Process Reports in Applied Sport Psychology: A Tool for Professional Development

Abstract

What sport psychology practitioners say, how they say it, and why they said it are core determinants of successful practice. As such, reflective practice is critical to practitioners (continued) professional development. This paper explains and illustrates a reflective tool for sport psychology practitioners – the process report. Process reports are an analysis of a practitioner’s method, techniques, and metacommunication. We provide practical steps for a practitioner to conduct a process report offering tips and reflections on the process. By drawing practitioners’ attention to their ability to shape the therapeutic process, we hope to generate more effective, agile, and responsive psychology practitioners.

Keywords:

• Counseling
• process reports
• professional development
• reflective-practice
• sport development

Introduction

Sport (psychology) is an interpersonal discipline. When engaging with a sport psychology practitioner, the ability of athletes to change, develop and grow is best facilitated by strong interpersonal, or therapeutic, relationships. A critical feature of a good therapeutic relationship is how a practitioner presents, shares, and communicates with their client. The art is in the delivery. In sport psychology, applied practitioners are increasingly interested in bridging this gap between interventions ‘the what’ and the individuals delivering interventions ‘the who’ (Tod et al., 2017). Doing so provides the opportunity to understand the intricacies of successful practice, improve the quality-of-service delivery and, in-turn, enhance the marketability of the field. To bridge this gap, it is useful to explore tools used in relevant disciplines (e.g., counseling psychology, executive coaching; Tod et al., 2017) however, limited practical examples of what these processes are, what they look like, and how to use them are readily available in applied (sport) psychology (e.g., Think Aloud; Eccles & Arsal, 2017). In this paper, we share an applied psychology tool, the process report and, alongside it, a guide for psychologists (and practitioners) who may seek to complete a process report for professional development.

Author positioning

We (Zoe Louise Moffat and Paul Joseph McCarthy) are excited to be presenting the application of process reports in the domain of applied sport psychology. One of us (ZLM) is currently a sport psychologist at a national institute of sport, whose exposure to process reports began as a trainee sport psychologist on a professional doctorate programme, supervised by (PJM). PJM is the director (and developer) of a British professional doctorate programme and has extensive experience in applied, educational, and research contexts. Collectively, we present this paper because we are driven to present concepts that may enhance professional development and service delivery and are confident that this is a good example. We share a belief that process reports can be a key feature in the supervisory process and fundamental to practitioner learning and development (e.g., self-reflection). We also recognize that, with their increasing inclusion in trainee assessment, a navigational paper could prove fruitful to trainee practitioners, or those keen to enhance their practice.

What are process reports?

Process reports are an analysis of a therapeutic encounter. A micro-view of practice, the focus of a process report, is not on the content of the client-work per se, but the underlying processes. Using a single recorded session, the psychologist explains the techniques, decision-making and (meta) communication of their practice (Parrott, 2016). Psychologists critically question their intentions, actions, and effect. This moment-by-moment analysis, in which practitioners explore each element of a client interaction in-depth, allows practitioners to examine how they apply knowledge and the effect on the recipient (e.g., athlete) and therapeutic process (e.g., client-change and therapeutic relationship; Papadopoulos et al., 2003). A common catchphrase in sport, and too life, is to ‘trust the process’. Process reports emphasize establishing what a psychologist’s process is, how they apply it, and how effective it is. In that regard, we need not restrict the use of process reports to sport psychologists. Indeed, they can be a reflective practice tool to enhance the quality of delivery of anyone working in sport. To summarize, a case-study offers an account of therapeutic practice, while a process report offers an evaluation of a therapeutic encounter.

The concept of case analysis is not a new one, originating in the medical field circa 1600 BC (Nissen & Wynn, 2014). In the time since, the value of documenting and exploring practice has expanded across an array of disciplines, including psychology, sport, and business. Analysis serves as a way of sharing and advancing practice, alongside self-guided discovery. Different approaches to analysis have emerged to meet the needs of psychologists. In sport, at a macroscopic level lies the case-study, an increasingly popularized means of sharing sport psychologists’ experiences, that provides us with the general principles and ‘what’ of practice (Cotterill et al., 2017). At the opposite end of this spectrum, we present the process report, a sibling to the case-study that instead offers a microscopic view of practice. A microscopic view provides the opportunity to bring-to-life the interventions individuals employ—understanding the application or ‘how’.

Process reports in sport – how and why?

Best practice guidelines recommend psychologists record client sessions (with consent) to facilitate professional development (Hutter et al., 2017). Recordings offer psychologists an opportunity to explore their work more objectively because the psychologist can identify client information that was missed or overlooked, and, with time and space, new ideas, formulations, and perspectives may develop. These recordings also offer the opportunity for self-reflection and professional development, which the process report facilitates.

After selecting a recording, sport psychologists may begin by asking themselves questions around the theoretical basis of their choices: ‘why did I use that model?’, ‘what evidence is there behind my decision?’ or ‘why did I choose that technique?’ These are perhaps the simple questions commonly answered when seeking to show evidence-based practice (Winter & Collins, 2015). Understanding your professional philosophy and being congruent with that philosophy is critical to effective practice. In hearing ourselves work, psychologists may identify moments where they over-engage or too, diverge from their professional philosophy (e.g., identifying as a person-centred practitioner while providing heavy instruction). In these moments, psychologists can clearly hear what was, as opposed to what they felt.

In answering questions around theoretical basis, the sport psychologist may then identify their intentions in application: ‘what was I trying to do?’ or ‘what did I hope to achieve?’ alongside their effect: ‘what effect did I have’, ‘what did that technique achieve?’, ‘why did it work/fail?’. At any moment, psychologists have a range of choices available to them. The skill is in picking those which are most appropriate and effective. Sport regularly shows us that intention does not equal outcome (e.g., good intention ≠ good outcome); however, psychologists often see analysis of this interaction between intentions (e.g., engagement in training) and outcomes (e.g., performance) leads to improvement. As sport psychologists, we are no different. In exploring what we sought to achieve, and if we indeed achieved it, we can consider what is next. Answering these questions paves the way for developing further practice ‘what could I do/say differently?’ or ‘how could this process improve?’.

The approach further encourages sport psychologists to explore the ‘how’s’ of their practice, including their metacommunication, session pacing and approach to dilemmas, or choice. In doing so, an opportunity grows to confront how our own thoughts and feelings (i.e., ‘how was I feeling in that moment and how did I respond’), client reactions (i.e., ‘how did the client respond and what did that mean for my next action’) and supervisory influence (i.e., ‘what learning opportunity is there from this interaction’) to influence our practice. While the concept of asking such questions is not necessarily new, sitting nicely within the reflective practice sphere, the process report asks psychologists to explore their work at a deeper, more intricate level, while providing a mechanism to do so.

Process reports may be of particular benefit to early-career/trainee psychologists in the advanced-student to novice-professional stages of professional development (Skovholt & Rønnestad, 1992), providing a more nuanced view of their practice; however, we advocate using a process report for psychologists at all stages of development, as reflective practice should be a continual feature in psychologists practice, irrespective of experience levels.

Completing a process report

How does an interested psychologist complete a process report? The following section provides a brief, step-by-step guide to the tool. We present a 9-step approach comprising four phases: (1) conducting client work, (2) selecting content, (3) analyzing and presenting, (4) exploring professional development. Table 1 contains this process report checklist, designed to guide practitioners on how to use the reflective process for self-guiding improvement. An important precursor to engaging in a process report, as with most forms of reflective practice, is that the individual holds a desire for improvement, is open to learning and understanding their performance, and assumes responsibility for their own learning (Anderson et al., 2004). Psychologists should take time to consider this openness to the process before engaging.

Table 1. The stages of a Process Report and Key Tasks.

Phase	Step	Stage	Key tasks
Phase 1: Conduct Client Work	1	Receive ethical approval / client consent	Ensure the client has provided informed consent for the recording of sessions & understand what this means. If this has been part of the contracting phase, reestablish consent prior to recording.
	2	Record several client sessions	Take regular recordings of sessions. Record sessions representative of how you work (e.g., pitch-side, 50-minute-hour).
Phase 2: Selecting Content	3	Select a session	Listen to and/or reflect on conducted sessions. Identify a session that has interesting features (e.g., ethical dilemma, a regular challenge faced, presenting difficulty).
	4	Transcribe the session in full	Transcribe the session in full. Where possible account for meta-communication (e.g., body language, changes in tone or pace, emotive language).
	5	Select a segment of the session to analyze	Select a segment of the session (approx. 10 mins in duration or relevant to practice). The segment should: Have an element of process (e.g., intervention) Have balanced dialogue (e.g., both practitioner and client are communicating) Interest you/catch your attention
Phase 3: Analyzing & Presenting	6	Familiarize yourself with the selected segment	Listen to the recording (ideally on more than one occasion) in a time where you can truly listen (e.g., at home, car journey). Review the transcript and add any additional information that may come from a more thorough listening.
	7	Create notes around key themes	Create notes around key themes including but not limited to: Intention (what was I trying to do?) Impact (what happened?) Metacommunication (changes in tone, pace, body language and reasoning/meaning). Challenges & Dilemmas (any challenges / difficulties identified) Evaluation (what could I have done differently? What worked well?)
	8	Write report using relevant literature to support narratives	Write your process report, which should include: Introduction (overview of the client and setting) Main Analysis (moment-by-moment analysis of segment) Summary and future development (summarize the session, key meanings, and key learnings). Continually question ‘what was going on for me?’ and ‘what is happening in/with the client?’
			Explore relevant literature to support / contradict your narratives and integrate in your writing Write in a format that works for you (e.g., this could be a presentation)
Phase 4: Exploring Professional Development	9	Consider areas for development & implementation plan	Identify strengths and weaknesses. What went well? What would you like to be better? What areas for improvement have you identified? Create an action plan for how you are going to develop identified skills.

Phase 1: Conducting client work

The first phase of a process report requires the psychologist to conduct a session with a client. To analyze a session, a psychologist requires recordings of their work with a client. This requirement raises several ethical issues around confidentiality and so, we need informed consent (step one). For psychologists, this should be standard practice, with the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct (British Psychological Society, 2021; or equivalent regulatory body e.g., APA code) a suitable reference point. For those in other sporting disciplines, the notion of consent, does the athlete know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how their information will be used, is also of relevance.

Table 2. Questions to guide a practitioner through a process report.

Theme	Example questions
Intention	What was I trying to do there? Why did I say that? Why did I use that model/technique? What evidence is there to support that selection? How did I come to decide this would be helpful? How did my intention link with the therapeutic process?
Impact	What impact did that have on me/the client? What impact was I hoping to achieve? To what degree do I think this was achieved? How did the client think/feel/respond? What did the impact mean to me? How did this impact guide my next choice?
Metacommunication	Is there a pattern between my/the clients speech? (e.g., do changes in tone happen at the same time) How do I respond (think/feel) to metacommunication? What impact did metacommunication have on my intentions? Was I aware of changes in metacommunication? How did changes help/hinder/explain the client? What is the meaning behind the change?
Challenges & Dilemmas	Were there any points where I felt unsure what to do? How did I respond? Were any of the presentations (words or feelings) difficult for me? What ethical dilemmas occurred? How did I respond? Do I find certain patterns/presentations challenging? What feelings come up for me?
Evaluative Notes	How effective was that session/intervention/interaction? What could I have said/done differently? Why did that work? (Delivery, age, stage, tool) How could I improve my delivery? What else was happening? Could I have approached it differently?
Over-Arching Questions	What is going on for me? What is happening with the client? How do I feel about what I am hearing/analyzing? What effect did I/the client have on one another? How did my feelings dictate decision making? How was my presence throughout the session?

Step two involves the recording of sessions. We recommend psychologists record sessions regularly before conducting a process report; however, this is not a requirement, with psychologists free to engage with the rest of the process, having only ever recorded one session. Recording(s) should represent the way you work with client, or an area you are interested in developing. For example, if you typically work pitch, pool, or courtside, carry out your recordings there. A process report does not need to take the format of the stereotypical 50-minute hour; however, ensure that your recordings are of a sufficient duration, ideally 10 minutes or longer, so that you have enough content, and process, to explore.

How you record sessions will be dictated by your context. At a minimum, a process report requires an audio-recording; ensure your space is quiet enough for a dictaphone to pick-up both parties’ speech (e.g., is located centrally). Video-recording may also be an option; however, we recommend checking your regulatory bodies’ practice guidelines as to who may be included (e.g., psychologist only, or, psychologist and client) before doing so.

Phase 2: Selecting content

Phase two involves the selection of content, first as a session (step 3). Because you have recorded several sessions—which one should you choose? Psychologists should seek to identify a session that either held interesting features; for example, an ethical dilemma, or represents a topic they would like to explore (e.g., working with anxiety).

On selecting a session, step four involves transcription. Psychologists should transcribe the session verbatim. This means everything—the bit where you do not catch your words right, or the sentence that cut close to the nerve. As tempting as it may be to rush transcribing, doing so, and perhaps missing parts of information, will only do the reflective process a disservice. A requirement of the process report, verbatim transcripts increase introspection, revealing perhaps less obvious, yet still meaningful process information (Parrot, 2016). While referring to transcription, psychologists should also look to note any metacommunication. Metacommunication is the secondary-information (verbal and non-verbal) we provide to help a client interpret our words—think ‘it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it’. Notice any changes in pacing (e.g., long pauses or speech speeding up), tone (e.g., becoming more somber or enthusiastic), body language (e.g., leaning forwards or fidgeting). Psychologists may engage with the meaning of these changes, but further analysis there will come later.

Step 5 involves the selection of a segment to analyze. Psychologists should ideally analyze a segment that lasts approximately 10 minutes (which amounts to about 6 pages of double-line spaced text when transcribed), which may be dictated by the length of the recording. If psychologists have choice available, they should seek to find a small segment to analyze. At a minimum, it should contain three key components. First, an element of process—was there an intervention happening? Second, a degree of balanced dialogue—were the psychologist and client communicating and engaging? Third, is the segment of interest to the psychologist. In meeting these three criteria, the psychologist is likely to be more engaged in the process of analysis and have something worth analyzing! It may seem tempting to analyze a full session, however, doing so effectively would be extremely time-consuming, with psychologists risking losing the depth and quality of reflection the process report should induce. It is in this vein we encourage quality over quantity.

Phase 3: Analyzing and presenting

To analyze a session effectively, familiarize yourself with a recorded session before jumping into the analysis (step 6). Where possible, psychologists should seek a place of minimal distraction to truly listen and reflect. Transcribing your session will have facilitated a degree of familiarization. This process may also entail repeatedly listening to your session, identifying new pieces of information you may notice, (re)-reading your transcript, noticing themes that might emerge, and reading/listening until you feel comfortable enough to be objective. A useful analogy here may be to view the process report as a post-competition debrief. Feel the emotions, let the dust settle, and return with a critical, yet compassionate eye.

Step 7 is the beginning of the analysis. Psychologists should seek to make notes of five key themes (for an example, see Figure 1.). First, intention, this explores the psychologist’s aims, regarding the interventions they chose and the outcome they were seeking to achieve. Second, impact, this explores what happened as a result, understanding what affect the communication had on both the psychologist and the client. Third, metacommunication, this entails noticing the intricacies of conversation, what occurred beyond merely the words stated, and, where possible, what we can infer from those patterns. For example, a change in pacing could indicate a change in the athletes’ emotions, be that a reluctance to engage or an eagerness to share. Fourth, challenges and dilemmas, psychologists should seek to identify any difficulties faced, be that in intervention choice, client response, delivery etc., The chosen segment is an opportunity to show the reader or assessor that you work ethically and effectively with insight to link practice with theory and handle what might arise unexpectedly. An example might be of loss, injury, unique struggles for the client. Finally, psychologists should make evaluative notes, a what worked well and why, alongside a what can be done better next time. Example questions to guide a psychologist through this process are available (see Table 2).

Figure 1. Applied example of mapping core themes on to a transcript.

Figure 2. Extract from a process report.

Step 8 of the process report involves the writing, with psychologists encouraged to use relevant literature to support, challenge and develop identified ideas. The process report is typically conducted in a ‘paper’ oriented style, with an introduction (summarizing the client and setting), main-body (containing the analysis of a session) and summary (summarizing the work and showing future directions); however, we would encourage psychologists to present their work using a medium that feels comfortable and will result in adherence (e.g., a presentation). The goal is to create a coherent narrative around what is happening. Two reflective questions to continually hold in this phase are ‘what is going on for the psychologist’ and ‘what is happening in/with the client?’. We provide an extract of a process report below (see Figure 2, please contact the lead author for a copy of a full process report).

Phase 4: Exploring professional development

The final step of the process involves linking back the activity of the process report to a psychologist’s continued professional development. Process reports provide information, psychologists must then consider what to do with it. A needs analysis of sorts, psychologists should be able to identify areas for personal and/or professional development, a staple of applied practice (Wylleman et al., 2009). These may relate to any part of the process, from theoretical knowledge to strategies for delivery. While typically used for assessments in training programs, process reports can be used for supervision sessions at any stage of development. Consider how these will be implemented and create an action plan for how you are going to do so, similar to what would occur in other forms of reflective practice. We do not offer a specific ‘action plan template’ for you. Instead, use a reflection-action model that feels comfortable for you and fits within your current practice and professional guidelines, using content gathered from the process report. You may use (peer)-supervision, a critical feature of professional certification programs to support this process. Collaborating with significant others may not only meet programme requirements for trainees, but more broadly introduce new perspectives, challenges and ideas on how trainee and experienced practitioners alike can develop their practice.

Tips & takeaways for psychologists

To help guide a psychologist seeking to complete a process report, here are some top tips. First, session selection. When selecting a session for a process report, a natural inclination may be to pick a simple or positive session. Choose something meaningful—maybe you felt a sticky feeling during an interaction, had an ‘oh no’ moment, or even just felt the session flowed effortlessly. Your session should seek to represent your work. If the session in question is an ‘anomaly’ you risk being drown to the content of the session rather than having the space to explore the process and what that means for both you and the client. You could also tie your choice of session to an area of development or interest, for example, ‘how effectively do I work with younger athletes?’

Second, get comfortable being uncomfortable. Psychologist engagement is of critical importance to a process reports efficacy. In truly embracing the task, psychologists may face uncomfortable questions or scenarios. In other domains of psychology, ‘shadow motives’—the perhaps unconscious reasons people become psychologists (e.g., self-gratification) have been discussed (McBeath, 2019). Process reports give psychologists an opportunity to explore how these motives manifest in their work, as uncomfortable as that might be. For example, a psychologist who experienced difficulties with communication in their own relationships (e.g., coach-athlete) may notice that they over-insert, or distance themselves from their athletes when facing similar communication challenges. We encourage psychologists to embrace this process fully, opening their eyes to the good, the bad and the ugly of their practice, with supervisors or peers in toe for support.

Third, carry your own anchor. When delving into interactions in such depth, it is possible to get so caught up in the detail that you cannot see the bigger picture. Holding an anchor can help pull you back to the factors that are important to you, while also providing the flexibility to explore new thoughts and concepts. The anchor a psychologist holds will probably depend on their experience level. For example, early career or trainee psychologists grappling with their professional identity may anchor themselves more tightly to exploring the congruence between their intentions and actions. This may bring about supervisory discussions about ‘I think x, but I do y’, ‘how do my behaviors match my intentions’, or ‘where are the gaps in my knowledge?’. For experienced psychologists, an anchoring may instead be around intent and efficacy. Pulling psychologists away from an acquired complacency of being competent´ to ‘was my intention clear and considered enough?’ and ‘how may that interaction have been developed or improved?’

Finally, take time and care to plan the next part of your journey. In a word of caution, a process report may bring about several areas of development for psychologists, particularly early in their career. Prioritize, take time to consider what would help you as a psychologist and the individuals that you work with, using significant others to keep you accountable to the professional development you would like to undertake.

Conclusion

Sport psychologists are continually seeking new ways to advance practice and raise the standards of performance of themselves and of those with whom they work. The process report offers a fresh and novel way for sport psychologists to understand, explore and develop themselves and their practice. The guide to conducting a process report offered in this article provides a template for those in sport seeking to conduct a process report and highlights questions one might ask. This list is not exhaustive and represents a starting point for those seeking to engage. That being said, we hope it to provoke enough thought and intuition that readers at all levels may critique their own practice. While conducting a process report is a relatively speaking time-intensive task, as psychologists, we must practise what we preach, delving into and trusting the process.