Keeping Your Head in the Game

The only psychotherapist to work within a professional football club . . . It is not just extremes of behaviour that trouble him. The more he peers inside sport - with up to 40 footballers, plus leading rugby players, cricketers and jockeys among his clients - he sees forbidding cultures . . . This is beyond patching up athletes with an encouraging word to get through a Saturday afternoon, or the odd team talk from a sports psychologist . . . He is selling the best of all worlds; a balanced athlete who is more self-aware and, therefore, more productive . . . Happier players play better . . . he concludes. He will find no argument here -- Matt Dickinson * The Times * the first book of its kind, which peers into the confidential world of athletes' therapy sessions - and offers insights into boosting or treating mental health -- Etan Smallman * inews.co.uk * Love this book. It's about time someone wrote about the emotional life of athletes and Gary really does this justice. These are some cracking tales and it's a great read -- Nigel Owens MBE, rugby union referee This is a book for anyone interested in competitive sport, what people have to do to get to the top and what that can do to the human psyche -- Catherine Jackson, journalist and former editor of Therapy Today Absolutely fascinating . . . a genuine MUST for anyone interested in the human side of sport . . . very readable and accessible . . . It is comforting to realise that everyone - from global superstar to young aspirant - suffers from profound uncertainty of one sort or another . . . This book will promote greater kindness and understanding . . . Heartily recommended for any 'thinking' sports-lover -- Peter Drury, football commentator It's amazing how football clubs invest in repairing the bodies of their players whilst largely ignoring their minds. Elite athletes are just as fragile as the rest of us. Happily change is on the way and this must-read book will only accelerate that -- Jon Champion, football commentator