Working with Parents in Sport were featured on  Sky Sports for their in-depth mini-documentary series “Chasing the Dream” gaining a closer look into the football academy system. Grateful that we were featured in episode 6.

There is such a huge amount of positive work going on within the academy system by a whole myriad of people with a far greater focus on education, holistic development and player care.

Undoubtedly, progress is being made and we are delighted to play a small part in our work supporting academy management, coaches, parents and young players across both the Premier League and Football League.

To watch the whole series you can catch up on demand on Sky TV or on You Tube.

We have continued to meet demand and be inclusive to all who want to work with us from individual grassroots clubs and schools all the way up to Premier League and Football League Academy Programmes, International Sporting Pathways and Olympic Performance Pathways.

It has been such an incredible experience for us being able to visit such a large number of different sporting organisations all over the world and have powerful conversations about the realities of life on the ground for all stakeholders involved.

So much research, learning and sharing has taken place and this can only be a good thing for all of us working in these spaces to create the best possible environments for everyone to thrive in their roles.

2025 promises to be even bigger still with many organisations now booking dates and programmes 12 months in advance to ensure that dates are confirmed as demand continues to grow.

A huge thank you to all of our clients, those who continue to support our work from afar, and a particular thanks to Sarah Murray who continues to add such value to the organisation with her professionalism and delivery.

If you would like to find out more about our work you can check out our brochures here, or if you would like to have a discussion then please email us at workingwithparentsinsport@gmail.com

In the final episode of Season 2, sports psychologist and author Dr Josephine Perry and Gordon MacLelland discuss sports psychology, the importance of mental skills and dig deeper into ‘I Can – The Teenage Athlete’s Guide to Mental Fitness.’

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• The importance of mental health support for teenagers
• Creating a safe place for teenagers to share and note their feelings
• Children not being commodities
• The importance of positive conversations between parents and children
• Focussing on individual processes and values over scores and results
• Changing the narrative in organisations to be more process driven 
• The danger of comparisons
• Improving our ability to handle and recognise certain emotions and having appropriate coping mechanisms
• Confronting and having difficult conversations
• Identifying values at home and what is important to us and managing our conversations with our children to support these values
• Promoting the experiences of our children sporting journey over the outcomes
• The importance of children having autonomy over their sporting experience
• Parents ensuring they remain the parent and do not become another coach

Dr Josephine Perry is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist who founded and directs Performance in Mind, a consultancy integrating expertise in sport psychology and skills in communications. The consultancy supports athletes, stage performers and business leaders to develop the approaches, mental skills and strategies which will help them achieve their ambitions.

Josephine works helps her clients to overcome barriers to their success and wanting to feel more comfortable performing under pressure. Using a mixture of psycho-education and acceptance and commitment theory she works directly with high performers, is bought in to support teams, gives keynote speeches for corporates and sports companies and lectures in Sport Psychology at both the Open University and Roehampton University.

Josephine’s previous career was in media and communications so alongside seeing individuals for psychology support she is regularly commissioned to create compelling and engaging content for the media in the form of feature articles, white papers, research reports, expert comment, blog posts, podcast interviews and speeches. She has published four books to date: Performing under Pressure: Strategies for Sporting Success (Aug 2019), The Psychology of Exercise (Oct 2020), I Can: The Teenage Athlete’s Guide to Mental Fitness (April 2021) and The 10 Pillars of Success on Audible (August 2021)