Investigating the Effectiveness of Mind-Body Therapies for Addressing Burnout and Optimizing Wellbeing in Competitive Athletes

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief mindfulness meditation or clinical hypnosis intervention for optimizing wellbeing in uninjured competitive athletes. Additionally, the study aims to investigate potential psychological factors underlying the effects of these mind-body therapies.

Participation will take approximately 7.5 hours in total. Participants will be required to:

1. Complete a daily online survey that will take 3 minutes for 25 consecutive days.
2. Listen to 5 20-minute treatment sessions across 5 consecutive days. The surveys and treatment sessions can be done from a location of the participant's choosing.
3. Visit the laboratory at the University of Queensland 4 times throughout the study, each for a 30-minute to 1-hour session. During these visits, they will participate in a survey and an experimental pain stimulus. The experimental pain stimulus involves pressing a small metal plate onto the inside of the participant's forearm and slowly increasing the temperature until it reaches a temperature that they find painful.
4. Participate in a brief 30-minute interview with the experimenter via zoom.

Eligibility

To be eligible for participation in this study, participants must:

1. Be a competitive athlete who has participated in a competition in the past six months and is currently training for a future or ongoing competition.
2. Be competing at a level beyond recreational or casual participation (e.g., regional, national, or international competitions) and/or are a member of a competitive team or club.
3. Currently be experiencing burnout (e.g., physical, cognitive or emotional exhaustion/fatigue).
4. Be over the age of 18,
5. Fluent in English,
6. Have access to the internet on a computer or smartphone and a set of earphones or headphones.

Athletes will not be eligible to participate if they:

1. Have a current or previous injury sustained within the last 12 months,
2. Have participated in a thermal pain stimulus experiment in the past.

Participant benefits

Participants will be compensated for their time at a rate of $20 per hour ($150 for 7.5 hours). Participating athletes will also benefit from access to a psychological intervention that has the potential to reduce burnout, optimise well-being, prevent injury, enhance performance, or help with pain management during recovery and return to play.

Register your interest

To enrol and assess eligibility, please visit the below link or contact Nicole Rickerby at: nicole.rickerby@uq.net.au. 

Register your interest

This study has been approved by The University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee [Approval No. 2023/HE00360].