Trauma-Informed Approach to Sports and Working Athletes Part 1
Many of us have heard the old athletic mantra: Leave your problems at the locker room door or something similar. For decades, traditional sports culture has demanded that performers push through pain, bury their emotions, and rely on sheer "mind over matter" to win. This approach has cost many athletes when it comes to their mental health and from a neurobiological perspective. The leave your problems in the locker room approach ignores a fundamental truth: the body keeps score, and athletes cannot simply uncouple their lived histories from their physical performance.
When athletes struggle with an intense fear of re-injury or sudden "choking" under pressure, it is rarely a lack of grit. There is something else going on. It may be a matter of teaching athletes mental skills, but there may also be something else going on that anyone who supports athletes must be aware of to properly support them. It also could be a highly intelligent, survival-driven response from a protective nervous system arising from trauma. Today we will begin breaking down the vital importance of using Trauma-Informed Principles in Sport and Performance Psychology. We will begin by discussing the Four R’s, which are the milestones of organizational awareness, and next week will continue the conversation with 6 Guiding Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach, which are the daily behavioral values used to achieve them
The Four R’s: Essential Assumptions in a Trauma-Informed Approach
When it comes to working with athletes who have experienced trauma, the approach must also be trauma-informed. This is not just for athletes who have experienced trauma from an outside accident. It is to also acknowledge that athletes may have past, athletic-related trauma that must be taken into account. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for Trauma-Informed Approach (2014) provides good guidelines for a variety of professionals who work with athletes to make their work more trauma-informed. The guidelines discussed below are tailored to a sports environment.
1. Realize: Understand the Footprint of Trauma in Motion
To build a trauma-informed sports culture, we must first deeply comprehend how adversity alters an athlete's physiology and behavioral architecture. Survival strategies are highly intelligent responses to overwhelming experiences. What an untrained coach, trainer, or organization, as examples, might misinterpret as "problematic behavior"—such as intense defensiveness, emotional volatility, or defiant non-compliance toward authority—is often a somatic trauma symptom. These defensive mechanisms initially kept the athlete safe during past adversity, and they are easily reactivated or triggered under the high-pressure conditions of training and competition.
2. Recognize: Audit the Unique Somatic Red Flags
Recognizing the impact of trauma requires ongoing athletic education and a willingness to look closely at a performer's physical baseline. Crucially, a trauma response in an elite or competitive athlete rarely looks like the textbook definitions found in the general public. Instead, it often manifests through subtle, body-centered markers such as chronic somatization (unexplained physical pain or tension), unexplained chronic fatigue, or an uncharacteristic failure to adhere to injury rehabilitation protocols. While athletic organizations or professionals who work with athletes can integrate adverse childhood event screenings into pre-participation physicals, for example, they must ensure they have the structural capacity, resources, and clinical pathways to adequately support those athletes before doing so. Even if we are talking about a traumatic event that occurred outside we must be screening for these experiences upon intake or participation to be able to continue to provide that appropriate support.
3. Respond: Embed Safety and Clinical Resources Throughout the Ecosystem
A truly responsive organization recognizes that trauma is a systemic issue affecting athletes, staff, and coaches alike. Something similar could be said for individuals who work with athletes needing to recognize trauma as a systemic issue. Response begins with thorough training across the entire sports ecosystem, ensuring every staff member clearly understands their ethical reporting obligations and emotional support boundaries. For the athlete, a trauma-informed response means moving away from punitive discipline and offering specialized resources. This can range from implementing nervous-system regulation and resilience-building protocols in daily practice to providing formal referrals to specialized mental health professionals who work from a trauma-informed place and understand the needs of athletes.
4. Resist: Actively Counteract Institutional Retraumatization
We must confront the uncomfortable reality that modern sports environments are frequently and inherently retraumatizing. By design, intense physical training involves elements that can easily mirror past abuse: involuntary physical strain, high-pressure coercion, loud yelling, and triggering sensory environments. To actively resist repeating these cycles of trauma, sports organizations and professional who work with athletes must intentionally integrate conscious safety principles into daily coaching. This looks like prioritizing somatic consent (always asking permission before physically touching an athlete to adjust their form) and consistently providing clear, logical rationales for demanding physical drills rather than relying on blind obedience.
The 5th R
While the four R’s are widely known, we must not forget about the 5th “R”. According to Izzo et al. (2025) the 5th “R,” Reflect, focuses on the need for organizations and individuals to constatnly reflect on their practices, biases, and the fundamental role of relationships. A big ask, but one worth asking! So, now what if we now add the 5th “R” to the four above into the perspective of sport psychology?
5. Reflect: Institutional Auditing and the Power of the Relational Bond
Reflection as the essential fifth pillar of trauma-informed care, mandates that both individual coaches and other professionals who support athletes and athletic organizations engage in continuous, honest self-auditing/reflection. In the high-stakes world of competitive sports or moments were we fall into old patterns, it is remarkably easy to revert to traditional, default habits. For example, it could be toxic coaching habits like using shame as a motivational tool, ignoring an athlete's physical boundaries, or letting implicit biases dictate the choices that we make for athletes.
True reflection requires sports professionals to constantly pause and interrogate their current training methodologies, cultural biases, and power dynamics. Again, a big ask. There is no sugar coating here! And yet, it is an essential practice that must be done. By doing so, it centers the professional who is working with the athlete-athlete relationship as the primary vehicle for performance optimization. Peak performance cannot and will not thrive in an environment of fear or sterile compliance; it requires an unshakeable relational bond rooted in mutual respect, ongoing feedback loops, and a shared dedication to human dignity.
Next week we will explore the 6 Guiding Principles of a Trauma-Informed Approach, which as a reminder are the daily behavioral values used to achieve the R’s.
A foot wearing a blue soccer shoe stepping on a soccer ball. The ball is white with patches of black, blue, green, and yellow. There are red lines. The ball is on the grass.
take action today moment:
If you are a professional who works with athletes, take some time to reflect and ask yourself are you using the “R’s” in your work with your athletes? If you are, how can you strengthen your practices? If you are not, how can you begin to integrate the “R’s” into your practice?
If you are an athlete, you also need to reflect. Are the people supporting you taking a trauma-informed approach? Maybe the R’s? If they are, let those people know how much you appreciate their awareness. If not, what can you do to, safely, bring it up with these people? If that is not an option, do you need to consider finding other professionals who do understand and utilize a trauma-centered approach?
Learn More About the Trauma-Informed Work in Sport Psychology:
Trauma-informed approaches to physical activity [YouTube]
References
Izzo, K., Credit, M., Gashi, H., Shetty, N., Vassil, M., Harley, J., Arruda, T. C. M., & Sinko, L. (2025). Expanding trauma-informed care: The case for a fifth 'R' - Reflect. American Journal of Community Psychology, 76(1-2), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12820
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 14-4884. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.