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APA Psychotherapy Training Videos are intended solely for educational purposes for mental health professionals. Viewers are expected to treat confidential material found herein according to strict professional guidelines. Unauthorized viewing is prohibited.
In Performance Psychology, Dr. Charles H. Brown Jr. demonstrates his approach to working with clients seeking to enhance or improve their performance. Performance psychology is the systematic application of psychological principles and techniques to performance, particularly when there is a time element and one must perform on demand. Performance clients typically have skills and abilities that have allowed them to achieve various levels of success in their selected areas of performance. The performance psychologist's goal is to help the clients build on and broaden their skills and learn new habits to help perform consistently at high levels in pressure situations. In this session, Dr. Brown works with a young woman who seeks to increase her running distance so she can complete a half marathon. Although this example involves a recreational athlete, the model and principles are applicable to all contexts in which an individual must perform under pressure: elite athletes, performing artists, business persons, and individuals dealing with life and death situations such as those encountered in medicine, the military, and law enforcement.
Effective performance consulting requires five specific skill sets: relationship skills, change skills, knowledge of performance excellence, knowledge of the physiological aspects of performance, and a framework for making contextually intelligent decisions (Hays & Brown, 2004). Dr. Brown's relationships with clients are collaborative, where he functions more in the role of a coach or consultant. Change efforts build on the strengths of the individual in a manner that is consistent with the tenets of positive psychology (Seligman, 2002; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), and are grounded in strategic (Haley, 1963, 1973, 1987) and solution-focused models (O'Hanlon, 1987; O'Hanlon & Weiner-Davis, 1989).
Charles H. Brown Jr., PhD, is a graduate of Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He earned his master's degree at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, and his doctorate in Counseling Psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg in 1979. He is a licensed psychologist, on the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, recognized as a certified consultant by the Association of Applied Sport Psychology, on the U.S. Olympic Register of Sport Psychologists, and currently works with the U.S. Olympic Canoe and Kayak team. He has worked in full-time private practice totally independent of managed care since 1980. Early in his career he gained recognition for his skills in providing brief, solution-focused consultation that stressed building on the strengths and resources of the individual, relationship, and family. In recent years these skills have been broadened to help athletes, performing artists, and professionals perform to their full potential. Since 2004 his practice has focused exclusively on performers and their families. Dr. Brown has published various professional and popular articles related to performance enhancement, mental skills, and work–life balance. He coauthored You're On! Consulting for Peak Performance (published by APA in 2004), a chapter on injuries and the psychology of recovery and rehabilitation in The Sport Psych Handbook (2005), and is currently writing "The Psychologist as a Performer", a chapter for the upcoming book Performance Psychology in Action.
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