Discrimination and inequality are ever present in today’s society, with athletes facing racial abuse and LGBTQ+ individuals fearing for their safety at international events. Due to these additional stressors, the role of sport psychologists becomes increasingly important when supporting athletes from minority groups. An online questionnaire was developed to gain greater understanding of the equality, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) knowledge, perceptions, and experiences of those working, studying or researching in the field of sport and exercise psychology. The findings of the current study highlight the ongoing experiences of sexism, racism, homo/transphobia, and ableism experienced by participants, as well as the need for more suitable, in-depth training around ED&I subjects and guidance on meaningful action to combat inequality and discrimination in the field. The involvement of individuals from minority groups in the development, delivery and evaluation of training and research is necessary to move towards true inclusion.Keywords:Quality; diversity; inclusion; sport; education.

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of sports and exercise psychologists and sports and exercise psychology trainees from minority groups as they practice within the field. The experiences of UK minority sports and exercise psychologists and trainees within the field have not been widely explored in the literature. The lived experiences of three practitioners were explored through the lens of race, sexual orientation and religion. Forty-five-minute semi-structured interviews were analysed using an interpretive phenomenological analysis. The following themes arose from the study: the unseen minority, embed discrimination in sport, improving the field, journey barriers and the qualities of a practitioner. Based on the themes explored future research areas are discussed.

The therapeutic alliance has been explored widely within therapy literature but more research is necessary on the sport and exercise psychology client dyad. The racial/cultural identity development model and Rogers's (1957) six core conditions provide the conceptual and theoretical framework for this pilot qualitative study, which seeks to explore the building process in therapeutic relationships within cross-racial sport and exercise psychology. The perspectives of four black athletes of mixed descent and seven sport and exercise psychologists from diverse backgrounds (Arab = 1, Black British = 3, White British = 3) were considered. One-hour semi-structured interviews were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis. This yielded the following themes for athletes: lack of disclosure, racial impact on alliance, desired characteristics and experience. For sport and exercise psychologists these themes included therapeutic alliance building blocks, creating safe spaces and the racial impact of disclosure. Recommendations for building the process in cross-racial dyads are explored based on the participants' comments. The findings are discussed and areas for future research are explored based on these main themes.