Mickey Bennett

 

Mickey Bennett was involved in professional football for 20 years.  He has seen it all from Premiership to Conference in a career that took in Charlton Athletic, Wimbledon, Brentford, Millwall, Brighton and Hove Albion and Canvey Island.  He played for England at under 20s level and was picked for the Under 21s when a serious injury put paid to that.

 

Asked about the highlights of his career, he recalls signing for Charlton at 16 and playing for the first team at 17, playing in front of 60.000 at Old Trafford, getting picked for England Under 20s and going on tour to Brazil, scoring the winning goal in Wimbledon’s 1-0 win over Arsenal in 1990 and winning the FA Trophy with Canvey Island in 2002.

 

Now he runs ‘Unique sports Counselling’ – how did he make the transition?  “During the last few years of my career, players used to ask for my advice a lot.  Part of it was that I was older but as well they must have felt that I was approachable.  So when I finished playing I investigated counselling and got myself qualified.  I started with a course called ‘Introduction to counselling’, then an NCFE certificate and finally the Diploma in Counselling”.

 

In his counselling he specializes in sport.  “It is the world I know.  I feel too that I have a vast experience to draw on.  I have played at the top level but also in the lower divisions and the conference.  I have experienced the excitement of making it with a big club at 16 and the despair of suffering a serious injury when my career was just taking off.  I have been told that my career was over because of injury.  And perhaps most importantly I have come through the end of my career, which so many players find very difficult, because they miss the buzz of being involved in the game”.

 

A qualified coach (UEFA B) Mickey still coaches a bit, he works in schools (often with kids with behavioural problems, worked in a prison and runs anger management classes.  He says “I have worked with adults, youths and children.  The issues I have counselled vary from physical, sexual, emotional and verbal abuse, self-harming, depression, eating disorders, domestic violence, insomnia, paranoia, HIV, anger issues and classroom behavioural problems”.

 

This variety all adds to his experience but sport is his first love and he is building up his counselling with sportspeople with a view to doing that full-time.

 

What is Sports Counselling?

“More than ever before”, says Mickey, “the professional sportsperson faces enormous pressures.  The Pay, The Press and ‘The perks’ along with ‘The gold, the girls and the glory’ ensure that the lifestyle coach will become as essential to the modern player as the football coach.  Whilst the coach enhances the individual’s footballing competence, the Lifestyle Coach exists to promote the player’s emotional competence”.

 

What can Mickey offer? “Sportspeople are subject to emotional difficulties such as anxiety, lack of self-confidence and unreasonable explanations from coaches, managers and fans.  Whilst  the field of sports psychology focuses on performance with motivation, sports counselling’s focus is on the athlete’s development as an individual.  This includes personal and clinical issues associated with sports performance.  For example, sports counselling assists players/sportspeople with reducing stress and anxiety, overcoming fear of failure, success and burnout.  It also addresses interpersonal issues such as family and marital difficulty.  In addition, counselling can assist with ineffective attempts to deal with stress, which can result in the abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

 

“I follow the client’s lead.  They come to you with whatever they want to talk about and you pick up on key things.  My aim is to allow players to play to their full potential or you could put it in terms of them handing their baggage to me.  I want to allow players to play at their peak and become the player they want to become and not allow the emotional side of things to affect them.

 

“Lifestyle coaching is enabling people to recognize the problem when they come to you. It is letting them say, ‘What’s up?  My game is suffering, why is that?’, and we break it down and it allows them to just dump it on me and go and play football”.

 

Mickey became a Christian about 15 years ago.  “It was at a stage in my life that I was not enjoying my football.  Garth Crooks invited me to meeting he runs at Kensington Temple for professional sportspeople.  It was ideal for me as it gave me a chance to ask questions and when I committed myself to Christ the group helped me to grow in my faith.   Being a Christian liberated me to play football to the best of my ability.  As I recognized that my ability was a gift from God I was able to play for his glory.  Then when my careen ended and I had to step out of the world that I knew, I felt that God was with me every step of the way”.

 

For more information contact Mickey: 07908 756504

www.uniquesportscounselling.com

info@uniquesportscounselling.com

 

 

 

Having been innocently banned from football, it was good to talk to a friend to express those feelings.  You only realize how important a facility USC offers when circumstances happen.  From the position that I am coming from, the pressure for the modern day footballer, you need something like this in place.  Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United and England

 

A former pro with Charlton Athletic, Michael has not only played at the highest level, he has experienced some of the traumas that accompany the modern game.  I have no doubt this has been the catalyst for his new vocation and I am convinced he will make a significant contribution to the world of sport.  Garth Crooks OBE

 

 

 

 

Garth Crooks