“Don’t Be Stupid, Stupid!” Cognitive-Behavioral Techniques to Reduce Irrational Beliefs and Enhance Focus in a Youth Tennis Player

This case reports the intervention approach the first author adopted while working with a youth tennis player. The athlete held irrational beliefs and was struggling to maintain emotional control. The neophyte sport psychology practitioner adopted a cognitive-behavioral approach to practice. The intervention focused on (a) using rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) to replace unhelpful beliefs about unforced errors with a new rational philosophy and (b) using a distraction-control plan to restructure the player’s thoughts and beliefs in relation to opponents’ perceived gamesmanship. Intervention effectiveness was evaluated through qualitative data from the athlete and his parents and the reflections of the practitioner. Feedback suggests that REBT and distraction-control plans can be effective in helping youth athletes manage their thought patterns and improve emotional control during competition. This case also demonstrates the importance of practitioners’ having a flexible and adaptable approach to practice—one that meets individual client needs

An Existential Counseling Case Study: Navigating Several Critical Moments With a Professional Football Player

The current article presents a reflective case study following an applied service delivery experience with a 21-year-old professional footballer. The primary aim of the intervention was to support the client while facing several critical moments (breakdown in relationships, identity, and contract negotiations). This support involved creating a confidential space for her to discuss her values, beliefs, and identity while considering some of the tensions and dilemmas experienced while considering her future. Throughout this process, the first author adopted an existential counseling approach to practice and utilized the Four Dimensions of Existence and Emotional Compass as hermeneutic devices to analyze the client’s presenting challenges. The working relationship lasted for 3 months and spanned eight online sessions. Reflections on practitioner individuation and the value of adopting an existential approach to service delivery are provided

Recovery patterns in community composition of fruit‐feeding butterflies following 26 years of active forest restoration

Abstract Restoration of forests is now considered an essential tool to combat climate change and the global biodiversity decline. However, our understanding of how animal communities recover after restoration interventions in tropical forests is limited. Here, we aim to reveal the recovery patterns of fruit‐feeding butterfly communities across a large‐scale rainforest restoration area in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Our study represents a chronosequence resampling of fruit‐feeding butterfly communities across actively restored Afrotropical forest planted between 1995 and 2011 and primary forest reference sites. Sampling of 40 study sites was done first in the period 2011–2012 and again in the period 2020–2021 (including 5 new study sites), allowing a direct comparison of how communities have changed in nine years and to follow the progress of 26 years of active restoration. Fruit‐feeding butterfly community composition showed a directional pattern from the younger restored to older restored and primary forests. However, over the nine years, the similarity of community composition to primary forest increased only in younger restored forests. Furthermore, different characteristics of community structure and different diversity facets recovered at different paces. For example, the count of individuals, the count of species, and phylogenetic diversity increased in the restored forests; however, Simpson's diversity increased only in the older restored forest. Our study shows that active restoration can help fruit‐feeding butterfly communities become increasingly similar to communities found in primary forests, and such changes can be relatively fast in the early‐successional phases of tropical forests but slow down at later phases

Plant size, latitude, and phylogeny explain within-population variability in herbivory

Interactions between plants and herbivores are central in most ecosystems, but their strength is highly variable. The amount of variability within a system is thought to influence most aspects of plant-herbivore biology, from ecological stability to plant defense evolution. Our understanding of what influences variability, however, is limited by sparse data. We collected standardized surveys of herbivory for 503 plant species at 790 sites across 116° of latitude. With these data, we show that within-population variability in herbivory increases with latitude, decreases with plant size, and is phylogenetically structured. Differences in the magnitude of variability are thus central to how plant-herbivore biology varies across macroscale gradients. We argue that increased focus on interaction variability will advance understanding of patterns of life on Earth