The Appetite Episode #08: Sport and Performance: Exploring the Athletic Temperament through a Radically Open DBT lens

An Opal: Food+Body Wisdom Podcast

What are the temperamental factors that make a good athlete? Today, Opal Founders Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD, CD, and Lexi Giblin PhD, CEDS, and host Carter Umhau, LMHCA talk sport and performance, exploring the topic through the Radically Open Dialectical Behavioral Therapy lens of “overcontrol.” The Appetite crew discusses how this overcontrolled temperament in athletes might lead to high athletic performance on one hand, but might also be the very thing that leads an athlete to struggle with food, body, and movement. Kara—creator of Opal’s Exercise and Sport Program—speaks to the potential these athletes have to increase freedom and flexibility in their relationship with themselves and movement, putting the joy back into sport again. 

Resources:

Compulsive Exercise and Eating Disorders, by Caroline Meyer et al
Perfectionism versus excellence
The Founders: Thirteen women shared one common goal to change sports forever
Unmatched: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were fierce tennis rivals in the 1970s and 1980s, but through it all they forged an unbreakable friendship.

The Appetite is available for listening on Soundcloud as well as iTunes or here on the Opal blog.