Critical Issues Involving Male Consultants and Female Athletes

Abstract

This article presents and examines a number of critical issues facing male psychology consultants when working with female athletes. It focuses on potential problems associated with cross-sex consulting in sport psychology, including such topics as developing and maintaining a professional relationship, ethics, range of services provided, and delivery of services. Ethical issues of cross-sex consulting are discussed and include sexual relationships, dependency, bonding, and the father figure syndrome. A brief section of this article provides insights on how to be effective in cross-sex consulting. Finally, a number of practical guidelines are provided on how males can become effective sport psychology consultants to female athletes.