Psychological intervention in a case of interoceptive avoidance in a sport setting

Abstract

The present study presents a case of psychological intervention on an athlete with an interoceptive avoidance disorder. This disorder manifested itself through a fear response conditioned to somatic stimuli, occurring during the 1,500 metres run. Techniques of arousal control, exposure and other cognitive approach strategies such as thought adaptation and self-instructions were all used in the psychological intervention. Although in cases like this psychological intervention is necessary, little scientific literature is to be found on psychological disorders of sportspeople. As a result, the present study offers a twofold angle of approach: to describe the intervention procedure used and to consider the possibility of generalising the same to similar cases, in which the properties of the training or the competition act as triggers of the problem on account of conditioning to either external or internal stimuli.