Single-session thinking: Applications for Sport Psychologists

Over the last 25 years, single-session therapy (SST) has grown in popularity as a model of practice that underpins efficient service delivery across a range of therapeutic domains. In sporting contexts, where contact time with clients can be limited, and impactful interventions are required, sport psychologists could benefit from a number of SST and briefer techniques. In this chapter, we appraise the background and evolution of single-session thinking in therapeutic settings, review the limited research that has explored the application of these ideas within sport psychology and detail contemporary developments in this area. We then synthetize across applied research and outline a series of single-session techniques that can be integrated into a sport psychologist’s practice. Here, we use fictional vignettes drawn from real-life examples to contextualize each technique. We conclude by detailing some future research directions for, and the potential limitations of, adopting single-session and other brief approaches within sport psychology.