Sport Psychology in Collegiate Athletics: A Review of Mental Health Service Models

ABSTRACT

In 2016, an NCAA multidisciplinary task force published a consensus document outlining best practices for addressing student-athletes mental wellness. However, despite their recommendations and the growing development of mental health services for college student-athletes, no published literature exists reviewing the existing models of collegiate sport psychology programs. This article serves to address that gap by providing a general overview of common models, followed by an in-depth description of a successful sport psychology model at a Power Five, Division I athletic program. Considerations and recommendations for other institutions, including barriers to student-athlete wellness, availability of university resources, and advantages and disadvantages of the models, will be discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• College athletes
• mental health
• sport psychology
• college counseling
• student athletes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).