Applied sport psychology students undergo, more or less, changes in how they see themselves
professionally as service providers as they proceed through their graduate training. Knowledge
about early professional development, changes, and conflicts would likely help trainees,
supervisors, and educators enhance the quality of applied sport psychology education. In this
study, we interviewed Australian trainee applied sport psychologists (5 females, 3 males, age
range 22–32 years) on three occasions about their development as practitioners across the
first 2 years of their graduate education. Trainees’ motivations for becoming practitioners and
their models of service evolved over the 2 years. When first interacting with clients, trainees
often adopted rigid “expert” problem-solving approaches to service delivery. With time and
more experience, some individuals began to focus on developing relationships with clients and
adapting wider and more flexible interventions to suit athletes’ needs. The experiences of our
sample inform trainees’ early professional development, and our findings parallel studies from
mainstream counseling psychology.