Three Pillars

Three theoretical pillars underpin Dr. Piatigorsky’s method—Dialectical Sports Skills (DSS)—namely Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and core sport-psychology principles. With adaptation, these translate naturally to athletics. The same skills that strengthen mental health and well-being also enhance performance and achievement.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

CBT facilitates measurable change. It treats psychological disorders by modifying maladaptive patterns in cognition, behavior, and emotion. Noteworthy features include its scientific, present-focused, goal-oriented, and skills-based model, structured by a manual.

DSS integrates the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (Barlow et al., 2018, Oxford University Press), a best-practice treatment for shared symptoms across psychological conditions.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT is a therapeutic program originally designed for psychiatric patients with emotional and behavioral dysregulation. It expands CBT with concepts borrowed from Eastern philosophy, especially mindfulness, dialectics, and radical acceptance.

Mindfulness refers to purposeful, focused attention in the present moment without judgment. Consistent practice sharpens awareness, concentration, mind–body connection, and ultimately self-regulation. Skills work better when applied with mindful focus.

Dialectics holds that opposites can coexist and, when synthesized, create new meaning. As a core dialectic, DBT balances change and acceptance, helping clients alter what can indeed be changed while tolerating what cannot. This reconciliation allows clients to both shape reality with intention and accept reality as it is in the moment. Suffering is eased by accepting unchangeable pain.

Modified for sports, DSS mirrors the DBT Skills Training Manual (Linehan, 2014, Guilford Press), a best-practice treatment for dysregulation.

Sport Psychology

DSS includes fundamental performance constructs such as motivation, confidence, and arousal, as surveyed in Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology (Weinberg & Gould, 2023). These multifaceted skills complement clinical practice, where athletic performance is typically secondary and not directly targeted.