Concussion sports psychology

Concussion recovery can take weeks to fully resolve. Since recovery can cause disruption in children’s lives, many of our patients benefit from sport psychology to aid in their recovery. Within our Sports Medicine Program, many of our patients benefit from sport psychology to aid in their recovery.

Our sport psychologists use strategies designed to help your child get back to everyday functioning, gradually increasing positive behaviors and identifying thoughts that may impact progress.

Examples of goals:

• Physical symptoms: reducing headaches, improving sleep
• Behaviors: returning to school full-time and seeing friends
• Thoughts: learning to identify and change fearful thoughts 

Even with treatment, 10-20% of children will require over 1 month to recover post-concussion. The exact cause of the prolonged recovery is unclear, but increased stress is more common in these individuals. Our providers may recommend cognitive behavioral therapy to help cope with this stress.

• Cognitive behavioral therapy is done with a psychologist or other therapist.
  • This therapy involves recognizing the root cause of increased symptoms, and helping the child rebuild coping strategies to help improve them
  • Our psychologist, Dr. Myrvik, has extensive experience working with post-concussion patients
• Please set this visit up by calling the Concussion Line at (414) 337-8000