THE ROLE OF A PSYCHOTHERAPIST IN A FOOTBALL LEAGUE CLUB

A 13 year old boy sat opposite me – his head bowed in the small counselling room. He said.

“I’m gonna do it an’ all – I mean it – I’ve written the note to Mum saying goodbye and I’ve got the tablets – you won’t see me again after today.”

Undisclosed Player

Before working in a football club I’ve worked as a psychotherapist embedded within state schools in the south of England. My job there was to work with underachieving pupils both behaviorally and academically.

Tommy (not his real name), was quite typical of the students I was working with. Very bright although
underachieving, and eeking out a living selling soft drugs locally, but found himself in the impossibly traumatizing situation of being caught in the crossfire of the messy divorce between his Mum and Dad…