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
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