The unlikely connection between cricket and therapy

• Bazball refers to the style of play of the England cricket team following the appointment of Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum

• Former sports reporter now Psychotherapist Gershon Portnoi explores how the athletic mindset can be applied to therapy and mental health

I recently worked with a client who had suffered from severe internal self-criticism, which led to her adopting a cautious approach to life.

Knowing that I was a cricket fan, as any Google search will quickly tell you about my previous career as a sports journalist and writer, he commented to me that maybe he needed a little more Bazball in his life, which proved to be a fruitful and creative outlet. about working together.

For the uninitiated, Bazball is a term coined to describe the playing style of the England Test cricket team led by coach Brendan (Baz) McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.

The philosophy is based on relentless positivity that never takes a step back while entertaining all viewers. The team that won once in 17 matches has now tasted victory 11 times in their last 13 matches. By any standards, that’s a significant change.

It remains to be seen whether this cricketing revolution will be enough to reclaim the Ashes from former rivals Australia, but with five matches between the sport’s oldest rivals between June and July, we won’t have to wait long to find out.

Without falling into the geek games of cricket, Bazball has made the England team think and act differently in match situations, take more risks and not be afraid of losing in the pursuit of profit.

There seem to be some obvious contradictions in how we all might live our lives the Bazball way, and also in how this new approach and therapy can be tightly integrated.

Therapy work offers people many tools, including different ways of thinking about their lives. Sometimes coming to therapy can give a fresh perspective on a certain situation or life in general. And whether we’re in therapy or not, being able to look at potential difficulties in an alternative way can be very helpful in overcoming a problem.

The England team has certainly taken that to heart, rewriting some of Test cricket’s most established conventions and thinking about the game in new ways. This new mindset has not only created positivity, but has also challenged the opposition and given England both a psychological and on-field advantage.

In the same way, we can also challenge our own problems, by daring to face them and maybe think about them in a new way. Fear can often derail potential sports champions from fulfilling their destiny, and the same goes for us mortals. Many of us are hampered by self-doubt, an inner critic, and a fear of reaching our potential, whether it’s at work, socially, or in relationships.

The baseball approach would be to take that fear, harness it and channel it into something positive with a healthy dose of calculated risk.

This is not a defense of living on the edge and saying “to hell with everything”, but perhaps embracing the possibility of not succeeding at something, knowing that successes can only be achieved on the wings of failure.

In fact, one of the central tenets of Bazball is that there will be failures. In a game in New Zealand earlier this year, England went from a virtually impregnable position to the narrowest of defeats because they refused to take a step back by playing defensively.

However, listening to the interviews of the coach and the captain after the match, there were no complaints or doubts. This is how we play, they said, and if we continue like this, we will win more than we lose.

It’s so positive it’s almost crazy. Still, so far it seems to be working. This may be because the opposition have not yet figured out how to counter such an approach, either England win or they join so to speak.

While the negative forces that lie beneath us all are far more complex than just being positive is a winning mantra, and life isn’t really a sport, the basics of Bazball can still provide comfort in adversity and certainly resonate with how therapy can change our outlook. and after that our lives.

Gershon Portnoi is a certified Welldoing therapist in London and online

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