READING REPORT 7

13 Serving the spirit? The sport psychologist and the chaplain in English Premiership Football

Mark Nesti

Introduction

Despite considerable efforts by academics, practitioners and professional bodies, sport psychology and sport psychologists have long struggled for acceptance in the world of professional sport. One of the reasons for this is the percep- tion surrounding psychology, namely that it is only for those suffering from problems or for weak individuals (Fifer et al., 2008). Other obstacles relate to beliefs about the value of sport psychology work and that many coaches, espe- cially at the elite level, think of themselves as very competent applied psycholo- gists, albeit without formal qualifications in the discipline. These and similar challenges are commonly experienced in professional football. Describing my experiences as a sport psychologist inside several English Premier League clubs, I have argued elsewhere that the culture of professional football is particularly difficult for sport psychologists to operate within because top-level managers and their players often view themselves as highly knowledgeable about psy- chological factors and performance (Nesti, 2011a). They maintain this opinion, quite reasonably some would suggest, because they know that to achieve and survive at the highest levels of the game requires outstanding psychological qualities and skills (Brown and Potarc, 2009).

In contrast to the task facing the sport psychologist, the chaplain working in professional football is rarely seen as someone whose role and function is already catered for inside the club. Few coaches and managers would make any public claims to the type of expertise possessed by the chaplain but they may suggest that they also provide some form of pastoral support for players and staff. However, most would be quick to acknowledge that this type of activity is not their primary function and, unlike the chaplain, such provision is not normally guided by a specific theological orientation or system of religious belief. Inter- estingly, a close examination of various autobiographies of successful coaches and managers in a range of professional sports reveals that a significant number are strongly influenced by their own personal religious beliefs or faith in how they view their job and how they work with the teams: for example, Vince Lombardi and Sir Matt Busby. Nevertheless, this is not the main source of diffi- culty that a chaplain may face in providing a service within professional football

Serving the spirit? 159

or in professional sport in general. A more common problem is that chaplains are often seen as people lacking any real, in-depth understanding of the demands of elite level performance sport. They could be viewed as a rather whimsical figure who is hoping to find converts, someone, who, despite a low-key and friendly demeanour, is really engaged in a surreptitious programme of religious evangelization. In contrast, the sport psychologist may be seen more positively at times, despite concerns over their value and effectiveness, because they are sup- posed to be engaged in enhancing performance and helping players maximize their talents. In an environment where continual failure to win games almost invariably results in the removal of the manager and accompanying staff (Nesti, 2010), the chaplain may be seen as someone with a different focus because the security of their position does not depend on match-day results. Because of this, the chaplain might be perceived as one whose sole concern is with spiritual life and the redemption of souls, someone whose interest does not lie in helping footballers to play better but rather in supporting them to become better people.

In this chapter, I look more closely at the roles of both the sport psychologist and the chaplain to reveal that the stereotypes and limited viewpoints outlined above do not fully represent the realities of high-level professional footballing environments. Although I will partly draw on my experiences working inside a number of English Premier League clubs, my main focus is to more closely examine the theoretical and philosophical problems which sport psychologists may encounter when working alongside club chaplains in professional foot- ball at the highest level. To achieve this we will look at four key issues: (1) the underlying approach to the science of psychology and sport psychology; (2) the so-called ‘performance or care’ debate; (3) the place of spiritual belief and religious faith in the lives of professional footballers and coaches in the English Premier League context; and (4) the impact of the sport psychologist’s personal religious beliefs on their applied work. Given my own background in the Catholic faith, this final section will highlight how two specific beliefs and practices from this tradition have had an impact on my work with players, staff and football chaplains, and influenced the approach I have taken in my role as a sport psychologist in English Premier League football.

The science of sport psychology

In this section I will discuss the underlying philosophy of science that has influ- enced the dominant approach to sport psychology since its inception. This is important because it is one of the clearest reasons why many sport psychologists feel they should have little to do with the work of chaplains. That is, psychology as an academic discipline has been almost neurotic in seeking to establish its distance from theology and philosophy, despite critics like Vitz (1997) accusing psychology of becoming a new secular religion. In sum, the clash is essen- tially at the level of presuppositions which govern sport psychology’s theoreti- cal commitments (and all reflection and deliberation for that matter): that is, fundamental beliefs, epistemology and hermeneutics.

160 Mark Nesti

The academic discipline of sport psychology is still in its infancy. It is approx- imately 50 years old. Most of the subject matter in terms of theories, research paradigms, methods and epistemological foundations has been borrowed from the parent discipline of psychology (Vealey, 2006). Psychology is in some ways unique in that it can be approached as a branch of the physical sciences – for example, psychophysics – or from a more philosophical base as is found in much counselling psychology (Maslow, 1962). In its attempts to establish its credibility as an academic discipline, early sport psychology positioned itself firmly at the experimental, natural scientific and empiricist end of the spec- trum. Several voices have tried to point out that by doing this, sport psychology has restricted the types of subject matter and topics that can be studied and discussed within the context of the discipline (e.g. Ryba and Wright, 2005). Cartesian dualism and the desire to measure, predict and control, dominates thinking. This has led to opposition, with some in the discipline adopting a radical postmodern perspective and suggesting that the future lies in an almost total dismantling of all preconceived ideas and methods in order to reach a new, emancipatory situation.

Unfortunately, the epistemological positioning of sport psychology makes it difficult to study a number of psychological concepts that are not easily meas- ured, including hope, humility, sacrifice and courage. Other rarely encountered terms in sport psychology such as spirit, spirituality and personal meaning are denied existence (Crust, 2006) or seen as inappropriate for the discipline to consider. Cognitive sport psychology (the dominant approach), grounded as it is in the philosophy of scientism, has nothing to offer on spirit and spir- ituality since in this view they cannot be measured, quantified or understood purely objectively. Meanwhile, the postmodernist viewpoint in academic sport psychology tends to reduce everything to discourses and feelings. Ideas like religious belief become stripped of any substance, understood only as an epi- phenomenon, an irrational set of thoughts that bring emotional comfort. There is much to object to about this kind of argument, but one of the most amusing objections for religious believers is the common failing of postmodern critics to overlook the fact that almost all religions include ideas concerning punish- ment in this life or after death. All of which represents quite a challenge to the idea that religious faith is merely some sort of pleasant emotional crutch.

Spirituality and sport psychology

In examining sport psychology literature on spirituality, Watson and Nesti (2005) identified at least two major obstacles to further study and consideration. The first is the scientific and philosophical basis of sport psychology outlined above. The second is the tendency to see spirituality as only related to religion. However, the majority of literature in psychology and related fields differenti- ates between spirituality and religion, conceptualizing the former as a broader phenomenon including also humanistic perspectives (Pargament, 1999). The situation in the academic literature in sport is less well developed, although in

Serving the spirit? 161

recent years a small number of sport philosophers and theologians have begun to address this topic, leading to the publication of books and articles on sport and religion (Ladd and Mathisen, 1999) and sport and spirituality (Parry, Nesti and Watson, 2011; Robinson, 2007).

For the sport psychologist hoping to explore how spirituality could be important in their applied work or research, one avenue is to draw on the ideas of the Thomist philosopher Josef Pieper, who has distinguished between religious spirituality and human spirituality. As a Catholic philosopher, Pieper (1998) argues that while these two ways of understanding spirituality and the idea of spirit itself are fundamentally related, it is also possible to make distinc- tions. Human spirit refers to our capacity for free will. Pieper further argues that we use the word ‘spirit’ to describe human agency articulating this in terms of a belief in our ability to act beyond the limitations arising from our inherited characteristics or influence of the environment. As a result, words like ‘cour- age’ – such an important term in sport – can be understood, to some extent, as a psycho-spiritual idea. Indeed, Corlett (1996a) has suggested that ‘courage’ means to choose a course of action that may result in a morally good and desir- able outcome in the face of considerable uncertainty. Both Pieper and Corlett are postulating that courage cannot be viewed as merely a psychological skill. Rather, they want us to conceive of it as something that is evidence of our free will, in this case our freedom to choose a course of action that in certain situations could even lead to our death or serious injury. This term can be differentiated from the semantically similar, yet quite different, word ‘bravery’, which means to do something instinctively, to act without carefully thinking through the risks involved. According to Aristotle and Aquinas, acting coura- geously involves doing something (or not doing something) to achieve a moral good after careful consideration of the risks involved and possible outcomes. It is for this reason that many sports coaches and managers value courage in their players, well above psychological skills and emotional control (Nesti, 2011a).

Another important and frequently used term in professional sport, including football, is ‘spirit’ (Nesti, 2011b). Coaching staff and players often talk about the need to show spirit in times of adversity. Teams call on spirit when they are stuck in the relegation zone, when they find themselves 3–0 down at half time, or when players experience long-term injury or do not get selected for the team on match days. Of course, not all sport psychologists see things this way, and some have explained notions of ‘courage’ and ‘spirit’ by reference to psychological skills (Crust, 2006). However, it is clear that this is not necessar- ily how things are interpreted and understood by those inside elite sporting organizations. In the environment of professional football, spirit is seen as a quality of the person, something intangible yet real, that reveals the inadequacy of describing human actions only in terms of behavioural or cognitive processes (Pieper, 1995).

Sport psychologists who wish to deal with spiritual ideas and concepts in their work will have to look for alternative theoretical foundations for their practice. Examining the theoretical spectrum within psychology and sport

162 Mark Nesti

psychology, we find that it is only those adopting person-centred approaches that take terms like ‘courage’, ‘spirit’ and ‘spirituality’ seriously (Ravizza, 2002). Humanistic, phenomenological, existential and some forms of Jungian psychol- ogy recognize that the philosophical concept of free will must be part of an empirically sound definition of human being. In contrast, mainstream sport psychology, both in its academic form and professional practice, is derived from behaviourist, trait and cognitive psychological approaches. These are all, con- sciously or unconsciously, based on natural scientific foundations involving a complete rejection of the idea of human free will and associated terms. It is for this reason that, despite being mentioned daily at training grounds in the English Premier League, words like ‘hope’, ‘courage’ and ‘faith’ are very rarely found in the mainstream academic sport psychology literature. This is especially the case in English-speaking countries compared to places where an orthodox Christian or Catholic anthropology of the human person has a greater influence on theorizing and practice in the human and social sciences. In those countries a greater number of philosophers (Marcel, 1948) and psychologists (Caruso, 1964) have based their work on the idea that the human person is made up of mind, body and soul. Where the sport psychologist acknowledges this idea of the human person, the psychological understanding of human being should be much closer to that of the chaplain regardless of their religious or faith tradition. In addition, if the sport psychologist’s work is also guided by approaches such as those strands of existential psychology that place an emphasis on meaning (Frankl, 1984), or on spirit (Kierkegaard, 1980), one will have the reassurance of knowing one’s professional philosophy and practice is based on a coherent theoretical position (Slife, Hope and Nebeker, 1999). This shared theology of the person should make fruitful cooperation between the psychologist and chaplain a viable reality. This is especially true if the chaplain is an adherent of one of the majority monotheistic religions where considerable agreement exists concerning definitions of the human person.

Performance or care?

One of the most important recent debates in applied sport psychology centres on whether work should be exclusively directed at performance enhancement or more focused on athlete care. Within the literature, the dominant view is that sport psychologists must attend only to performance-related matters. The reasoning behind this position is that sport psychology theory and research is aimed at helping athletes to improve, to develop better psychological skills and achieve their goals. According to Brady and Maynard (2010), clubs, teams and individual sports performers expect these improvements from their work with sport psychologists, and it is through serving in this capacity that psycholo- gists can offer an effective professional and ethical service. Opposing this view, Andersen (2009) claims that applied practice should focus on athlete care alone. The rationale for this position is based upon arguments surrounding measure- ment and the needs of individuals operating in competitive sport. Andersen

Serving the spirit? 163

suggests that because it is impossible to reliably identify and measure the impact a sport psychologist can have on athlete performance, we must abandon our interest in this factor and instead address ourselves to supporting the athlete as they experience the rigours of performance sport. It could be argued that sport psychologists who adopt this kind of practice and professional philoso- phy would be better placed working constructively with and alongside sports chaplains. Indeed, a focus on the ordinary human needs of the athlete rather than simply their sporting performance, especially when delivered through a pastorally oriented approach, is very close to the working practices of the club chaplain.

In my previous work, I have suggested that although the ‘care only’ perspec- tive might appeal to some chaplains, it is highly unlikely that it would be wel- comed by those within elite level professional sports where performance and winning are central concerns for all (Nesti, 2011b). Based on my experiences of delivering sport psychology inside a number of English Premier League clubs over several seasons, I have observed that almost everyone at those clubs (including the club chaplain) sees themselves as helping the team to become more successful. While the coaches might do this through their tactical acumen, the medical team via their skilled application of injury prevention programmes, and the fitness staff by the design of scientifically supported strength and con- ditioning interventions, the sport psychologist and chaplain are not exempt in this respect. It is very difficult to imagine why an organization operating at the highest level in professional sport would hire a sport psychologist with no interest in helping the team, staff and athletes to perform better. Of course, this does not mean that it is impossible for the psychologist to demonstrate a car- ing approach to those with whom he or she works, but it highlights the need to strike a balance in intensely competitive sporting cultures between meeting individual human need and offering support for performance enhancement. It is the sport psychologist adopting this type of perspective who will be the one hired by the clubs and who will be most able to work creatively and positively with the club chaplain. In addition, it is highly likely that most chaplains in pro- fessional football clubs feel that they also contribute in subtle and less explicit ways to team and individual performance. After all, providing care and support for someone usually enhances their general psychological, physical and spiritual health, which, in turn, may have a positive impact upon their performance of professional roles.

Spirituality and religious belief

English Premier League football is a global phenomenon. At the start of the 2013/14 footballing season over 70 per cent of first team players at the 20 Premier League clubs were non-UK citizens. At the top clubs this figure is even higher, and it is common to see starting line-ups containing no UK-based players at all. This level of international diversity is not as marked amongst sup- port staff where the majority of managers, coaches, sports science and medical

164 Mark Nesti

personnel are from the UK. These are very important issues for sport psycholo- gists and chaplains for a number of reasons. First, it means that there are usually a significant number of players professing an allegiance to one faith tradition or another. Second, given that support staff come mainly from the UK, it is often the case that significantly fewer of these individuals possess an active religious faith. In this sense, levels of religiosity and belief amongst support staff broadly reflect the societal backdrop from which they emanate. In common with most other Western countries, the UK has become a largely secular culture and one that has increasingly turned away from an affinity with organized religion (Voas and Crockett, 2005; Theos, 2013). Thirdly, it is common to find chaplains work- ing with players from a variety of faiths, the largest being Catholic Christianity and Islam. Indeed, it is entirely possible that a chaplain could work in a club where no co-religionists exist amongst the playing staff, although there may be individuals in senior management positions or on the commercial side of the club, who share the chaplain’s religious affiliations. This unusual situation will bring many challenges and opportunities for the chaplain as they fulfil their role. The chaplain will be in a very privileged position to help the coaching and sports science staff to understand the demands placed upon players on account of the various religious obligations and practices to which they may adhere. For example, there is little to guide clubs in terms of how they might manage the dietary and other demands a player may encounter during Ramadan. The chap- lain can be an important conduit between the players and the staff to ensure that the dictates and demands of particular religious beliefs are respected and accommodated in a way that does not undermine performance and competi- tive edge. The chaplain may be invited to events like staff away-days to help the coaching team understand more about the central role of religious belief and practice in the lives of players. This type of activity is something that occurs in high-level, professional football and is welcomed at some clubs (Nesti, 2010). In my experience, the sport psychologist can play an important role in facilitat- ing this type of information exchange and educational opportunity by inviting the chaplain to attend and speak at away-days or to take part in smaller, more focused meetings with key first team staff.

Common ground in adversity

The sport psychologist can become an important ally in the work of the chap- lain in a number of practical ways. Where the psychologist conceives of their work as being both about player performance and caring for the person, it is much easier for them to develop a close working relationship with the chap- lain. Again, to return to an earlier discussion, this becomes altogether more feasible – and indeed professionally consistent – if the psychologist is guided in their activity by human science conceptualizations of psychology (Van Deurzen and Arnold-Baker, 2005) and uses models derived from humanistic and other person-centred approaches. The sport psychologist who uses one-to-one confi- dential counselling sessions as part of their work should discover that they share much common ground with the chaplain. This will also be apparent if the sport

Serving the spirit? 165

psychologist is interested equally in football-related matters and the player’s life beyond the training ground. And finally, greater professional respect and mutual sharing of important information will increase if the sport psycholo- gist is committed to carrying out longer-term developmental work rather than using ‘quick-fix’ mental training interventions to remove or alleviate symptoms (Corlett, 1996b).

During those inevitable periods when a team or club is facing crisis the chaplain could benefit considerably from the visible and active support of the sport psychologist. It is not uncommon for some staff to see the chaplain as someone whose interests are very different from their own. At such times there may even be attempts to keep the chaplain away from the training ground or to make him or her feel less welcome than they would during more fruit- ful periods. This tension is unavoidable when one group of people is under intense pressure in relation to their performance and the inability to improve club circumstance quickly may result in job loses. However, paradoxically, it is in these frequently encountered moments that the chaplain may find that they are most in demand by players if not staff. When clubs and teams are facing adversity, players in particular can be placed under intense scrutiny. Passions run high, communication commonly becomes abrasive, scapegoating takes place and team spirit is strained (Nesti & Littlewood, 2011). The pastoral care offered to players in these arduous situations is important at a human level, and may even go some way to helping indirectly with performance enhancement.

There will be many occasions when players and staff seek support from the chaplain because of hardship in their personal lives. For example, the chaplain may be key to helping a player’s family deal with the illness of a child, the death of a close relative, or the consequences of an accident. Sometimes when new players join a club, especially if they come from a different culture, they might encounter social dislocation, severe homesickness and disorientation. At Premier League level, this can be experienced even more acutely because of a range of unique factors such as the levels of media interest in players’ lives and the accompanying lack of privacy, language and communication problems and unfamiliar cultural practices. On top of this, players might have to quickly adjust to new ways of playing and training and to winning over teammates and fans. In these situations, the chaplain, may be viewed by the troubled player as someone who is prepared to approach them as a fellow human being rather than a highly paid, elite professional footballer. This type of support from the chaplain and the sport psychologist working in partnership can be highly ben- eficial to the team and can help individual players settle in more easily and contribute more fully (see Gamble, Hill and Parker, 2013).

Catholic perspectives

Where the sport psychologist is a Catholic working in English Premier League football, there are some opportunities that may be more easily afforded them than may be the case with a practitioner of another faith tradition or secular belief. Given the large numbers of Spanish, French, South American, Italian,

166 Mark Nesti

Irish, Polish and Dutch players in the English Premier League, the sport psy- chologist will find that many of these individuals are practising Catholics or have some understanding of this religion having lived in traditionally Catholic cultures. It is not uncommon for these players to ask the sport psychologist as well as the chaplain for information about Mass times, locations of churches and, if they have children, access to local Catholic schools. These can be very powerful ways for both the chaplain and the sport psychologist to build rela- tionships with and to begin to support players. Many clubs have a compre- hensive induction process in place for new players and their families; this may involve the chaplain and the sport psychologist as well as other specialist staff like liaison officers and coaches.

The famous psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung (1963) claimed that through- out his professional life, he very rarely worked with any Catholic patients in his clinic despite this group representing around 40 per cent of the Swiss popula- tion at that time. He suggested that this was not necessarily a comment on the mental health of this section of Swiss society, but was likely due to the psychological benefits associated with the sacrament of confession. In com- menting on the psychotherapeutic value of engaging in a confidential and private encounter where the believer speaks about their failures to another trusted figure, Jung pointed out that the unburdening of guilt resulting from this type of dialogue in confession can have a profound and positive impact on an individual’s psychological state. The Catholic sport psychologist guided by a personalist perspective in their work and with personal experience of the encounter that takes place in confession and reconciliation, may draw on this experience. This knowledge, working in a subtle and implicit way, may then influence the approach taken to dialogue in one-to-one sessions with players. This can help to reassure the player that no matter what is discussed, complete confidentiality will be maintained, something that they have encountered when attending confession or by knowing about the seal of the confessional. This is especially important given that it is quite common for players to want to discuss a number of delicate and very sensitive matters. These might include feeling anger and frustration at not being selected for the team, objecting to how the manager and coaches are treating them, doubting their own ability to consist- ently meet expectations concerning performance and a range of non-football related, broader life challenges that they would rather keep completely private from management, support staff and teammates.

Sometimes the sport psychologist and the chaplain can work together to provide players with opportunities to meet their spiritual and religious needs that are not attached to any one specific faith tradition. For example, some clubs are beginning to establish prayer rooms and private spaces where players and staff, regardless of their religious affiliation, can find a place for quiet reflec- tion and prayer. Again, this is something that the sport psychologist following a person-centred and holistic working philosophy can help to create alongside the club chaplain. This type of fruitful partnership between the chaplain and the sport psychologist can be a highly visible way to demonstrate that the club

Serving the spirit? 167

is committed to meeting the deepest, most personal needs of their players and supporting their quest for performance excellence. This level of cooperation between chaplain and sport psychologist can encourage players and staff to reflect on their own identity and represent a gentle but persuasive reminder that there are more important things than winning football matches and succeed- ing as a professional footballer. I would respectfully suggest that some of those things are health, family, love and finding meaning in one’s life.

Concluding comments

Sport psychologists operating inside professional football clubs have much to gain from developing strong and close professional relationships with club chaplains. If this means that the academic discipline of sport psychology needs to confront the limitations of its underlying scientific foundations and recog- nize its philosophical antecedents, then this should be welcomed. If this were to happen, chaplains operating in professional football would have provided a great service to those sport psychologists who conceive their role as helpers of persons who just happen to be professional sports performers. The chaplain’s pastoral role and care for souls extends to everyone at the club; staff and players alike. Best practice for sport psychologists must follow this lead from chaplains, not only because it is ethically sound to do so, but because it is the optimum way to support performance enhancement.

As I have argued previously, there is much resistance from within academic quarters to sport psychologists being involved in matters spiritual and religious (Nesti, 2011b). However, these issues are very important for some players and staff (Nesti, 2011a) and therefore should not be ignored by sport psychologists just because they lack a religious faith or feel uncomfortable about people with a spiritual outlook on life (see Sarkar, Hill and Parker, 2014). This is not consistent with the importance of toleration and inclusivity that we hear about so often from psychologists and other social scientists. Sport psychologists are not being asked to provide a religious or spiritual answer to the problems faced by their clients; this would require them to go beyond their professional role. However, it could be considered a missed opportunity if the psychologist does not fully support the work of the chaplain in professional football. Not only will this assist the sport psychologist to understand the players and staff team in a more rounded way, but it might also cause them to reflect more deeply on their own philosophy of practice and to examine the sources of meaning that guide them both personally and professionally.

References

Andersen, M.B. (2009). ‘Performance Enhancement as a Bad Start and a Dead End: A Paren- thetical Comment on Mellalieu and Lane’, Sport and Exercise Scientist, 20: 12–14.

Brady, A., and I. Maynard (2010). ‘At Elite Level the Role of the Sport Psychologist is Entirely about Performance Enhancement’, Sport and Exercise Psychology Review, 6: 59–66.

168 Mark Nesti

Brown, G., and P. Potrac (2009). ‘ “You’ve not made the grade son”: De-Selection and Iden- tity Disruption in Elite Level Youth Football’, Soccer and Society, 10: 143–59.

Caruso, I.A. (1964). Existential Psychology: From Analysis to Synthesis, London: Darton, Long- man & Todd.

Corlett, J. (1996a). ‘Sophistry, Socrates and Sport Psychology’, Sport Psychologist, 10: 84–94. — (1996b). ‘Virtues Lost: Courage in Sport’, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 23: 45–57. Crust, L. (2006). ‘The Myth of Spirituality in Sport’, Online Journal of Sport Psychology, 8:

17–31. Fifer, A., K. Henschen, D. Gould, and K. Ravizza (2008). ‘What Works when Working with

Athletes’, Sport Psychologist, 22: 356–77. Frankl, V. (1984). Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, New York: Simon &

Schuster. Gamble, R., D.M. Hill and A. Parker (2013). ‘ “Revs and Psychos’: Impact and Interaction

of Sport Chaplains and Sport Psychologists within English Premiership Soccer’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 25: 249–64.

Jung, C.G. (1963). Modern Man in Search of a Soul, London: Tan. Kierkegaard, S. (1980). The Concept of Anxiety, Princeton. NJ: Princeton University Press. Ladd, T., and J.A. Mathison (1999). Muscular Christianity: Evangelical Protestants and the Devel-

opment of American Sport, Ada, MI: Baker Books. Marcel, G. (1948). The Philosophy of Existence, London: Harvill. Maslow, A.H. (1962). Toward a Psychology of Being, Princeton, NJ: D. van Nostrand. Nesti, M. (2010). Psychology in Football: Working with Elite and Professional Players, London:

Routledge. — (2011a). ‘Phenomenology and Sport Psychology: Back to the Things Themselves!’,

Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 5/3: 285–96. — (2011b). ‘Sporting Recommendations for Spiritual Encounters: Delivering Sport Psy-

chology inside the English Premier League’, Physical Culture, Sport Studies and Research, 52/1: 14–21.

Nesti and M. Littlewood (2011). ‘Making your Way in the Game: Boundary Situations within England’s Professional Football World’, in D. Gilbourne and M.B. Andersen (eds), Critical Essays in Applied Sport Psychology, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 233–50.

Pargament, K.I. (1999). ‘The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality? Yes and No’, Interna- tional Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 9/1: 3–16.

Parry, J., M. Nesti and N. Watson (2011). Theology, Ethics and Transcendence in Sports, London: Routledge.

Pieper, J. (1995). Divine Madness: Plato’s Case against Secular Humanism, San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

— (1998). Leisure: The Basis of Culture, South Bend, IN: St Augustine’s Press. Ravizza, K.H. (2002). ‘A Philosophical Construct: A Framework for Performance Enhance-

ment’, International Journal of Sport Psychology, 33/1: 4–18. Robinson, S. (2007). ‘Spirituality: A Story so Far’, in S.J. Parry et al. (eds), Sport and Spirituality:

An Introduction, New York: Routledge, 7–21. Ryba, T.V., and H.K. Wright (2005). ‘From Mental Game to Cultural Praxis: A Cultural

Studies Model’s Implications for the Future of Sport Psychology’, Quest, 57/2: 192–212. Sarkar, M., D.M. Hill and A. Parker (2014). ‘Working with Religious and Spiritual Athletes:

Ethical Considerations for Sport Psychologists’, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15: 580–7. Slife, B.D., C. Hope and R.S. Nebeker (1999). ‘Examining the Relationship between Reli-

gious Spirituality and Psychological Science’, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 39/2: 51–85. Theos (2013). The Spirit of Things Unseen: Belief in Post-Religious Britain, London, Theos.

Serving the spirit? 169

Van Deurzen, E., and C. Arnold-Baker (2005). Existential Perspectives on Human Issues: A Handbook for Therapeutic Practice, New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Vealey, R.S. (2006). ‘Smocks and Jocks outside the Box: The Paradigmatic Evolution of Sport and Exercise Psychology’, Quest, 58/1: 128–59.

Vitz, P. (1997). Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Voas, D., and A. Crockett (2005). ‘Religion in Britain: Neither Believing nor Belonging’,

Sociology, 39/1: 11–28. Watson, N.J., and M. Nesti (2005). ‘The Role of Spirituality in Sport Psychology Consult-

ing: An Analysis and Integrative Review of Literature’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17: 228–39.