Sport and Exercise Psychology Service

Welcome to the UQ Sport and Exercise Psychology Service

Jointly delivered by the UQ School of Psychology and the UQ School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, we are committed to helping you define and achieve your goals.

Whatever the objective — winning, personal success, excellence, challenge, social interaction, exercise, relaxation, or simply enjoyment — a Sport and Exercise Psychologist can help you achieve your goals.

About

The UQ Sport and Exercise Psychology Service (UQ SEPS) is a service designed to facilitate training and educational opportunities for students who are provisionally registered psychologists completing postgraduate training in Sport and Exercise Psychology. Our practitioners have undergone a minimum of four years of study in psychology and may have additional experience and training. Provisional psychologists are supervised by fully qualified, experienced sport and exercise psychologists.

What is Sport and Exercise Psychology?

Sport and Exercise Psychology is the study of psychological and mental factors that influence, and are influenced by, participation in sport, exercise and physical activity, and the application of this knowledge to everyday settings. The key focus is on the development of a person’s ability to understand and use their minds to improve their performances and enjoyment.

Sport and Exercise Psychology can benefit anyone who wishes to improve performance or stay healthy in their chosen activities; clients include:

Recreational, elite, and professional athletes (e.g. tennis players, runners, rock climbers)
Professional, representative, and club sporting teams (e.g. rugby, soccer, netball, basketball)
Performing artists (e.g. dancers, musicians, actors)
Coaches, umpires, and referees
Managers, decisions makers, and administrators in professional roles
Employees and employers in any other occupations concerned with optimal performance (e.g., military and police)

Benefits

Whatever the objective – winning, personal success, excellence, challenge, social interaction, exercise, relaxation, or simply enjoyment – our provisional psychologists can help you achieve your goals.

Optimise your performance and increase your enjoyment in your chosen activity

We can help with:

Performance anxiety
Team cohesion and team building
Motivational techniques
Preparation for competition
Recovery and overtraining prevention
Stress management
Mental skills (e.g., self-talk, imagery, concentration)
Communication skills

Enhance your wellness and health

We can help with:

Using psychological principles in health and wellness settings
Obesity management
Advice on motivation for diet and exercise adherence
Lifestyle balance
Injury rehabilitation
Exercise as adjunct treatment for mood disorders

What's involved

Once you have made the decision to seek our professional services, you will begin to work closely with one of our provisional psychologists.

You will attend a series of sessions either as an individual or with your group or team. The initial session typically focuses on assessing your needs as an individual, group, or team, with a view to developing a program to address these needs. This process is collaborative.

We will make some recommendations of how many sessions we believe you will need to achieve your goals (usually 4 to 12 sessions) and negotiate a suitable timeframe that will fit in with your commitments and lifestyle.

Fees

Based on 50-60 minute sessions	Individual	Group
Concession	$25	$50
General	$40	$75

Concession may include referrals through placement partners as well as any members that requires a discount for financial challenges.

Fees support the operation of the Service (including supervision, administration and program delivery) and do not reflect or substitute for fees that would ordinarily be charged for the provision of professional psychology services.

Make a booking

Individuals wanting to access our services can complete the referral form below.

Referral form

Please note: Individual referrals are assessed and allocated on a monthly cycle and availability may vary during semester breaks and peak study periods as our provisional psychologists balance their practice with academic commitments.

Sports clubs or organisations wanting more information can email us at: uqseps@uq.edu.au

Contact

uqseps@uq.edu.au
Mich Heatley
Service Manager

Make a payment

Privacy information

The UQ SEPS is committed to the protection of individuals’ privacy and values the responsible handling of personal information. We respect an individual’s right to know how their personal information will be collected, used, disclosed, stored and disposed of.

We manage all personal information in accordance with relevant privacy laws and UQ’s Privacy Policy, Psychology Board Australia Code of Conduct (2025), and the Australian Psychological Society Code of Ethics (2007).

What personal information do we collect?

In order to provide our services, our consultant will collect personal information such as:

Your name, address and date of birth;
Your contact details;
Your educational and occupational history;
Information regarding why you are presenting for services:
areas of behaviour related to the presenting matter;
- relevant history of the presenting matter;
- relevant family history;
Current and past medical information;
Our consultants may also collect the following personal information:
Responses and results reasonably obtained as part of psychological tests, questionnaires or assessment;
Information pertaining to your session notes; intervention and your response to intervention.

How do we collect your personal information?

We will collect information from you where it is reasonable and practical to do so. In some cases we may also need to collect information from third parties who have known you a long time (such as a spouse or parent) or from others involved in your care (such as your GP). We will endeavour to keep you informed of the information we collect from third parties, and the source of that information, and where appropriate will seek written consent from you before obtaining such information.

How do we use your personal information?

This information is collected to ensure our consultants can provide informed clinical judgement in regards to assessment, formulation and intervention plans for clients.

Confidentiality of personal information

All information that you give to your consultant is strictly confidential. Only your consultant and the small consultative team assigned to your care will have access to your personal information. Personal information will not be disclosed to a third party, except in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2009 and other relevant privacy laws, including (but not limited to) where:

You have agreed in writing for the information to be disclosed; or
A consultant forms the professional opinion that you or another individual is at risk of harm, and a moral or legal obligation exists to disclose this information with the aim of preventing such harm.

Storage of personal information

Your personal information is stored securely in accordance with UQ’s Information Management Policy, University Sector Retention and Disposal Schedule, Psychology Board Australia Code of Conduct (2025) and the APS Code of Ethics (2007).

Records for adults are retained for 10 years after last client service provision or medico-legal action.
Records for minors are retained for 10 years from patient attaining 18 years of age; AND 10 years after last service provision.

How can I access my personal information?

You may access your personal information, including your clinical file, by emailing the Service Manager at uqseps@uq.edu.au.

Requests should state the specific information required and must be accompanied by suitable evidence of identity. This includes:

An email from the email address on file
Your full name
Date of Birth
The name of the consultant you had seen while accessing services at the clinic.

Following verification of identify, the Service Manager will review the relevant file and release the requested information as appropriate to the circumstances.

We have a duty of care to protect the safety, health and wellbeing of our clients and, as a result, in some cases we may not be able to release all of the requested information to you. If you are dissatisfied with the information released to you, you may wish to apply for access to the information via a formal access application.

Complaints

If you have questions or concerns regarding your personal information as held by the Service, please direct these to the Service Manager at uqseps@uq.edu.au in the first instance.

Individuals who have concerns about how their personal information is being collected, stored, used or disclosed may make a complaint to UQ’s Right to Information and Privacy Office. The Privacy Management Procedures include further information about how an individual can make a privacy complaint to UQ and how privacy complaints will be managed.

Further information

For further information regarding the management of personal information at UQ, please refer to the University’s Privacy Management Policy or contact UQ’s RTI & Privacy Office.