In this Researcher’s Corner, I (RA: Renee Appaneal) spoke with Muhammad Deen (MD), a sport and performance consultant. Muhammad lives in Malaysia, and we met through a mutual network of practitioners, who were located in the Asia Pacific region. It was through those interactions I learned about his research in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and chose this platform to showcase research that guides professional practice and aligns to the scientist-practitioner model.

RA: Before we dive into your research on REBT, tell us about your educational path, where you are now, and what you are currently doing professionally.

MD: I have a BSc in Sport Psychology from Coventry University and an MSc in Sport & Exercise Psychology from, Staffordshire University. I began a Ph.D. to study Rationality & Resilience at Manchester Metropolitan University and have paused that for now. I am currently completing the Sport and Exercise Psychology Accreditation Route (SEPAR) qualification with the British Association for Sport and Exercise Science (BASES). I have been living in Malaysia for 6 years, and I work as an independent sport & performance psychology consultant, gratefully with elite and recreational athletes, juniors and those competing in niche sports, as well as corporate clients.

RA: Can you explain how you were first introduced to REBT, as well as what (or who) influenced your decision to pursue that line of research?

MD: My lecturers at Staffs Uni were practicing REBT. Jamie Barker, Andrew Wood, Matt Slater and mostly Martin Turner were pushing the field forward and I was inspired by their work. I also needed a project to do for my MSc. After being in an REBT workshop as one of many fantastic education days led by Martin, Jamie, Andrew, and Matt, I sought additional training in Rational Emotive-Cognitive Behavior Therapy (RECBT) with the Centre for REBT at the University of Birmingham (UK) who were affiliated to the original Albert Ellis Institute (New York City, USA).

RA: You were clearly influenced by mentors who modelled REBT and supported the application of it in sport. Can you describe the REBT study you conducted with elite athletes in Malaysia?

MD: After I decided to do my project in REBT, I wanted to test how it could be used when targeting irrational beliefs & resilience with elite athletes. Training first was important to practice REBT ethically. I recruited elite Malaysian squash players for the study. I was providing sport psychology support as an intern within ISN (the National Sports Institute of Malaysia) and completed my first study as part of that internship.

We used a single-case multiple-baseline across-participants design to test the effectiveness of REBT (i.e., five counseling sessions and four homework assignments) to decrease self-reported irrational beliefs and increase self-reported resilience qualities. Simply put; five athletes had five sessions with me, all at differing starting points with varying baseline measures (seven data points, nine data points, eleven data points and so on), so that we could know the impact of REBT as soon as it was introduced with each athlete. Data collected on irrationality and resilience was presented visually to track the changes and trends using acceleration lines and slopes (i.e., trend predictions and steepness of trends). Using mixed methods, each athlete was interviewed about their experiences of the intervention, the measures, the content, the style, and they were asked to rate the intervention, too. These interviews were not done by me, so the likeliness of a biased response was much less.

RA: Your master’s thesis followed a scientist-practitioner model, and in my opinion is an excellent example of how research might be designed to evaluate the effectiveness of psychological interventions delivered to a small number of athletes. In fact, the excerpt below is from the discussion section:
“…the current study was able to engage an elite sample of athletes, used complex and robust single-case methods, employed a needs analysis (which is typical of applied practice; Marlow, 2009), includes quantitative and qualitative data to examine intervention effects, and is a first-step to satisfy calls for research to investigate resilience / resilient qualities building programs in sport (Galli & Gonzales, 2015).” (p 261).

RA: For those readers keen to know more about it, this study was published in The Sport Psychologist (Deen, Turner, & Wong, 2017). Can you provide a brief summary of the results, and talk through a few of the findings?

MD: The study was the first of my knowledge to fill a gap within the research field, as seen from Galli & Gonzales (2015) – there needed to be mixed-methods resilience enhancing interventions over the mid-to-long term. The evaluation data regarding the intervention overall were positive, suggesting that REBT was a worthwhile, interesting, and useful intervention, and that the intervention procedures were well accepted. Also, the methods for this paper were really unique and of the first of its kind within sport psychology. Being able to see the changes in data visually and then analyzing such changes was really revealing, as it often reflects how we might work with clients when we can see the rate of their progress over time and not just the general direction.

One of the notable contributions the paper made was that it was done with a Malaysian sample, and based on those and other findings, REBT appears to be applicable and transferable across cultures, too. This extended knowledge beyond the U.K. and U.S., where most of the research had focused, and it added to a small number of REBT studies in Asia. Practitioners have to consider cultural variances when applying REBT techniques. For example, we need to be sensitive in applying techniques (i.e., line of questioning) and producing arguments for disputation, the D phase of the ABCDE process. There are both subtle and large differences in attitudes, opinions and beliefs between a client and a practitioner, which can be attributed to fundamental cultural differences. To apply sport psychology across different cultural environments, ideally one is immersed in that culture, but there are professional resources and development opportunities available that may be helpful.

RA: In addition to the publication from your thesis, you also co-authored a recent paper that describes five practitioners’ perspectives on applying REBT in high performance sport (Turner et al, 2022). What have been some of the key insights that have come out of your research and practice of REBT?

MD: The research that I have done in this area centers around the applicability of REBT to support performance, resilience, and well-being. The major insights from my research and practice of REBT are the following:

• REBT is not a rigid model, it’s flexible, and the model is robust.
• REBT clearly supports high performers with an array of psychological targets, ranging from sleep to resilience to confidence & many more.
• REBT’s efficacy is dependent on the practitioner and the art of practitioner support when applied to service user(s).
• Using humanistic modalities such as person-centred counseling or motivational interviewing with REBT is possible however the practitioner needs to be astute as to how to integrate the two.
• REBT is highly transferrable across ages, ethnicities, performance domains, regions. When working with religious clients, it is very easy to find themes in the most common religions with the lessons from Stoicism, of which REBT is based upon.
• Mental Skills Training (MST), the traditional canon for sport psychologists, feeds into REBT and from REBT. MST and REBT are not exclusive and sit comfortably with each other. For more information on this, check out Martin Turner’s recent book, ‘The Rational Practitioner.’ Martin is the leading figure in this area and is bringing REBT to the forefront in our field.
• REBT, even in its simplest, form can be highly effective, even under time-pressure constraints in high performance environments.

RA: While you’ve paused your Ph.D., you completed your thesis through a UK-based university program while an intern at ISN and you are still located in Malaysia. Is there anything you might share that graduate students or even early career professionals might find helpful if they are considering or have moved overseas away from their graduate mentors and research supervisors?

MD: While the Ph.D. is paused, I intend to be continuing it soon and there’s a fair bit more to contribute to the field once it’s done (eventually!). Ensure you have great communication with your Ph.D. supervisors because they are really important pillars of support in general. One of the reasons I moved overseas was because I wanted to explore other areas for practicing sport psychology. I partnered with some elite institutions in Asia and received a job offer on the back of a successful research partnership where I was an intern. The advice I have is the same I would give myself; there’s no one size fits all, you have your own life to lead. Do more of practicing what you preach, sport psychology and mental skills are there for you to plan, absorb, and get to that next level. Go slower more deliberately, rather than faster without awareness.

RA: Thank you for sharing your experience using REBT in sport and insights into how your research has influenced your practice, and vice versa.

MD: Thanks for the opportunity to share Renee. I’m glad to know you and be acquainted, and also to be a member of AASP. I hope that this piece provides something useful for the readers, who I too wish to meet.