Cecilia Åkesdotter

At GIH, I serve as a teacher in the coaching program, the health promotion program, and the elite coach program.

Within the framework of the coaching program, I have mainly taught sports psychology and leadership. In the health promotion programme, the focus has been more on stress management, behavioural change and motivational interviewing (MI).

I have previously divided my teaching at GIH with other teaching assignments at university level, for example at the School of Dance and Circus and KI where I mainly touch on themes linked to stress, overtraining and recovery in elite sports.

My background before my doctoral studies was as a physical education teacher and coach. I therefore have a great interest in teaching in the sports movement and spreading knowledge about psychology, performance and training.

My research focuses on mental illness in Swedish elite athletes at the national team level. The aim is to increase knowledge about mental illness and psychiatric diagnoses among active elite athletes in Sweden.

In my research, I investigate, among other things:

• How common is it to suffer from mental illness?
• What strategies do elite athletes use to deal with mental illness?
• Psychiatric diagnoses in elite athletes within the framework of outpatient psychiatric care.
• How coaches can develop their knowledge and understanding regarding mental illness

In my research, I use both quantitative and qualitative methodology.