Blurring Personal and Professional Boundaries Date: 12/07/

TC and I, over the last 6-7 months, have developed a very strong professional relationship. Without this relationship, TC wouldn’t have approached me to seek my support and I am convinced our work together wouldn’t have been as effective (Gilbourne & Richardson, 2006). I am feeling confident and competent as a practitioner and as a

71 result, I am more relaxed during our sessions together, which is further contributing

towards the development of a strong relationship. However, I received a text from TC following our third session together, in which he thanked me for the support and asked if I was free to play table tennis with him the following week (we had been discussing other sports he had played and I had made a joke that I would beat him if we ever had an

opportunity to play). This text made me feel slightly uncomfortable and I didn’t know how to respond. It was clear to me that the personal and professional boundaries were

potentially becoming blurred (Haberl & Peterson, 2006). However, I have mixed feelings regarding whether or not I should be concerned by this text. By being genuine and

authentic during our sessions together (Nesti, 2004), I have successfully developed an excellent working relationship with TC, which is providing me with the foundations to be able to support him through a difficult moment in his career. I am proud of this

achievement as an applied practitioner. However, regardless of how good my relationship is with TC, ultimately, I can never allow our working relationship to be viewed as a friendship. In previous roles (at West Bromwich Albion F.C. and Everton F.C.) I would often engage in informal work with players, by challenging them to games of ‘2-touch’ etc., but this felt different, as TC wanted to formally plan a meeting, rather than allowing it to occur naturally. I responded to TC by stating that I was going on holiday and so

wouldn’t be free. However, this is a short-term ‘solution’ and I need to reflect on this further to decide on a more conclusive course of action.

More recently (06/11/17) whilst conducting an interview with TC (during which I was attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of the consultancy process with TC), he stated that one of the main reasons for the positive changes was as a direct result of the relationship we had been able to develop. However, whilst discussing the importance of our

relationship, CT discussed the concept of us being ‘friends’:

Massively, if one I didn’t trust you or two I didn’t see you as a friend, I probably would have stopped, like coming… like if I felt at any time it was starting to get awkward or, the relationship was breaking down or anything like that, I probably would have just left it

…you have to sort of be friends and I don’t know how that works for you in practice as a psychologist and what you’re told or anything, but I feel like,

72 especially in Rugby League, or in sport, you need a friend, it’s a friend you

need to speak to

Even TC was questioning this, from my perspective, as to whether or not this was something that was appropriate as part of my professional role, but despite this, the relationship (or friendship, from TC’s perspective) was clearly a key part of why he decided to keep coming back to the sessions. It was vital that TC kept returning to these sessions with me given my earlier reflection (surrounding mental health above) as TC later confirmed that he had been very low during our initial meetings and without our meetings would have given up seeking the support he clearly needed.

I would have had to respect your decision, but to be fair, if I went to speak to someone else, I probably wouldn’t have gone back, if I’m being honest, I probably would have just left it. Other people had already tried and it just didn’t work. I probably would have just left it, I wouldn’t have pushed you probably [to come back], but I should have done back then, because I needed it, but I probably wouldn’t have, I probably would have just respected it and got on with it

I have reflected on this challenge numerous times ‘informally’ and believe that the decision to refer and the idea surroundings relationships/friendships comes down to two things: 1) A practitioner’s philosophy of practice (performance and well-being) 2) the authenticity or practitioner’s identity during the consultancy process.

1) As I’ve stated and discussed on numerous occasions, I am comfortable as a practitioner (and actually actively encouraging my clients) to discuss

challenges related to both performance and well-being, as clearly the two are linked (Brady & Maynard, 2010). The challenges that TC was experiencing were very much within my ‘comfort zone’ and reinforced the approach I adopted as an applied practitioner (Existentialism). However, this was my first experience with an individual experiencing mental health

challenges/symptoms and as a trainee, I wanted to be sure I was approaching the situation ethically and within the scope of my practice. This uncertainty

73 about referral, wasn’t because I wasn’t comfortable working with TC, it was

more a question of the ‘rules’. After speaking with a number of experienced practitioners, including my supervisor, the ‘rules’ around referral seem a lot more relaxed than I had first thought. TC wasn’t a harm to himself or others and this was a very mild case of depressive symptoms. Clearly, my

philosophy and approach as a practitioner was congruent and aligned with the challenges TC was experiencing and so there was no reason why I couldn’t work with him. This experience has given me a lot more confidence to work with athletes who may be experiencing mild depressive symptoms and my ‘line in the sand’ so to speak has shifted because of this experience. I now know that clinical training isn’t something I actually need to do, as this case is clearly within my role as an applied sport psychology practitioner. However, I will be enrolling on mental health courses to further my knowledge in the area.

2) As my training has progressed, I have been exposed to situations and clients that have challenged my core values and beliefs as both a person and a practitioner. At the start of my training, I was clearly struggling with my own identity as a practitioner (see Practitioner Identity). However, even during this early reflection, I was coming to understand that there didn’t have to be a difference between me as a person and me as a practitioner. This

understanding has only developed and evolved during the last two years, to the point where this understanding has been converted in something more tangible. What I mean by this is, there is absolutely no distinction between me as a person and me as a practitioner. My experience with TC had and still has been my most successful experience with a client and this was as a direct result of me being truly authentic throughout the consultancy process. This in itself has been vital to my learning, as my personal and professional

experiences have allowed me to develop into someone who is ‘comfortable within their own skin’ in any situation I find myself in. Furthermore, I now feel I can truly engage in the encounter as an Existential practitioner, as a key component of this approach is to be authentic and spontaneous. By being genuine, spontaneous, and authentic, I was able to engage in what is often referred to as the I-Thou relationship (Nesti, 2004), which I believed

74 positively impacted upon the consultancy process. By being true to myself

(combining my personal and professional selves) throughout the process, I was able to build a strong relationship with CT. However, I was also mindful that being someone’s equal, from an existential perspective, was different than being his or her friend. Therefore, whilst engaging in this process, I had to continually reflect upon whether the personal/professional boundary was becoming blurred. In this case, I don’t believe that they were blurred to an extent that should concern me. Yes, TC had used the word friendship to describe our relationship, but I now understand that this was a difference in language used to describe the relationship. The relationship has and will always be a professional one and I would much rather be on the boundary of a personal/professional relationship with a client, than be ineffective as an applied practitioner.

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3. Charging Private Clients and ‘Measuring’ Effectiveness