A lifespan approach to understanding and managing choking with a youth athlete

Lifespan perspectives illustrate the critical features of development that clients’ experience; however, little evidence exists to illustrate how to integrate these approaches or use them in sport and exercise contexts. Attending to a clients’ developmental stage is a critical component of ethical and effective professional practice. We present an account of how we considered, selected, or dismissed components of lifespan perspectives throughout the stages of service delivery with James, a youth sport athlete presenting with ‘choking’ difficulties. The lifespan approach offered a context to understand James’ presenting difficulty, decide about the appropriateness and applicability of intervention and acknowledged bias and experience of the psychologist.