Kirsten van Heerden

Clinical and Sport Psychologist - Durban

BSc (Hons), MA Clinical Psychology

Kirsten was a member of the South African swimming team for 13 years and knows first hand the pressures and demands of elite level sport, and the impact of psychological factors on performance. She completed her studies, majoring in psychology and biochemistry at UKZN while still competing internationally and qualified in 2005 with a masters degree in clinical psychology. She is currently completing her PhD in the area of sports psychology.

Kirsten works with individual athletes and teams from many different sports, from school to recreational through to Olympic level. She is involved with life skills programmes, high performance workshops and lectures part-time at Durban University of Technology. Kirsten also has experience in organizational psychology and has worked individually with business people wishing to apply mental skills to the business arena. She currently works from Kings Park Sports Medicine Centre in Durban.

What is Sports Psychology?

Sportsmen and women, both elite and recreational, spend many hours training their bodies to peak condition in order to perform and achieve success in their chosen sport. But as Bryce Courtney in the book The Power of One wrote:
The mind is the athlete; the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.

Sport psychology is a discipline of psychology dealing with matters of performance – physical excellence and preparation alone does not determine success, but rather it is this preparation combined with the correct mental state and emotional control that ultimately determine performance.

I work mostly within a Cognitive-Behavioural and Positive Psychology frame work, but also bring in elements of Existential Therapy. I find that this approach works well for sportspeople and businesspeople as it is quite practical and future orientated, but it also allows me to deal effectively with the clinical issues that I also work with.

Sports psychologists work with both elite and recreational athletes, individuals and teams, parents and coaches; areas that a sport psychologist can help with could include the following:

1. Mental skills training

• Goal Setting
• Imagery and Visualization
• Relaxation and Emotional Control
• Self-Talk and Cognitive Control
• Concentration and Focus
• Pre-competition routines and preparation
• The Flow experience – Being in ‘the zone’
• Motivation
• Dealing with success and failure

2. Mental Toughness
3. Helping athletes through injury and rehabilitation
4. Career advice and coping with retirement or non-selection
5. Team unity, cohesion and communication

6. Clinical issues such as:

• Eating Disorders
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Relationship issues
• Sleeping problems

7. Dealing with burn out
8. Maintaining a balance in sport and life
9. Talent identification and psychological skills development through Long Term Athlete Development
10. Educating parents regarding psychological aspects of sport and performance and how best to manage talented children.
11. Life skills training

The above skills can be applied to any performance area, and there is a growing demand for this type of intervention within the highly competitive world of business.

Practice No. 0264830
HPCSA No. PS0090867