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臺灣運動心理學報
第十三期，53-69 頁 (2008) Ethical issues in sport psychology services
Bulletin of Sport and Exercise Psychology of Taiwan 臺灣運動心理學報
Society for Sport and Exercise Psychology of Taiwan 臺灣運動心理學會
Volume 13, pp.53-69 (2008) 第十三期, 53-69 頁 (2008)

Ethical issues in sport psychology services: Dual

relationships, confidentiality, and competence
boundaries

1 2
Chung-ju Huang Tsung-min Hung

1 2
Taipei Physical Education College National Taiwan Normal University

Abstract

Ethical concerns in sport psychology have been recorded in professional journals.

The purpose of this article is to delineate typical ethical issues that have been found
while sport psychology consultants provide their services for the Olympic teams and
student athletes on campus, such as multiple-role relationships, confidentiality, and
competence boundaries. Based on relevant literature, this article addresses prospective
ethical principles of sport psychology work that are needed to be emphasized in the
training session, while a certification system of sport psychology consultancy unfolds
in Taiwan. Moreover, professionals interested in applied sport psychology can obtain
practical information on major ethical issues through this article. Concerning ethical
considerations while attempting sport psychology consultation will be helpful to
guarantee a high quality service and promote the expertise of sport psychologists.

Key words: ethics, counseling, Olympic athlete, student-athlete

主要聯絡者：黃崇儒 臺北市立體育學院球類運動學系
聯絡地址：臺北市忠誠路二段 101 號
E-mail：crhwang@tpec.edu.tw

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Since the growth of professional psychologists who choose to work with

individual athletes, teams, and large athletic organizations, it has become clear that
practitioners of sport psychology face many of these same challenges as those of other
applied realms. One of these challenges is ethical concerns that have been recently
received attention within specific journals of sport psychology or psychology (e. g.,
Brown & Cogan, 2006; Haberl & Peterson, 2006; Hays, 2006; Moore, 2003). Based
on the perspective of the American Psychological Association (APA), ethics is
defined as the rules or standards managing the conduct of members of a profession
(Committee on Professional Practice and Standards, 2003). At the same time, ethics is
referred to as a lasting awareness of one's knowledge, beliefs, values, and practices. In
order to boost sport psychology as a profession, the ethical considerations in practical
services should be necessarily highlighted. However, for the sport psychologists,
ethical challenges not only cover those typically faced by traditional clinical and
counseling psychologists but also those dilemmas that emerge from the unique sport
situation requiring particular service demands (Moore, 2003). According to previous
relevant literature, for those who are interested in entering the field of applied sport
psychology, there have been several ethical issues that have emerged, where there is a
need to be precautious so as to maintain quality services. The primary topics to
consider include issues of confidentiality, use of informed consent, practicing within
boundaries of competence, terminating the practitioner-client relationship, and
balancing multiple roles, relationships, and organizational demands (Moore, 2003).
Due to the complexity of ethical issues in sport psychology services, this paper
solely focuses on the spectrums comprising multiple relationships, confidentiality, and
competence boundaries that occur while these services are provided on campus and
for the Olympic teams. Consistent with Moore’s depiction, working with athletes
resembles in living in a small village, where psychologists experience challenges to
confidentiality and the potential occurrence of dual role relationships, because the
small size of these communities facilitates contact between psychologists and their
clients (Moore, 2003). In APA’s Ethics Codes (APA, 2002), psychologists are
encouraged to avoid entering into a multiple relationship with clients, to keep
confidentiality for clients, and to work within competence in an effort to reasonably
reduce potential impairment of themselves or harm to the client (Ethical Standard
3.05(a), 4.01). Additionally, the members of the Association for Applied Sport

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Psychology (AASP) are also inspired to be always sensitive to the potential harmful if
unintended effects of social or other nonprofessional contacts in their work and on
those persons with whom they deal, and to be obligated to uphold and take reasonable
precautions to respect the confidentiality rights of those with whom they work.
Moreover, sport psychologists from different training backgrounds must deliver
services, teach, and conduct research only within the boundaries of their competence
(AASP, no date). Accordingly, sport psychology consultants who are not aware of the
ethical principles in their profession may be involved in malpractice which results in a
bad reputation of harming or exploiting the other party. In fact, if sport psychologists
violate the ethical regulations and then cause damage to their clients, they may be at
risk of facing the tort suit or risk of the expulsion from the professional associations.
It is important to note that professionals and those interested in applied sport
psychology are expected to be mindful of learning the specific ethical issues that have
recently occurred in this field. In the following sections, this paper attempts to discuss
three ethical concerns in sport psychology services: dual relationship, confidentiality,
and competence boundaries.

Dual Relationship
While working with athletic teams and sports organizations that are always small
communities of individuals, sport psychologists are inevitably keep in frequent
contact with athletes, coaches, and management staffs. The problem derived from this
close interaction may be the appearance of dual relationships between sport
psychologists and their clients. Typically, multiple relationships may occur
throughout practice and intervention in sport psychology, perhaps creating ethical
dilemmas for involved parties. Based on relevant literature (Haberl & Peterson, 2006;
Watson, Clement, Harris, Leffingwell, & Hurst, 2006), this part addresses three major
types of dual relationships that occur between sport psychology practitioners and
athletes: companion-practitioner, consultant-coach, and teacher-practitioner
multiple-role relationships.

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Companion-Practitioner Multiple-Role Relationship

To work effectively within a team sport setting, it is important to be considered

part of the group, something that may not happen for the sport psychology consultants
if they are just perceived as a neutral outsider. Whilst providing services to those elite
athletes, for example the Olympic athletes, all of the sport psychology consultants
regularly interact and travel with the teams in the training centers or on the road for
competitions, where long-term relationships are built up. Basically, under these
circumstances, practitioners are housed in close proximity to the athletes, eat meals
with the team, attend practices to observe, and work individually with athletes and
coaches. Meanwhile, individual or group consulting and education services are
provided by sport psychology practitioners, such as arousal regulation, goal setting,
imagery, concentration, leadership, and so forth. With this long-term exposure to the
presence of sport psychologists, athletes and coaches may be willing to accept them as
being part of the team quickly and feel more comfortable with the roles psychologists
play (Haberl & Peterson, 2006). Once this trust relationship is solidified, the effect of
sport psychology services on athletes or the team should be amplified as well.
Furthermore, quick and timely interventions are usually effective at the moment that
athletes motivate themselves to learn or do something different from what they
normally do, or when they reach technical and psychological bottlenecks and
setbacks.
Although there are visible advantages to this service through increasing contact
opportunity and trust, there are disadvantages that have been acknowledged as well.
As already mentioned, frequent interpersonal interactions in small groups may
challenge the traditional boundaries that psychologists maintain with their clients. As
a result of long term working with athletes and coaches, it is almost unavoidable that
these interactions move from the professional to the social level and back again
(Haberl & Peterson, 2006). Thus, the practitioners should appropriately tell the roles
they play under these two settings to uphold both their profession and the
confidentiality of their clients. Occasionally, multiple roles get the practitioner into
interpersonal conflicts. For example, a consultant might work with two athletes at the
same team, both of whom look for help on performance enhancement, but compete
for the same starting position and have an interpersonal conflict. It makes the

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consulting service even harder to just focus on performance and relationship issues
while these athletes begin to distrust the consultant as a result of efforts that the
consultant exerts to support their rival. Another concern with so much familiarity and
time spent with athletes is that sport psychologists may develop identification with the
team that poses a potential threat to service. That threat becomes apparent when the
team’s losses and triumphs become the personal losses and triumphs of the sport
psychologist. In such a situation, the vague boundary may cause confusion to the
objectivity of a sport psychologist’s judgment (Andersen, Van Raalte, & Brewer,
2001). Therefore, how to provide services form a neutral standpoint is a lesson that
sport psychologist needs to learn.

Teacher-Practitioner Multiple-Role Relationship

In a survey of AASP’s members (Watson, Clement, et al., 2006), over 60% sport
psychology consultants revealed that they had experienced in some type of dual-role
relationships in services on campus, 71.4% of whom experienced teacher-practitioner
dual relationships in their work. However, 80% of the professionals considered this
teacher-practitioner relationship be appropriate and unharmful; however, they needed
to be aware and cautious of the situation. In fact, the majority of sport psychology
professionals are likely to be employed in some type of university setting, where the
teacher-practitioner dual-role relationships may occur more frequently than in other
professional realms. In addition, practitioners in sport psychology seem more likely to
choose to involve themselves in multiple-role relationships than those in other fields.
The lack of emphasis placed on ethical education in sport psychology and lack of
explication in the ethical standards of sport psychology seem to be the issues which
need to be noted (Etzel, Watson, & Zizzi, 2004). Only 64.4% of sport psychology
programs in the United States provided courses regarding ethics education, however,
most of the programs just provided this training in courses where ethics was not the
primary focus (Watson, Zizzi, & Etzel, 2006). Specifically, with regard to the
perception of the appropriateness of multiple-role relationships, AASP certified
consultants who were licensed mental health practitioners were less likely to report an
involvement in a multiple-role relationship, but were more concerned about the
effects of this relationship than those who were not licensed (Watson, Clement, et al.,

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2006). Coupled with the lack of adequate training in ethics within most sport
psychology programs is the perception of sport psychology practice as more
educational and less clinically based than psychology or counseling (McCullagh &
Noble, 2002). This viewpoint, along with the general opinion that athletes are
healthier and less likely to be maneuvered than non-athletes, may make practitioners
feel as though they have less impact over athlete clients, making multiple-role
relationships more reasonable with this population (Watson, Clement, et al.).

Consultant-Coach Multiple-Role Relationships

In the realm of applied sport psychology, the consultant-coach multiple-role

relationships have received some research notice. Limitations, advantages, and ethical
concerns of this particular relationship have been discussed. Coaches who occupy the
roles of sport psychology consultant and coach at the same time may incorporate
psychological skills for performance enhancement into their training easily, regularly,
and efficiently (Buceta, 1993). Smith (1992) mentioned that because the sport
consultant-coach has already established rapport and familiarity with a team, there
could be less resistance from athletes to accept psychological skills training to
enhance their performance, compared to athletes who have another professional rather
than the coach providing relevant mental training to the team. Further, if the coach
provides both coaching and mental skills training to a team by himself, potential
scheduling conflicts and communication difficulties will be eliminated to minimum.
Additionally, relying on long-term familiarity with athletes and sport expertise of the
consultant-coach, he or she may be better able to judge which mental skills are most
helpful for the athletes or the team because of an understanding of the demands
needed in their sport (Smith, 1992). However, the disadvantage of this relationship
has been found that the practitioner-coach may encounter time restrictions from
performing two separate roles. This time limitation may eventually compel the
individual to sacrifice the time necessary to achieve the duties of both roles, thus
impairing the quality of work in both areas. It will also be difficult to deal with an
int erpersonal conflict t hat occurs between t he team members and t his
consultant-coach as a result of lack of another sport psychology professional being
provided. Therefore, the conflict between athletes and coach may last potentially for a

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longer time and become more and more seriously.

Confidentiality

Try to imagine a scenario where an individual serves as a sport psychologist for a

women’s basketball team. When this psychologist comes across the coach at the
restaurant, he or she asks the psychologist “How is Carrie going? She looks not so
good these days.” How does this psychologist respond properly to maintain his/her
professionalism and to protect the team member’s confidentiality? On the other hand,
while athletes notice that their psychologist makes frequent contact with the coach,
then they may start to distrust this psychologist’s credibility that makes them feel
hesitate to disclose sensitive materials that they do not want to share with the coach.
As sport psychologists work with athletes and sport organizations, in such a small
community, it is difficult for them to avoid facing those situations noted above. Since
so much of the service delivery takes place in public or during practice in which the
topics discussed may start moving into rather sensitive areas, confidentiality is
typically a concern for the psychologists. In some cases, the athlete may not pay
attention to who may be listening around, but the sport psychologist should be
cautious while discussing confidential material in a site where others may overhear
conversations. Andersen et al. (2001) proposed two suggestions for dealing with these
situations. The first one is that the sport psychologist and the athlete try to move out
of earshot of anyone else and continue on, discussing the sensitive material in a
peripatetic session. The second option is to attempt to schedule another time at
another place to talk over this matter. Moreover, as sport psychologists offer services
to individual sports, the confidentiality concerns may be different from team sports
where one’s personal characteristics need to be investigated and adapted to fit in with
the team. Obviously, sport psychologists should pay more attention to the
confidentiality issues while working with team sports than individual sports, as a
result of frequent and close relationship within the members of team sports. Further, if
confidentiality concerns arise because of the public nature of service, the psychologist
can refer the client to someone less public. For instance, an athlete worries about
being seen around the sport psychologist by other athletes but still needs some

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treatment. Taking convenience and availability into account, the psychologist may
refer this athlete to another reliable trained sport psychologist.
In addition, under most of the circumstances, sport psychology practitioners are
hired by a sport organization or another third party (parents or coaches), it is
especially important that the sport psychologist not only focus on the individual’s
demands but also consider fulfilling the expectation and goals of the organization or
the third party. Thus, the professional cannot expect that general confidentiality
principles may apply when working with athletes who are under the jurisdiction of a
sport organization. Ethical Standards 12 of the AASP Ethics Code (AASP, no date)
requires that members providing psychological services to a person or entity at the
request of a third party/organization (such as when working for a coach, a college
athletic department or national training center) present to the client, at the onset of the
consulting relationship, his or her professional roles and responsibilities, identify the
recipients of information, and discuss any and all limits of confidentiality that are part
of the psychologist's employment contract with the organization. In that sense,
clarifying the rules of sport psychology provision from the very beginning will help
all the parties (coaches, athletes, administrators) realize who the client is and how
confidentiality is protected, which serves as a postulation to follow up while
confidential information is requested by any involved party in the future. For example,
a psychologist can clearly explain the rules of all kinds of services (group
presentations, practice observations, one-on-one consultations) in a formal meeting
with a team. Keep reminding athletes of confidentiality will help them understand the
specific role of the sport psychologist on a team (Andersen et al., 2001). If release of
personal information is necessary and warranted by the athlete, practitioners are
encouraged to offer the information that is particularly relevant to the issues being
discussed. Additionally, even though the sport psychologist is employed by the sport
organization, he/she may probably be requested by the coach, who regards athletes as
his own assets, to offer confidential information on athletes. Therefore, it is also
crucial that issues of confidentiality and the role of sport psychologist can be
understood and agreed upon by the coach at the outset of services so that the athlete’s
confidentiality can be guaranteed and the potential embarrassment can be minimized.
At other times, sport psychology service provided to an athlete is disclosed to the
media by the athlete himself/herself. In fact, certain Olympic athletes who

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experienced sport psychology help are quite willing to talk about incorporating sport
psychology into their preparation (Haberl & Peterson, 2006). Once this happens, the
following request from the media is a direct conversation with the sport psychology
consultant- particularly if the athlete just had a successful performance. However, the
reality is that most of sport science professionals prefer to accredit the honor to
coaches and athletes instead of tempting the media spotlight to themselves in these
situations. From the positive viewpoint, if appropriate information is provided, media
attention can be an ideal way to educate the public about typical sport psychology
principles. It is worth noting that these benefits must not come at the expense of
compromising an athlete’s confidentiality. The policy of never talking about or
commenting on an individual athlete, will avoid risks of being misinterpreted or out of
control so as to continue a good consultant-athlete relationship. Often when athletes
perform beyond expectation at the competitions, the sport psychology consultant
receives undue credit from the media. For instance, the media simply and naively
makes the attribution that sport psychology or the sport psychology consultant
personally was what made the difference. Nevertheless, such cause-and-effect
relationships are impossible to ascertain given the complexity of elite athletic
performance. Then, it clearly places the needs of the sport psychology consultant of
self-validation ahead of the athlete (Haberl & Peterson). Without doubt, how to
moderately respond to mass media and protect athletes’ confidentiality at the same
time seems an important lesson that sport psychologists also have to learn.

Practicing Within Areas of Competence

In the AASP Ethics Codes, sport psychology consultants are encouraged to only
work within the fields of their knowledge, education, and training. As numerous
ethical dilemmas may arise during the course of service, the sport psychologist should
attempt to establish clear boundaries at the beginning of consultation. This may
alleviate some ethical concerns before they occur and will set a precondition for future
decision-making and boundary maintenance. For example, in Britain, there are two
different forms of sport psychology consultancy: educational and clinical (Biddle,
Bull, & Seheult, 1992). Educational sport psychology consultants, who are educated
in the sport science programs, usually provide education services for coaches and

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athletes in psychological aspects of sport, as well as mental training programs focused

on performance enhancement. Thus, some of educational consultants may not be
competent in counseling techniques. On the other hand, clinical sport psychologists,
who get their degrees from the counseling or psychology programs, are expected to
have qualifications in clinical psychology to allow them to deal with problematic
behaviors. With such varied educational backgrounds, these two kinds of consultants
are proposed to only work within their competence and not to cross the boundary.
Moreover, what constitutes optimal training for a sport psychology consultant is
still a debated topic. In reality, the field of sport psychology has been traditionally
housed almost entirely within departments of physical education or sport sciences,
with the emphasis on an academically oriented career track. For these sport science
educated practitioners, they must be particularly sensitive to issues of practicing
outside of their competence areas, such as assessment or consultation of abnormal
behaviors (Taylor, 1994). For instance, an individual who has been working with a
female gymnast for traditional performance enhancement consultations may
subsequently recognize the potential existence of an eating disorder of this client. The
sport consultant may be at risk practicing outside of his or her competence area if a
referral is not made to an appropriately eligible psychologist. Since some of the sport
psychologists are not sufficiently trained in assessments of abnormal behaviors, the
decision to use psychological assessments must also be made very carefully. The
inappropriate use of assessment instruments may place the practitioner outside of his
or her area of practice competence and at risk for charges of negligence and
malpractice, and it may increase the risk for the client and cause organizational harm.
Alternatively, a license to practice counseling psychology does not mean that an
individual is skilled in the practice of sport psychology. For example, a psychologist
who specializes in anxiety disorders can engage in depression therapy with an
individual who happens to be an athlete; however, it is clearly inappropriate for a
psychologist to conduct a performance enhancement consultation with a young
swimmer without proper training in that area, due to the specialization of performance
enhancement in sport. Contrarily, a practitioner with specific skills in the fields of
motor learning and development may be better able to know how to enhance athletic
performance and how to meet the demand of this athlete. Furthermore, sport
psychologists should consider referring clients to appropriate professionals if the

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presenting problems are beyond their boundaries. In some cases, practicing outside of
one's area of competence may result from the lack of knowledge for the individual to
recognize the emerging clinical nature of a destructive parent-athlete or coach-athlete
relationship, which may seem worthy of clinical attention.
Importantly, sport psychology consultants must always regard clients’ welfare as
the priority instead of merely endeavoring to enhance their own reputation and
interest, on the basis of their competence. Sport psychologists should carefully
consider how to help with their clients, which instruments to use, and what
intervention their clients need, and conduct appropriate consultation. Regardless,
continuing education should be necessary for sport psychologists trained in sport
sciences programs to enrich their competence, especially in counseling theories,
counseling practice, and counseling techniques that have been deemed significant to
applied sport psychology (Petrie & Watkins, 1994). Additionally, supervision and
regular consultation with experienced sport psychology providers is the most
appropriate strategy for reducing isolation and increasing awareness of practice within
an individual's area of competence.

Summary

So far, a sound certification system for the sport psychology consultant has been
considered important for a long time, and that has been under construction in Taiwan.
Inevitably, various kinds of difficulties may stand ahead in the way of sport
psychology provision when the certification system starts running. Practical
experience from those advanced countries should be borrowed to benefit the
development of this system and future working principles. Undoubtedly, to strengthen
the professionalism of sport psychology providers, ethical guidelines must be
established reasonably. Drawing on information from previous studies, this paper
finally highlights four recommendations that seek to advocate a profound certification
system and encourage sport psychology practitioners to conduct a quality service:
First, with the provision of sport psychology services to athletes, coaches, and
other staff on the same team or student athletes on campus, it seems unavoidable for
the consultants, or the coaches to involve themselves in these multiple-role situations.
For a port psychologist, in order to provide quality services and to avoid ethical

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violation, defining boundaries and emphasizing confidentiality issues as well as role

expectations at the outset and throughout the relationship is extremely important.
Ideally, being able to partner with another sport psychology consultant while on the
road would be an even better solution of dealing with self-care issues in this stressful
environment. It would certainly help to have a second person on hand to better avoid
the risks of multiple relationships. For a coach, it will be even better to have a sport
psychology consultant for the team. Although being a consultant-coach benefits
convenience and efficiency, a diligent coach should provide professional and every
kind of information to help the consultant develop appropriate mental training
programs for his/her team. Further, previous studies suggest that there is consensus
within the field of sport psychology that multiple-role relationships can be ethical if
handled appropriately. However, practitioners still need to be prudent when entering
into a multiple-role relationship, along with attention paid to the warning signs that
problems may exist.
Second, how to maintain confidentiality is really a critical issue in the field of
applied sport psychology. Basically, sport psychologists need to learn the ethical
guidelines regarding confidentiality in the AASP or local related organizations. Then,
they are obligated to take reasonable precautions to maintain confidentiality of their
work, and to keep everything secret unless they get permission from their clients.
Additionally, clients must understand the limitations to their confidentiality before
they make decisions about whether to enter into treatment and whether to disclose
personal information during sessions (Glosoff, Herlihy, Herlihy, & Spence, 1997). In
order to successfully inform the athlete-client of guidelines and limitations to
confidentiality, the consultant must develop and use an appropriate informed consent.
Informed consent can only be given after the sport psychologist provides a description
of the entire service. This includes a description of the intervention, likely benefits
and risks, limits of confidentiality, financial issues, third-party involvement, and to
whom the results will be made available. If the third party is involved, service
limitations must be clearly delineated in order to respect the welfare of both the client
and the organization. Moreover, sport psychologists are encouraged to help coaches or
administrators of the team understand the nature of sport psychology consultation, the
roles of sport psychologists, and the principles of confidentiality protection at the

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outset of services. This will help ensure continued prosperity within the team while
assisting the individual athlete-client in the fulfillment of his or her personal demands.
Third, sport psychologists are requested to assist athletes to reach their human
potential and to maximize their athletic performance within their competence areas
(Silva, Metzler, & Lerner, 2007). In addition to performance enhancement, they
should be capable of recognizing the warning signs and symptoms of
psychopathology and should properly refer those cases to competent trained
professionals. In fact, athletes are human beings, and their lives off the field are
always directly impacting their performance on the field, particularly in high pressure,
competitive circumstances. Therefore, any attempt to split an athlete’s life apart into
sport-related and non-sport-related will be factitious and can make the interaction
between the athlete and consultant awkward. A sport psychologist must try to help the
athlete sense his or her emotional state, cope with stress, and understand how personal
stress can debilitate athletic performance. For the consultants from the departments of
sport sciences and physical education, further counseling knowledge should be given
to strengthen their capability. Continued education is necessary to further the growth
of sport psychology consultants, to enhance their profession and broadens their
competence boundaries.
Fourth, ethical concerns about confidentiality, dual relationship and competence
may come from the fuzzy distinction between personal and professional realms.
However, it is unlikely that any ethics code will be able to answer clearly questions
about all of the many complicated situations that arise in distinguishing between what
is personal and what is professional. While training or selecting sport psychology
consultants, in addition to educating them to obey specific ethical guidelines, what we
can attempt to do has been posed by Pipes and his colleagues (Pipes, Holstein, &
Aguirre, 2005): (a) Issues of character must surely count in selecting and training
future sport psychology consultants. We must select individuals whose character
includes qualities such as honesty, personal responsibility, and integrity. Such
characteristic helps ensure ethical behavior whether one is operating in the personal or
in the professional realm or somewhere in between. (b) Training in ethics in graduate
school should emphasize not just obeying specific ethical standards but should
encourage behavior that is consistent with broader aspirational principles. (c) Lifelong
personal development of the sport psychology consultants is crucial. Personal

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problems and conflicts are recognized as ongoing threats to effective professionalism

both at the practical and conceptual level. Continuing education and self-enrichment
seems like a reasonable tool in the profession’s struggles with conflicts.
The rising popularity of the field of applied sport psychology along with the
unique nature of its service delivery model continue to raise questions about how to
best provide services in an ethical manner. It is hoped that the issues and ideas raised
in this article will contribute to a greater awareness and understanding of the ethical
challenges and pitfalls as they pertain to sport psychology services. Importantly, while
sport psychology service provision may be perceived as being less formal or
structured than traditional psychology service delivery, sport psychology service
providers should not be any less cautious in their pursuit of ethical practice.

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 臺灣運動心理學報
第十三期，53-69 頁 (2008) Ethical issues in sport psychology services

運動心理諮詢的倫理議題：雙重關係、機密性、和能力範圍

1 2
黃崇儒 洪聰敏
1 2
臺北市立體育學院 國立臺灣師範大學

摘要
最近的一些專業期刊中，運動心理諮詢的倫理問題是一個常被討論的議題。
本文主要是描繪運動心理諮商人員在服務奧運選手或是學生運動員時，常會遇到
的倫理問題，包括雙重角色關係、機密性、和能力範圍。在回顧相關文獻之後，
本文嘗試針對未來在臺灣推展運動心理諮詢服務時，可以遵循的工作原則提出建
議。希望透過本文的內容，讓有興趣參與運動心理諮詢工作的專業人員，對相關
倫理問題有較多的認識，期望能促進較高品質的運動心理諮詢服務，提升應用運
動心理學工作者的專業形象。

關鍵詞：倫理、諮商、奧林匹克運動員、學生運動員

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