Proposed in cultural sport psychology, the term is
defined as “sport and exercise psychology practice
informed by reciprocal interactions between consultants,
clients, and the cultural/subcultural contexts they are
parts of” (Stambulova & Schinke, 2017). Opposed to
treating clients as if they are situated in a social and cultural
vacuum, CDP implies consultants’ careful investigation
of the multilevel contexts to which their clients
belong, with a special attention to the local organizational
context/culture (e.g., of a club, team, or training
center), which is the most influential in terms of athletes’
both strong and weak points, their performance, and
their wellbeing. Contextual intelligence as an ability to
learn, reflect upon, understands, and takes into account
the cultural contexts involved in working with clients is
what the consultants need (in addition other professional
competences) in order to create mutually trusting
relationships and provide efficient interventions.
Development of contextual intelligence is facilitated by
consultants’ systematic reflections before action (e.g.,
anticipation of how the clients might react on the situation
depending on their positioning within the context),
on action (e.g., during a workshop or personal communication
based on verbal and nonverbal cues from the clients)
and after action (e.g., on the effectiveness of a
session or intervention as a whole). As cultural beings,
both consultants and clients have multilayer selfidentities
(e.g., nationality, age, gender, race) rooted in
their origins, as well as their past, present, and anticipated
future experiences. Therefore, CDP also implies consultants’ positioning in relation to clients’ context(s)
and the efforts to become “cultural insiders” within the
clients’ environments by increasing their knowledge in
such areas as the focal sport, the organizational history,
philosophy and leadership, and specific language used in
order to communicate competently with the athletes and
staff. The higher the sport level, the more important it is
to identify and create a contact with decision-making
organizational leaders, who are also gatekeepers for
sport psychology consultants to deliver their services.
The dynamic nature of sporting and organizational contexts
makes it paramount for consultants to monitor the
changes in their contexts and change the intervention
(and possibly own positioning) accordingly. Cultural
praxis is the prompt framework for CDP, as it
encourages consultants to blend their applied experiences,
theoretical evidences, and research competences
with thorough understanding of the clients’ lived contexts.
Widening the lens to the clients’ context makes
scientist-practitioners also context-driven practitioners.
