Dr Misia Gervis

Misia gained a degree in Psychology in London, and then went on to study in America to gain her masters in Sport Psychology. More recently she has completed her PhD at Brunel which examined the issue of emotional abuse in children’s sport. Misia has been a member of the school for many years and was commended on her teaching ability by receiving the Vice Chancellors Teaching Excellence Award 2003.

Misia has been an active sports psychologist for many years; she was a founder member of the British Olympic Association Psychology Advisory Group. She has worked with many international athletes and coaches from a variety of sports in her capacity as sports psychologist. This has included working with National Governing Bodies and attending World Championships in a number of sports. She was also an international gymnastics coach and has represented her country on numerous occasions in this capacity, including World and European Championships.

Misia was appointed by The Football Association in July 2002 as a psychology consultant with specific remit to develop sports psychology through coach education. Currently, several courses are running as part of the FA learning programme, she has also taught on the prestigious Pro Licence. Misia is the sport psychologist to the women’s senior national team football and has accompanied them to the World Cup in 2007 and more recently the European championship 2009 where they were runners up in the final.

Examples of media coverage

• www.telegraph.co.uk/.../World-Cup-2010-Fabio-Capellos-new-thinking-could-finally-shrink-Englands-inhibitions.html
• www.telegraph.co.uk/.../World-Cup-2010-Gordon-Banks-admits-to-Wayne-Rooney-fears.html
• http://www.bucs.org.uk/news.asp?section=8&itemid=2332&search=
• www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/.../Mum-the-football-hooligan.html
• www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/.../article2138937.ece
• www.news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/english/3241024.stm

Research Details

Misia has been involved in coach education for many years, and has been instrumental in developing undergraduate and postgraduate courses in coaching and sport psychology at Brunel University. Misia mainly teaches on the postgraduate programme focusing on the applied aspects of sport psychology and athlete welfare.

Misia is committed to enhancing the coaching process and the coaching experience for athletes. Currently she is researching into the emotional abuse of elite child athletes by their coaches, and through this work takes an active role in the Child protection in Sport Unit as a member of their Research and Evidence Advisory Group.

Research Centre

Publications

Journal Papers

(2010) Maitland, A. and Gervis, M., Goal-setting in youth football. Are coaches missing an opportunity?, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 15 (4) : 323- 343