MIND, GAME & PERFORMANCE
Delivering at the Premier League’s Heads of Education conference
Football Mental Health Consultancy, delivered by a former professional footballer turned psychotherapist
Football develops extraordinary athletes. It does not always develop psychologically whole human beings. The pressures, cultures, and emotional demands of professional sport create conditions that are uniquely difficult to navigate, and most players are never given the tools to do so.
Kevin George is a BACP registered therapist and former professional footballer who played for West Ham United and Charlton Athletic. He is the author of Soccology, a football encyclopaedic book on mental health, culture, and leadership, based on research involving 45 professional footballers and three coaches. He has spent over two decades working at the intersection of elite sport and mental health.
Kevin George provides mental health support and psychoeducation to players, coaches, academies, and clubs across the Premier League and internationally, including Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Hull City. His work is grounded in clinical training in psychodynamic, Jungian, systemic, and attachment based therapy, and shaped by firsthand experience of professional football.
What separates his approach is fit. Football has its own language, hierarchy, and unwritten rules. Mental health support that ignores this rarely lands. Kevin George delivers support that works within the culture of football rather than against it, so players, staff, and parents engage with it rather than resist it.
Delivery at Manchester United FC
U21 player delivery at Liverpool FC
One to One Support for Players
Confidential, individual support for players navigating the mental and emotional demands of the game.
Overview
Behind performance, there's a person managing pressure, setbacks, and transitions that rarely get spoken about. This service offers individual therapy and performance psychology sessions for professional, semi-professional, and academy players, in person or remotely. Sessions provide a confidential space to explore mental health challenges, manage performance pressure, build resilience, and navigate transitions including injury, career endings, and identity beyond the game — tailored to each player's developmental stage, cultural background, and goals.
What Sessions Cover
Managing performance pressure and competitive anxiety
Building emotional resilience and coping strategies
Navigating injury, deselection, and career transitions
Exploring identity and self-worth beyond football
Support tailored to age, culture, and individual goals
Who It's For
Professional, semi-professional, and academy players seeking a confidential space to work through the mental and emotional side of their career.
Format
Available as ongoing 1:1 sessions, in person or remotely.
Team and Academy Psychoeducation
Structured mental health and emotional intelligence programmes, built in the language of football.
Overview
Players engage more when the approach speaks their language rather than asking them to step outside it. This service delivers structured psychoeducation programmes for senior squads and academies, aligned with the Elite Player Performance Plan across Foundation (U9–U11), Youth Development (U12–U16), and Professional Development (U17–U23) phases. Sessions build emotional intelligence, resilience, and mental health awareness using football culture as the bridge, not a barrier.
What the Programme Covers
Age-appropriate emotional intelligence and resilience building
Mental health awareness embedded in football language and culture
Content aligned to EPPP developmental phases
Practical, engaging delivery designed for squad and group settings
Who It's For
Senior squads and academies wanting a mental health and wellbeing programme players actually connect with.
Format
Available as structured group sessions across a full season or as standalone workshops.
““The players were fully engaged and staff commented afterwards that we should run more programmes like this for the players, which isn’t the reaction we always get.” ”
Staff development training at Hull City FC
U21 Player delivery at Stoke City FC
Staff Training and Consultancy
Equipping club and academy staff to recognise, respond to, and support player wellbeing and performance at every level.
Coaches, education leads, welfare officers, and support staff are often the first to notice when something isn't right with a player, yet rarely trained to know what to do next. This service delivers specialist training in mental health, performance health, player care, and safeguarding, helping staff see the player as a whole person and embedding wellbeing as everyday practice, not crisis response. Drawing on clinical experience as a psychotherapist and firsthand insight as a former professional footballer, it bridges football culture with psychological understanding.
What the Training Covers
Recognising signs of mental health concerns and responding appropriately
Understanding players' emotional and social needs across developmental stages
Building safeguarding awareness and confident escalation
Embedding sustainable wellbeing practice into everyday club culture
Practical tools for conversations around performance pressure and player care
Who It's For
Coaches, education leads, welfare officers, and support staff at clubs and academies wanting to strengthen player care as a core part of their culture.
Track Record
Previous football clients and partners include Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Hull City, the Premier League, Kick It Out, and clubs and academies across the UK and internationally.
Format
Available as bespoke staff training days, ongoing consultancy, or embedded support.
Consultancy for Football Parents
Helping parents understand, support, and strengthen their child's wellbeing on and off the pitch.
Behind every player is a parent trying to get it right, encouraging without overloading, pushing without breaking. This service helps parents understand what's really happening in their child's inner world as they navigate football, and how to support their wellbeing and performance without adding to the pressure they already carry. Drawing on family therapy and firsthand experience as a former professional footballer, it bridges elite football culture and the psychology of the family system around the young player.
What the Consultancy Covers
Understanding your child's emotional experience of pressure, identity, and belonging
Responding to setbacks and non-selection in ways that build resilience, not shame
Recognising early signs of burnout, anxiety, or disengagement
Managing your own expectations and fears as a parent, and how your child picks up on them
Supporting identity beyond football, so self-worth isn't solely tied to performance
Who It's For
Parents and guardians of children in grassroots, academy, or elite pathway football who want to be a stabilising presence in their child's journey.
Track Record
Delivered to parents across the Premier League and English Football League on behalf of the Premier League.
Format
Available as 1:1 consultations, family sessions, or group workshops for clubs and academies.
CASE STUDY: Gennaro Negro (AS Roma)
Kevin worked with AS Roma's Gennaro Negro on performance anxiety, applying clinical psychotherapy frameworks to help the player understand and manage the psychological pressures of elite football at the highest level.
CASE STUDY: Europe's Top U18 Players – Stress Exploration
Kevin conducted in-depth exploratory work on stress with five of Europe's top U18 players, examining how young elite athletes experience, interpret, and respond to pressure at a critical stage of their psychological and sporting development.
CASE STUDY: Gaël Clichy – Leadership & Paris Olympics
Kevin worked with former Arsenal and Manchester City left-back Gaël Clichy on leadership development, drawing on Clichy's elite career experience to explore the psychological dimensions of leading in high-performance environments in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics.
FAQ
How does Kevin George help professional footballers with mental health?
Kevin provides individual therapy, performance psychology sessions, and team psychoeducation for footballers at all levels, using a clinical model grounded in his own experience as a professional player.
What is the Elite Player Performance Plan and how does Kevin George's work align with it?
The EPPP is the Premier League's framework for academy player development. Kevin's psychoeducation programmes are structured to align with its welfare and education requirements across Foundation, Youth Development, and Professional Development phases.
Why do professional footballers struggle with mental health?
Kevin George's research and clinical practice show that football culture actively discourages emotional expression, creating environments where players suppress psychological distress. His book Soccology explores this in depth through interviews with 45 professional players.