Athlete Transition and Retirement Support

As an athlete you experience many career changes, e.g. progressing from junior to senior, amateur to professional, moving to a new club or constant world travel, and ultimately retirement. Some changes are wanted and expected in terms of time and consequence, others are not. Also importantly, sometimes expected change doesn’t happen.

At L&M we understand that a change (or expected non-change) in life circumstance and expectations, might effect your:

Daily routine.
Confidence, as you question whether your skills and knowledge are relevant or able to adapt.
Sense of control.
Access to friends, social support and a community to which you belong.
Ability to contribute and feel valued.

These can all lead you to question who you are and have a negative effect on your psychological and social wellbeing.

How L&M Can Help.
Our BPS Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologists have specific expertise in supporting athletes through life and career change. Guided by research, our positive, proactive approach aims to promote personal alignment, progression, fulfillment and wellbeing. We do this by supporting and helping you to prepare for, and cope with, change. We can discuss how we can specifically support you once we’ve come to understand to your unique situation, but it might include helping you to:

Gain control over the change process and outcome.
Come to terms with those aspects of your previous life that you no longer have.
Come to terms with the outcome of your previous life, be it perceived as successful or otherwise.
Gain a new or broader sense of personal identity.
Identify the important personal beliefs that will: help you see new opportunities, best guide your decisions, and enable you to develop an effective strategy for the future.
Identify, transfer and develop constructive life and coping skills.
Develop and optimise effective social support.

L&M’s support is flexible to your needs. Some prefer regular 1 hour support, others prefer to dedicate a day or half day. We also provide support face-to-face and by remote means, but please note that we are based in London and the SE England.

Please note that we cannot help with clinical mental health concerns, e.g., depression, anxiety and PTSD. If you are concerned that you have a clinical mental health concern, please see your GP or a clinical mental health professional for help with this before approaching us. We can of course support you alongside any clinical support.

Can we help you? Do you have any questions?
Your situation and needs are unique to you. So please get in touch so that we can listen and then discuss how we can best support you.