For more than a half century, physical activity has been promoted on the basis of the argument that it will reduce the long-term risk of premature death, disease, and disability. This social-marketing message, however, has not led to population-level increases in physical activity participation. A 2021 editorial in The Lancet noted that “there has been no improvement in global levels of physical activity” and experts recognize that “more of the same (in terms of research and practice) will not be enough” (Hallal et al., 2012, p. 191). Mounting evidence indicates that better results may be achieved by focusing on short-term valued outcomes, such as pleasure, enjoyment, energy, pride, fulfillment, stress relief, sense of well-being, and meaningful interpersonal connections. This approach requires a significant reorientation in how physical activity is promoted across settings and population groups, away from the traditional approach of providing individuals with data-laden arguments focusing on risk reduction and toward messages that can establish connections between the stimulus-concept of physical activity and varieties of positive affect.

The proposed workshop will begin with two presentations that will introduce fundamental concepts. The first presentation (Ekkekakis) will introduce the notion of “bounded rationality,” the idea of the “affect heuristic,” and dual-process models of behavior. The second presentation (Georgiadis) will explain the need for empathic appreciation, movement education, and breathing for exercise promotion, as well as introduce the concept of “design thinking” and an associated step-by-step methodology for problem solving.

Creative nonfiction (CNF) is type of creative analytical practice that presents research findings through a story, drawing on literary techniques. As a literary genre, CNF offers scholars the opportunity to share research in a way that captivates the reader, evoking emotional responses and potentially reaching audiences beyond academia.

This quality makes CNF a powerful ‘tool’ for researchers and practitioners in the field of sport and exercise psychology, as it allows to disseminate and use research findings with audiences like coaches, athletes, and sport parents.

While the use of CNF is increasing in our field, many scholars are often discouraged to engage with such a different writing style. In this workshop, we will review the history of CNF, to better understand how and when to use it effectively, and then we will focus on the ‘how’ of CNF, exploring various techniques to accompany participants through the process of writing a CNF.

Biofeedback is a process through which the individual can learn to control a bodily function usually outside voluntary control (e.g., brain activity, heart rate). During biofeedback training, the presence of external information (i.e., the feedback) directly linked to a visceral or central function enhance bodily awareness and facilitate the process of learning to control that specific function (Schwartz and Andrasik, 2016). Research shows that biofeedback can facilitate self-regulation, allowing the individual to gain control over bodily responses that could be detrimental to well-being and performance, such as reducing anxiety, physical arousal, and improving concentration (Levy and Baldwin, 2019). In the last few decades, biofeedback of heart rate variability gained particular interest in various clinical and non-clinical applications (Lehrer et al., 2020). Specifically, heart rate variability biofeedback aims at improving autonomic nervous system regulation, by increasing cardiac vagal tone and baroreflex gain (Lehrer, 2013). In athletic settings, heart rate variability biofeedback has been reported to be effective in reducing anxiety, and perceived stress, improving concentration, improving fine and gross motor function, and athletic performance in different athletes such as professional dancers, basketball, golf players, and long-distance runners (Jimenez Morgan and Molina Mora, 2017; Pagaduan et al., 2020). Therefore, through biofeedback, athletes can learn to develop a deeper level of self-awareness and improve autonomic nervous system regulation, which in turn could facilitate the use of self-regulation strategies intended for improving health, well-being, and optimal performance.

Scholars from psychology professions have identified self-care as the bedrock of ethical and competent service delivery (Barnett et al., 2007). Scholars have evidenced the importance of self-care for the promotion of personal and professional well-being (Dorociak et al., 2017) as well as for practitioners to provide ethical and effective service delivery, while striving to reach their fullest potential (Barnett et al., 2007; Norcross & VandenBos, 2018). Nevertheless, the value of self-care for sport psychology practitioners (SPPs) has only received limited scholarly attention (Quartiroli et al., 2019; 2021). SPPs around the world encounter various challenges and stressors working in applied practice and their own self-care may be vital to their work, helping to promote healthy functioning and enhance wellbeing. While, anecdotally, self-care has begun to receive some attention among SPPs and sport organizations, the journey towards self-care appears to be still unclear to trainees and young professionals (Martin et al., 2022) and to only be the results of situational experience for advanced practitioners (Quartiroli al., 2019). This workshop aims to contribute to the SPPs’ individual journey toward an effective conceptualization, implementation, and commitment to self-care in their lives; integrating theoretical knowledge and applied experiences. SPPs will be exposed to the recent self-care scholarship and will be invited to engage in a series of individual and group reflective activities aimed to contribute to their individual journey toward self-care. Recommended to trainees and early career professionals, the workshop may be helpful to SPPs throughout the entire professional career span.

Mental health stigma tends to be exacerbated in athletic culture, where misinformed, stigmatizing messages about what it means to be “mentally tough” may leave athletes feeling hesitant or fearful of seeking mental health care when needed. In this workshop, presenters will review the scientific literature on mental health and performance, including topics of competency, education/training, cultural factors (individual/organisational), assessment, and treatment. Empirically supported approaches to enhance mental health literacy and improve help-seeking attitudes and behaviors in sport will be discussed. Presenters will facilitate discussion regarding attendees’ experiences, best practices, and future needs. Attendees will leave with a better knowledge of the current science and practice of the integration of mental health and performance, as well as tangible approaches which can be incorporated into new or existing programming in sport contexts.

Resilience and its development has arguably become one of the most talked about topics in elite sport over the last few years. Although practitioners have tended to focus on individuals’ ability to withstand pressure, there is a growing recognition that more attention needs to be paid on creating environments that athletes can thrive in as both a person and a performer. Of fundamental importance to creating an environment that develops resilience is the provision of high challenge and high support (Sarkar, 2018). A crucial feature of this high challenge-high support (facilitative) environment is psychological safety. Psychological safety has been defined as a belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking (Edmondson, 1999). Although the concept of psychological safety has been studied extensively in business (Newman et al., 2017), it has only recently been investigated in a sporting context (Fransen et al., 2020) and there is limited information on applying this research in practice. Therefore, the learning objectives of this pre-congress workshop are threefold: to collectively discuss the role of a facilitative environment in developing resilience and what it might ‘look like’ in elite sport, to critically review the concept of psychological safety and, utilizing this knowledge, to subsequently work collaboratively with workshop attendees to generate some practical ideas for creating psychological safety in practice. The workshop will encompass a series of interactive activities, whereby small groups of attendees will discuss, contextualize, and offer feedback on the role of the environment and psychological safety in developing resilience in elite sport.