"But I am a runner”: trying to be a Rogerian person-centred practitioner with an injured athlete

This reflective case study presents the experience of a trainee Sport and Exercise Psychologist during a period of applied consultancy with an injured runner. This was the trainee’s first consultancy experience attempting to practice from a Rogerian/classic person-centred perspective. As a trainee, the sport psychology delivery process followed academic and professional training models. After identifying an incongruence relating to the client’s identity as a runner, Rogers’ rejection of formulation and intervention, led to tensions. Drawing on sport and counselling psychology literature to guide reflection and approach, maintaining a relationship between client and practitioner consistent with Roger’s necessary conditions of change was the intervention. The trainee’s reflections consider being challenged by conflicts between philosophy and training requirements, their limited practice experience and responding to the client during sessions which sometimes felt inconsistent with person-centred principles. Ultimately, the client reported moving towards being a more authentic self by contextualising running as only one aspect of their life.