The Price She Pays. Katie Steele/Tiffany Brown.

 

The Price She Pays.   Confronting the Hidden Mental Health Crisis in Women’s Sports – From the Schoolyard to the Stadium.   Katie Steele & Tiffany Brown.   With Erin Strout. 

Since Title IX’s establishment in the early 1970’s under NCAA governance, the increase in women’s sports participation has only ascended over the past fifty years throughout the country.    The upward trend in female athlete participation in competitive sports augments issues that may not have existed or been known in past generations.  Just like in male sports, women have their share of issues, mental and otherwise, that have creeped into the forefront of the sports news feeds. 

That is where authors Katie Steele and Tiffany Brown come into play with their collaborative effort, The Price She Pays.    Both contributors are licensed therapists operating out of the state of Oregon.   Their book covers myriad topics effecting and impacting female athletes in the collegiate and high school levels.   Through their many contacts and research, they were able to include numerous case study examples to support the myriad points made in each of the fourteen chapters included. 

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the book is the chapter titled The Paradox of social media.    The authors convey their thoughts about this relatively new phenomenon that female, or any other, athletes did not encounter in past generations.  In addition, this chapter also explores the implications of monetizing their social media following through Name Image and Likeness (NIL) deals.   The authors write how female athletes are starting to break through the earning barriers that were mostly routed or limited to male athletes.   However, the authors caution the reader about overuse of social media practices and its potentially unexpected and dangerous consequences.    

As with all the chapters, the authors offer numerous side bar tips for how to address the many female sports-related issues identified throughout this textbook.    In that sense it does feel a bit like an assigned book for a sports studies course.  Nevertheless, the sidebar tips pose as a quality summary of the chapters and sections.   For instance, chapter eleven gives the reader a chance to reflect on how to form healthy social media practices including taking stock of who one follows, what is shared and communicated, and setting healthy limits. One of the more insightful examples came in a previous chapter about understanding substance abuse, a topic, according to the authors, that female athletes are reluctant to discuss.    Nevertheless, the skilled authors share sagacious tips about how to talk to youth about substance abuse including constructive ideas like normalizing substance abuse as a topic, answering questions about how one could react to various substances and emphasizing that abstinence is the only way to avoid ramifications.  

The book title implies that being an athlete comes with personal costs.   Those costs may result in loss up to and including suicide.    The related section in the book wisely and prudently urges the reader to use the emergency contact information if they are witness to a potential tragedy.  What is more, the authors go in depth explaining a relatively new type of therapy for student athletes who have a hard time coping with post traumatic sports stress.    A psychotherapy treatment known as EMDR mimics REM sleep and enables the patient “to replace negative thoughts with more positive association”.   The example provided in that chapter gives hope to overcoming crippling mental issues.   

An important point made throughout the interworking of the book is how coaches can be impacted and over run while overseeing teams of female athletes, especially for male coaches.    The authors rightfully, and perhaps unsurprisingly suggest that perpetual training is necessary for the myriad issues that female athletes are likely to need addressed which often do not exist when coaching boys.   Typical examples detailed in the book include tampon use and disposal, menstrual cycles and even the changes associated with female puberty.   The underlying message pervading the chapters is that informed coaches can make all the difference by providing a positive, healthy experience for the athletes now more than ever. However, as the authors assert, the coaches can only do so much with the time and knowledge they have.   Steele and Brown even go as far as trying to establish boundaries for coaches, suggesting they simply are not equipped for intense or involved mental health diagnosis and treatment.  Instead, the authors encourage organizations to bestow additional supportive networks to truly create a safe and effective culture for all athletes.     

This is a book decidedly assessing female athletes and their experiences.   However, that does not mean it is a book only for women readers.   Men, even if not athletes, coaches or teachers, can garner aspects of the mental health crises striking the female athletes of their community.  It is also fair to note that this book may not be for all audiences or the casual sports fan that is not looking for heavier topics brought to the forefront by the authors.    While there is a textbook feel to some of the book, the two hundred and forty pages are reasonably navigated.   The helpful section guides serve as insightful recaps and reminders of the important concepts such as RED-S and SUD among many others.    The examples and testimonials authorize the numerous points of concern and challenges that female athlete’s risk and coaches and parents may face.   The price of being an athlete can be formidable as the authors assert.   However, reading a well written and researched manuscript willing to confront the known challenges is a good place to help keep the girls rising sports participation safe in the very settings that title IX helps to protect and inspire.                

 

·       You might like to read this book if you seek stories about women athletes.

·       You might like to read this book if you are interested in seeking mental health issues striking female athletes.

·       You might like to read this book if you want to learn more about gender identity in sports.

·       You might like to read this book you want to find more information about transgender athletes.  

Read more about the author on X:   https://x.com/tiffanybrook