The Integral+ Advantage
HeadCoach Integral+ builds on evidence-based frameworks for mental training in sport, transcending & including traditional sports psychology.
Evolution, not revolution
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Sports psychology frameworks: a solid foundation
Elite mental training frameworks continue to evolve, with leading sports psychology models organizing mental training into core components:
1. Consultant Philosophy & Model of Practice
- Theoretical foundations (CBT, humanistic, acceptance-based)
- Structured models (MAC, REBT, IZOF)
- Strategies and techniques (imagery, self-talk, goal setting)
2. Four Categories of Mental Skills
- Personal Foundation Skills: Motivation, self-awareness, productive thinking, self-confidence, mindfulness/acceptance, self-compassion
- Performance Skills: Perceptual-cognitive ability, attentional focus, energy management
- Personal Development Skills: Identity achievement, interpersonal competence, lifestyle management, leadership
- Team Skills: Communication, psychological safety, cohesion, team confidence
3. Mental Health as Wellbeing
- Emotional wellbeing (hedonic)
- Psychological wellbeing (eudaimonic functioning)
- Social wellbeing (community connection)
4. Outcomes
- Performance enhancement
- Personal development
- Experience optimization (satisfaction, flow, enjoyment)
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The Integral+ difference: adding developmental altitude
HeadCoach's Integral+ approach includes everything valuable from traditional frameworks and adds crucial dimensions that exponentially increase effectiveness.
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Integral+ shares the evidence base
- Comprehensiveness: Moves beyond just “performance skills” to include development and wellbeing
- Mental health integration: Recognizes that mental performance consultants should address subclinical mental health, not just refer out
- Hard and soft skills: Acknowledges both traditional “toughness” skills and newer acceptance-based approaches
- Process orientation: Shows the flow from philosophy → model → strategies → techniques
- Sociocultural awareness: Acknowledges context matters
+ addresses the developmental gap
- We recognize that mental skills develop along multiple independent lines (cognitive, emotional, moral, interpersonal, somatic) and that athletes can be at different stages on different lines.
- We explicitly assess and work with elite athletes at every developmental stage.
- We reveal 16+ dimensions of unconscious cognitive preferences that determine how athletes take in information, motivate themselves, process performance, and make decisions.
- We systematically address unconscious material, projection, or disowned areas of awareness.
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Integral+ adds for coaches, teams & organisations
- Developmental sophistication — meets athletes where they are
- Integral mapping — across quadrants, stages, lines, states, and types
- Identity architecture — rewires unconscious cognitive biases
- Shadow integration — reclaims disowned capacities
- Vertical development — evolves consciousness, not just skills
- Self-authorship — creates autonomous, expert athletes