Developing a philosophy and theoretical framework: Mapping a rich and complex landscape for the brave explorer

Let’s lead with the bad news: It is impossible to practice as a psychologist without making assumptions. A practicing psychologist is trying to: change something inherently ineffable (e.g., someone’s way of thinking/feeling/experiencing), to achieve any number of aims (e.g., performance enhancement, recovery from injury, personal well-being, etc.), with no clear guide on how best to achieve this (e.g., approach/philosophy). This task requires a broad range of assumptions to be made. It is impossible to know for sure that we will ever achieve, with certainty, answers to the above three issues. As such, a sensible solution might be to do nothing-for fear of triggering some cataclysmic chain of events that could never have been predicted (e.g., a ‘butterfl y effect’—Lorenz, 1957). However, athletes and exercisers do appear to need some sort of psychological support, and examples abound of performers suffering when their psychology is somehow wrong, benefi tting when their psychology is right, and also benefi tting from the advice of a sport, exercise, and performance psychologist (SEPP). So how should we proceed?