This article addresses the challenging conundrum of when to offer psychotherapy versus mental skills training. To highlight aspects of this dilemma, we describe actual cases that illustrate different ways in which clients present and practitioners may respond: (1) mental skills training shifting to therapy; (2) therapeutic work shifting to mental skills training; (3) simultaneous work between two practitioners; or (4) alternating services from the same practitioner. A variety of intervention methods are used based on a number of theoretical orientations and perspectives. The article concludes with some recommendations that may assist the performance-oriented practitioner in decision-making regarding the delicate balance between therapy and mental skills training. Suggestions relate specifically to the nature of the referral, the client’s preferences, the practitioner’s perspective and skill sets, a continuous process of appraisal and adaptation, and the central importance of the athlete-practitioner relationship.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a standardized mental practice tool incorporating principles of video, modeling, and traditional-imagery,on the imagery ability of competitive college sailors. A quasi-experimental method using a quantitative pre-test/post-test design was administered with a convenience sample of collegiate sailors recruited via the Internet. An integrated video-imagery intervention was compared with a traditional verbal intervention to measure each intervention's impact on imagery ability. The Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2 (VMIQ-2) was used to assess external visual imagery, internal visual imagery, and kinesthetic imagery. Exposure to video-imagery resulted in significant improvement of external visual, internal visual, and kinesthetic imagery abilities. There was no significant difference between improvements from video-imagery versus traditional-imagery. Future studies should explore best combinations of imagery and observation techniques, and efficacious elements of each

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