A deep vision makes it possible to modify behavioral structures. When the ski instructor greets the learner, what first stands out is the specific situation of his skiing, that is to say, the technical difficulties with which he presents himself, but few professionals notice the way in which the learner perceives himself and his conflicts through the level of unconsciousness of his postural and emotional tensions.
The skier with psycho-affective limitations needs to reinterpret himself because he is disoriented; he desires to relieve and overcome a certain anguish. He experiences a conflict that he does not know or cannot resolve, so he seeks professional help. The therapeutic ski lesson assists him to recognize himself as a skier and to reach the mental condition from which the understanding and predisposition towards a better skiing originates.
For example, if considers himself to be a poor skier, the instructor can question why he comes to that conclusion and ask to examine the evidence or elements on which he bases his thinking. Bringing to the present previous situations in which he has demonstrated to be competent, leads to the skier’s own reflection and collaborates in the modification of his self-concept, accepting that he is not as incompetent as he considers himself to be. For some skiers, taking a lesson may be a psychological risk since it could affect their self-esteem as they realize that skiing is not for them due to the perception, often unjustified, of their own physical, technical, or mental limitations.
To attend a therapeutic ski lesson is to go to find answers and those answers are found by skiing with the instructor who will provide the foundation and guidance to that end. The person requesting instruction is someone who ‘was’ and now wants to become, once again, a psycho-affectively healthy skier. He wants to clear up his technical and mental disorientation, ski certain slopes, feel aesthetically good, but above all, acquire emotional stability by overcoming the feared situations of the past.
This lesson serves as a space for query, to release repressions and access personal wealth. To be effective, the instructor must focus not so much on the symptoms, but on the conflict and deal with the past to the extent that it facilitates the clarification of the constraints of the present. It often happens that the learner wishes to modify his mental strategy but is unwilling to give up certain aspects because to satisfy some implies abandoning others, and here a new conflict is generated.
In these situations, the instructor must object to his attitude and accompany him in the process of letting go of the emotional resistances that produce pain. For this, the therapeutic lesson should be considered as a fear free space. It is normal that, when experiencing fear, the skier focuses exclusively on it but he does so because he does not know how to cope with it.
Most skiers who take lessons do so because they feel they have interrupted their own evolutionary process and yearn to regain it. So, the ski lesson provides them with the space for new experiences, to remove or reduce the emotional blocks that inhibit the assimilation of better movements. These blocks operate in the form of obstacles from which they wish to free themselves. They are structured schemes of thoughts and behaviors that present an unsatisfactory solution, being the cause of limited skiers, then, decadence is observed when they become mere slope downhillers.
As the frenzy of today’s life is transferred to the mountain, many times one is not aware of the immediate demands of skiing. The therapeutic lesson not only functions as a space of preparation to face the demands of the mountain; it also serves as a time to think before acting, to regain freedom, to rescue curiosity, and to seek new challenges, something that normally tends to be lost when one falls into a routine.
Generally, the skier who has taken lessons feels better even if he has not substantially improved his skiing. His beliefs are different, his self-confidence increased by the fact of having knowledge or knowing the strategies to apply in difficult situations that he perceives as threats to his safety.
In general, the ski lesson has a positive role. There is evidence that its usefulness as a therapeutic strategy collaborates not only reconfiguring personal technique; it also does so in mental and emotional health, especially in the recovery from an injury, a traumatic accident, to modify beliefs or certain behaviors, or to regain self-confidence.
While providing technical and strategic support, facilitators give their learners the chance to experience that the mountain is not a dangerous environment with as many afflictions as they assume. But, it is also common to observe those professionals who do not feel capable of orienting the lesson as a therapy towards mental or affective aspects, so they channel it exclusively towards the technical and tactical aspects of the skiing movements.
One might ask if it is possible to drive a car without rear-view mirrors. Of course, but it is better to have them because they improve driving and safety. Instructors and coaches are those ‘mirrors’ in which skiers and athletes can see themselves reflected. In these cases, the professional translates the new experiences that the skier is experiencing in his internal world when facing the external world. He collaborates in the explanation of personal experiences so that the skier understands how to relate better to the mountain environment.
