The Korea Professional Sports Association (Chairman Cho Won-tae) announced on the 13th that it provided professional psychological counseling to 38 professional athletes, coaches, and referees living in a fiercely competitive environment through the ‘Professional Sports Athlete Psychological Counseling Service’.The ‘Professional Sports Athlete Psychological Counseling Service’ is a program designed to improve the psychological difficulties experienced in professional life due to competition, team and individual performance pressure, and criticism from fans through professional psychological counseling.The program is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Sports Promotion Organization.
All active players, coaches, and referees registered with the seven professional organizations and clubs that organize five professional sports (football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and golf) can apply for counseling through an online application, and will be assigned a professional counselor and receive up to 10 sessions (extendable if necessary).The association has selected and commissioned 20 psychologists to provide quality professional psychological counseling to athletes.Through this program, 38 athletes received a total of 300 sessions (an average of 7.9 sessions per athlete, with a duration of approximately 60 minutes per session) over an eight-month period from March to November this year.Stress was the most common issue (19 cases), followed by anxiety (14 cases), poor performance (13 cases), depression (4 cases), pressure, and insomnia (3 cases). Those who received counseling reported high levels of satisfaction.”We plan to support athletes, coaches, and referees to continue their careers with robust counseling services, including lowering barriers to entry to psychological counseling and considering the introduction of professional psychological 슬롯게이밍 testing,” the association said.