centering help athletes find the optimal activation level for their sport. A sprinter needs a different energy state than a golfer lining up a putt.
• Self-talk: Research by Hatzigeorgiadis and colleagues has demonstrated that planned self-talk interventions improve both task performance and confidence. Their work, spanning multiple studies from the mid-2000s onward, showed that instructional and motivational self-talk cues each offer distinct advantages depending on the demands of the task.

These techniques are not used in isolation. A consultant typically layers them into a cohesive mental skills training plan tailored to the individual athlete.

What a Typical Session Looks Like

If you have never sat in on a performance psychology session, you might wonder what actually happens. Sessions generally run 45 to 60 minutes and follow a structured progression over the course of four to eight meetings.³

• Intake assessment: The first session usually involves a candid discussion plus standardized questionnaires measuring constructs like imagery ability, confidence, and anxiety.
• Education and goal setting: The consultant explains the rationale behind each technique so the athlete understands the "why," not just the "what." Together they set clear mental performance goals.
• Skill teaching and practice integration: The core sessions introduce specific mental skills (imagery scripts, self-talk cues, breathing protocols) and map them onto real training scenarios so the athlete can rehearse under realistic conditions.
• Competition debrief and review: Later sessions focus on what worked under competitive pressure, what did not, and how to adjust the plan moving forward.

This cycle of plan, practice, compete, and review is what separates evidence-based sport psychology from generic advice.

A Quick Note on Credentials

Many practitioners in this branch hold the Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) credential, which signals specialized training in performance enhancement. It is important to know that CMPC holders may or may not be licensed psychologists. Some come from counseling or clinical psychology backgrounds; others hold graduate degrees in sport and exercise science. The distinction matters when you are choosing your own career path or selecting a provider. You can explore the differences between a clinical vs performance sports psychology track in a separate guide, and you will find a deeper breakdown in the credentials and licensure section later in this article.

Performance enhancement is the branch that draws the most attention, but as you will see, it is just one piece of a much larger field. Understanding where it fits alongside clinical, developmental, and organizational sport psychology will help you decide which specialization aligns with the career you want to build.

Clinical Sport Psychology: When Athletes Need More Than a Pep Talk

Performance consultants help athletes sharpen focus, build confidence, and manage competitive nerves. Clinical sport psychologists do all of that and more: they diagnose and treat genuine mental health conditions. The distinction matters because it determines who can practice, what services are offered, and which athletes get the deeper help they need.

Where the Line Falls

A performance consultant (sometimes called a mental performance coach) works on goal setting, imagery, self-talk, and arousal regulation. They do not diagnose or treat psychopathology. A clinical sport psychologist, by contrast, holds a license to assess and treat conditions such as:

• Anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and panic disorder triggered or amplified by sport demands.
• Depression: including major depressive episodes that go far beyond a slump in form.
• Eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia, and relative energy deficiency in sport, which are especially prevalent in aesthetic and weight-class disciplines.
• Substance misuse: from prescription painkiller dependency after injury to recreational drug use tied to identity pressures.

If an athlete's struggles cross from performance frustration into diagnosable pathology, only a licensed clinical practitioner is qualified to provide treatment. This is a critical distinction that many career guides gloss over, and it shapes every educational decision you make on the path to practice.

The Training Pipeline

Becoming a clinical sport psychologist typically requires a doctoral degree in clinical or counseling psychology, plus supervised training that integrates sport science. Most practitioners complete a doctoral program (Ph.D. or Psy.D.), a predoctoral internship, and postdoctoral hours before earning state licensure. Along the way, coursework in exercise physiology, motor learning, and sport-specific assessment rounds out the clinical foundation. The dual competency, clinical rigor paired with deep sport knowledge, is what sets these professionals apart. For those who have competed at a high level themselves, the journey from athlete to sports psychologist can feel like a natural progression.

Populations Beyond the Pros

Clinical sport psychologists serve a far wider range of clients than highlight reels suggest. Collegiate athletes grappling with identity crises when performance no longer defines their worth make up a significant portion of caseloads. Retired athletes navigating career transition, grief over lost athletic identity, and post-concussion mood changes also seek clinical support. Athletes in high-risk sports such as alpine skiing, combat sports, and motorsport face unique psychological stressors tied to physical danger, and clinical training equips practitioners to address trauma responses that a performance consultant is not licensed to treat.

Why This Branch Is Expanding

Athlete mental health has moved from whispered locker-room conversations to mainstream discourse. High-profile disclosures by Olympic and professional athletes have reduced stigma and raised demand. Governing bodies have responded: the NCAA now publishes mental health best practices that encourage institutions to embed licensed clinicians, not just performance consultants, in their athletics departments. For a closer look at the support systems now available on campuses, see our guide to student athlete mental health resources. As organizations at every level invest in comprehensive mental health support, clinical sport psychology is one of the fastest-growing specializations in the field. For aspiring professionals drawn to both the competitive world of sport and the depth of clinical practice, this branch offers a career path with expanding opportunities and genuine impact.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Rehabilitation and Injury Recovery Psychology

A torn ACL, a broken collarbone, a career-threatening concussion: each of these is a physical event, but every one of them triggers a psychological crisis as well. Athletes who build their identity around performance often experience grief responses that mirror the stages described by loss researchers, cycling through denial, anger, bargaining, and depression before they reach acceptance. Fear of re-injury can linger long after the tissue has healed. Motivation to stick with tedious rehab protocols can crater. And the nagging question, "Will I ever be the same?" can undermine recovery at every stage. Rehabilitation and injury recovery psychology exists to address all of these challenges head-on.

Why Injury Is a Psychological Event

When athletes lose the ability to train and compete, they often lose their primary source of self-worth, social connection, and daily structure all at once. Research consistently shows that injured athletes report elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms compared to their healthy teammates. Adherence to rehabilitation programs also suffers when athletes feel hopeless or disconnected from their sport. A sport psychologist working in this space helps athletes reframe the injury period as part of their athletic journey rather than an interruption of it. Understanding the importance of sports psychology in these moments can mean the difference between a full comeback and an early retirement.

Three Core Interventions

Practitioners in this branch rely on a well-established toolkit, though they tailor every plan to the individual athlete and the nature of the injury.

• Goal setting for rehab milestones: Breaking a months-long recovery into short-term, measurable targets (range of motion by week four, bodyweight squats by week eight) gives athletes a sense of progress and agency.
• Imagery for healing and return-to-play scenarios: Guided visualization can include picturing the injured tissue strengthening, rehearsing sport-specific movements before they are physically possible, and mentally simulating high-pressure game situations to build readiness.
• Relaxation techniques for pain management: Progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing, and mindfulness-based strategies help athletes manage pain perception and reduce the stress hormones that can slow tissue repair.

Return-to-Play Mental Readiness

Physical clearance from a physician is necessary but not sufficient. An athlete who passes every strength and mobility test can still be psychologically unprepared to compete. Sport psychologists assess confidence levels, residual fear of re-injury, and intrinsic motivation before endorsing a full return. Some practitioners use validated screening tools, while others conduct structured interviews that explore how the athlete feels about contact, cutting movements, or game-speed scenarios. When gaps emerge, the psychologist designs targeted interventions, such as graded exposure drills, to close them before the athlete steps back onto the field.

Working Within the Sports Medicine Team

Rehab psychologists rarely operate in isolation. They function as members of multidisciplinary sports medicine teams that typically include athletic trainers, physiotherapists, orthopedic surgeons, and team physicians. This collaborative model ensures that psychological milestones are aligned with physical benchmarks. For example, a physiotherapist might flag that an athlete is hesitating during lateral agility drills, prompting the sport psychologist to intensify imagery work around change-of-direction confidence. Regular case conferences keep every provider informed and prevent the psychological dimension of recovery from being treated as an afterthought.

If you are drawn to the intersection of mental health, medicine, and competitive sport, this branch offers a deeply rewarding path. Former competitors who understand the emotional weight of injury firsthand may find a natural fit here; many have made the sports psychologist career transition successfully. It is also one of the fastest-growing areas of practice, as professional teams and college athletic departments increasingly recognize that getting an athlete back on the field safely means getting their mind ready alongside their body.

Clinical vs. Performance Sport Psychology: Key Differences

Clinical sport psychology and performance sport psychology share a common home under the broader field, yet they differ in meaningful ways. Understanding these distinctions is essential if you are deciding which specialization to pursue, because each path requires different training, credentials, and day-to-day responsibilities. Both draw on overlapping techniques such as imagery, goal setting, and self-talk, but they apply those tools toward very different ends.

Team Dynamics and Organizational Sport Psychology

Not every sport psychologist works one-on-one with athletes. The organizational branch of the field focuses on the systems that surround performance: coaching staffs, front offices, athletic departments, and the complex human relationships that hold a team together. If you are drawn to leadership development, group problem-solving, and the way culture shapes results, this specialization may be exactly where you belong.

What Organizational Sport Psychologists Actually Do

Practitioners in this branch spend much of their time in meeting rooms, on practice fields during team-building exercises, and in conversations with directors of player personnel. To get a better sense of those daily rhythms, see this look at what sports psychologists do on a daily basis. Their work addresses the invisible forces that determine whether a talented roster gels or fractures under pressure. Core topics include:

• Group cohesion: Helping teams build trust, shared identity, and mutual accountability so that individual talent translates into collective success.
• Leadership development: Working with captains, veteran players, and emerging leaders to cultivate communication skills, emotional intelligence, and the ability to rally teammates during adversity.
• Communication patterns: Identifying breakdowns in how information flows between coaches and players, or among position groups, and designing strategies that keep everyone aligned.
• Conflict resolution: Mediating locker-room tensions, role disputes, and personality clashes before they erode performance or team morale.

Coaching Psychology as a Sub-Area

Coaches face their own psychological demands, yet they rarely receive formal training in managing those pressures. Coaching psychology addresses that gap. A sport psychologist specializing in this area helps coaches refine their leadership style, handle the emotional toll of high-stakes decision-making, and communicate effectively with increasingly diverse rosters. The relationship between a coach and a sport psychologist can be transformative, improving not only win-loss records but also athlete retention and well-being across an entire program.

Beyond the Playing Field

One of the most exciting trends in this branch is its expansion into non-sport domains. Military units rely on the same cohesion and leadership principles that championship teams use. Corporate organizations bring in consultants trained in team dynamics to improve collaboration among executives and project teams, a trend explored in detail in our guide to sports psychology in corporate wellness. Performing arts companies, from orchestras to theater ensembles, benefit from communication and conflict-resolution frameworks originally developed in sport settings.

This crossover means that professionals who specialize in organizational sport psychology are not limited to traditional athletic careers. The skill set is portable, and demand continues to grow in sectors that recognize the parallels between high-performance teams on the field and high-performance teams in any environment. If you want a career that blends psychology, leadership science, and real-world team building, this branch offers a remarkably versatile path.

Youth and Developmental Sport Psychology

Working with young athletes is not simply a scaled-down version of adult performance consulting. Children and adolescents are still forming their identities, learning to regulate emotions, and figuring out where sport fits into a much larger life picture. A sport psychologist who specializes in developmental work must understand these realities and adapt every intervention accordingly.

The Developmental Stakes

Several pressures converge on young athletes today. Early sport specialization, where a child commits to a single sport year-round at age eight or nine, has become increasingly common. Parents may push for elite travel teams, extra coaching sessions, and showcase events in hopes of securing future scholarships. At the same time, young athletes are still developing their sense of self. When a child's entire identity becomes "I am a soccer player" or "I am a gymnast," any setback on the field can feel like a personal failure.

Developmental sport psychologists help young athletes build a broader, healthier identity by encouraging participation in multiple activities, nurturing interests outside of competition, and teaching coping skills that transfer well beyond the playing field.

Recognizing and Preventing Burnout

Burnout in youth sport is more than simple fatigue. Warning signs include chronic irritability, declining performance despite increased effort, emotional withdrawal from teammates, and loss of enthusiasm for a sport the child once loved. Risk factors range from excessive training loads to perfectionist tendencies to pressure from well-meaning adults.

Sport psychologists intervene on multiple levels. With the young athlete, they may introduce mindfulness techniques, help restructure unrealistic self-expectations, and create space for honest conversations about enjoyment. Equally important is working with coaches to design training cycles that include adequate rest and with parents to recognize when encouragement has tipped into pressure.

Parent Education as a Growing Specialty

One of the fastest-growing areas within this branch is parent education. Sport psychologists increasingly lead workshops, one-on-one consultations, and sideline behavior programs that help parents understand the difference between supportive involvement and pressure-based involvement. Supportive parents focus on effort, enjoyment, and character development. Pressure-based involvement tends to center on outcomes, rankings, and comparisons to peers. Teaching parents to ask "Did you have fun?" instead of "Did you win?" may sound simple, but shifting that mindset can dramatically change a child's relationship with sport.

How This Branch Differs From Adult Performance Work

Unlike clinical vs. performance sports psychology tracks that focus primarily on competitive adults, practitioners in this specialty rely on age-appropriate goal setting, often emphasizing process goals ("I will communicate with my teammates during every drill") rather than outcome goals ("I will score three goals"). They prioritize intrinsic motivation, helping kids reconnect with the joy and curiosity that drew them to sport in the first place, rather than leaning on external rewards.

Long-term athlete development models also play a central role. These frameworks map physical, cognitive, and emotional milestones so that training demands match a young person's actual stage of growth. The result is a more sustainable, enjoyable athletic experience, one that keeps kids in sport longer and sets a stronger foundation for those who eventually pursue competition at higher levels. For older student athletes navigating these transitions, dedicated mental health resources for student athletes can offer additional support.

If you are drawn to protecting the well-being of young competitors and shaping the adults who guide them, this specialization offers meaningful, growing career opportunities within the broader field of sports psychology.

Sport Psychology Research and Exercise Psychology

Not every career in this field takes place on the sideline or in a consulting room. Two important tracks, sport psychology research and exercise psychology, expand the scope of sports psychology well beyond competitive athletics. Understanding each can help you decide whether your interests lean toward generating new knowledge, applying existing knowledge to underserved populations, or both.

The Academic Research Track

Sport psychology researchers spend their careers designing studies, analyzing data, publishing findings, and teaching the next generation of practitioners. They work primarily at universities or within federally funded research labs, tackling questions like how pre-performance routines affect motor learning, what psychological factors predict burnout in elite athletes, or how mindfulness interventions compare to traditional mental-skills training.

If you enjoy asking "why" and "how" more than "what should we do next," the research track may be a natural fit. It typically requires a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) and a record of published scholarship. Many researchers also supervise graduate students who are training for applied roles, so teaching and mentorship are core parts of the job.

Exercise Psychology: A Distinct but Related Field

Exercise psychology shifts the focus from competitive athletes to the general population. Its central questions revolve around how physical activity influences mental health, what drives people to start and sustain exercise habits, and how behavior-change strategies can be tailored to different groups.

Practitioners in this branch work in settings that may surprise newcomers to the field:

• Public health agencies: Designing community programs that increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior.
• Corporate wellness: Helping employees adopt sustainable exercise routines to improve productivity and well-being.
• Rehabilitation centers: Supporting individuals recovering from cardiac events, strokes, or surgeries where movement is part of the treatment plan.
• Geriatric care: Promoting mobility and cognitive health in older adults through structured physical activity.

Because these roles serve broad populations, exercise psychology significantly broadens the answer to the common question, "what can you do with a sports psychology degree?"

Bridging the Two Tracks

Many graduate programs combine sport and exercise psychology under a single department or degree title, allowing students to take coursework and complete practica in both areas. This combined structure is a practical advantage: you can enter a program leaning toward competitive-sport research and pivot toward exercise and public health applications (or vice versa) as your interests evolve. Before choosing, it helps to understand the clinical vs performance sports psychology distinction, since that decision often shapes the kind of research or applied work you pursue. When evaluating programs, look for faculty whose research aligns with the direction you find most compelling, and ask whether the program offers practicum placements in both competitive and community settings. That flexibility can make all the difference when it comes time to specialize.

How to Specialize: Credentials, Licensure, and the Path From Degree to Practice

Two main pathways lead to a career in sport psychology: becoming a licensed psychologist through a doctoral program, or earning the Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) credential through AASP. The licensed psychologist route typically takes 7 to 10 years, while the CMPC pathway can be completed in roughly 5 to 7 years. Here is how the credentialing ladder unfolds for each track.

What Can You Do With a Sports Psychology Degree? Careers Beyond the Sideline

A sports psychology degree opens doors to far more than working with elite athletes on game day. Graduates find themselves advising coaches, counseling military service members, guiding corporate teams through high-pressure decision-making, and supporting parents navigating their children's competitive experiences. If you enjoy the intersection of human performance and mental well-being, the career landscape is broader than you might expect.

Six Career Paths Worth Exploring

• Private Practice Performance Consultant: Build your own client roster helping athletes, performing artists, and business professionals sharpen focus, manage anxiety, and set meaningful goals. Many consultants certified through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (CMPC credential) work on a fee-for-service basis, giving them flexibility over schedule and income.
• Collegiate Athletic Department Staff: Universities increasingly hire sport psychologists as full-time staff to support student-athletes across every team. These roles blend performance enhancement with wellness programming, crisis response, and collaboration with athletic trainers and coaches.
• Professional Team Embedded Psychologist: Major professional leagues in the U.S. and abroad now employ in-house psychologists. These positions are competitive but growing, with organizations recognizing that mental health support directly affects roster retention and on-field results.
• Military Human Performance Specialist: Branches of the U.S. military and special operations units employ sport psychologists to train cognitive resilience, optimize decision-making under stress, and support post-deployment reintegration. This niche has expanded steadily since the early 2010s.
• Corporate Consultant: Companies bring in performance psychologists to improve leadership development, team cohesion, and employee well-being. The skills you learn in a sport psychology program, such as goal setting, attentional control, and motivational interviewing, translate directly to boardrooms and executive retreats.
• Academic Professor and Researcher: If you are drawn to advancing the science behind human performance, a sports psychology doctorate can lead to a tenure-track position at a university, where you teach, publish, and mentor the next generation of practitioners.

What About Salary?

Compensation varies significantly depending on your setting, credential level, and geographic location. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for all psychologists was approximately $94,310 as of 2024, with the mean closer to $106,420.¹ Psychologists categorized under specialty areas outside clinical and school settings reported a median of $117,750 in 2023, though the range was wide: earners at the tenth percentile made roughly $47,450, while those at the ninetieth percentile exceeded $157,000.² Private practitioners with established client bases in professional sport or corporate consulting often earn at the higher end of that spectrum, while early-career university positions or community-based roles may start lower. Exact salary data specific to sport psychology practitioners by work setting is limited in publicly available surveys, so treat these figures as helpful reference points rather than guarantees.

Emerging Niches to Watch

The field continues to evolve. Three growing areas deserve your attention:

• Esports Psychology: Competitive gaming organizations are hiring mental performance coaches to help players manage burnout, improve reaction-time consistency, and strengthen team communication.
• Virtual Mental Performance Coaching: Telehealth platforms and app-based coaching tools have expanded access to sport psychology services, creating remote consulting opportunities that did not exist a decade ago.
• Athlete Transition Consulting: Helping retiring athletes navigate identity shifts, career changes, and mental health challenges after sport is a specialty gaining recognition from player associations and athletic departments alike.

Whether you see yourself on a military base, in a university lecture hall, or coaching an esports team through a championship bracket, a sports psychology degree equips you with versatile skills. The common thread across every path is applying psychological science to help people perform, recover, and thrive under pressure. Those who made the leap from athlete to sports psychologist often describe it as one of the most rewarding career transitions they have experienced.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sports Psychology

Below you will find concise answers to the questions aspiring professionals ask most often about the branches of sports psychology, credentialing, and career options. For deeper detail on any topic, follow the references to specific sections earlier in this guide.

What are the main branches of sports psychology?

The field is typically organized into several core branches: performance enhancement, clinical sport psychology, rehabilitation and injury recovery psychology, team dynamics and organizational sport psychology, youth and developmental sport psychology, and sport psychology research and exercise psychology. Each branch addresses a distinct set of challenges and populations. You can explore all six in our section titled "The Core Branches of Sports Psychology at a Glance" earlier in this guide.

What is the difference between a sport psychologist and a sports psychologist?

In everyday conversation the two terms are used interchangeably, and both refer to professionals who apply psychological principles to sport and physical activity. Some academic style guides prefer the singular "sport" as an adjective (sport psychologist), while popular usage often adds the "s" (sports psychologist). The distinction is stylistic, not professional. Credentials, licensure requirements, and scope of practice remain the same regardless of which term is used.

Do sports psychologists treat mental illness or just improve performance?

It depends on the practitioner's training and licensure. Clinical sport psychologists hold doctoral degrees and clinical licenses, which qualify them to diagnose and treat conditions such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Performance consultants, by contrast, focus on mental skills training like goal setting, visualization, and focus. Our "Clinical vs. Performance Sport Psychology: Key Differences" comparison section breaks down these roles in detail.

What are the ABCs of sport psychology?

The ABCs stand for Affect, Behavior, and Cognition. Affect covers the emotional responses athletes experience, such as anxiety or excitement. Behavior refers to observable actions, including practice habits and on-field conduct. Cognition encompasses thought patterns like self-talk, concentration, and decision making. Together, these three pillars give practitioners a structured framework for assessing and improving an athlete's mental game.

Can I work in sports psychology with just a master's degree?

Yes, a master's degree can open doors to roles such as mental performance consultant, collegiate athletic department staff member, or youth sport program coordinator. However, you generally cannot call yourself a "psychologist" or treat clinical mental health conditions without a doctoral degree and state licensure. Our section on credentials and licensure outlines the specific pathways from degree to practice, including certifications like the CMPC offered through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

Who do sport psychologists work with besides athletes?

Sport psychologists serve a wide range of clients. These include coaches seeking better leadership and communication skills, military personnel training under high pressure, performing artists such as dancers and musicians, corporate teams looking to improve group cohesion, and first responders who must perform reliably in crisis situations. The section on careers beyond the sideline earlier in this guide covers these non-traditional pathways in more detail.