Understanding anxiety following trauma during competitive cycling: Implications for the EMDR protocol

The proposed research seeks to illuminate the impact of post-traumatic anxiety on elite level competitive cycling performance. Although there is much outcome research supporting the effectiveness of EMDR in treating post- traumatic anxiety in general, relatively little is known about the nature of anxiety among athletes who have experienced accident, injury or other trauma in sporting contexts. Interpretive Phenomenological analysis (IPA) will be used to gather data from an opportunity sample of competitive cyclists who have experienced trauma during sporting participation. Analysis of the data will attempt to capture these participants’ experience of anxiety and its impact upon performance. This information will be used to inform therapeutic practice when using EMDR with this client group. It is hypothesised that due to the specific psychomotor actions necessary for competitive cycling, adaptations to the future template within EMDR will be required to maximise therapist efficacy when working with this particular client group.

Conference

English

Peter Hudson

Hudson, P. (2010, April). Understanding anxiety following trauma during competitive cycling: Implications for the EMDR protocol. Poster presented at the 8th EMDR Association UK & Ireland Annual Conference & AGM, Dublin, Ireland