When speaking with Dr. Jillian Harley, the sport psychologist for Scottish Championship side Airdrieonians FC, one word consistently comes to mind: authenticity. Throughout our hour-long conversation, it’s evident that she has a refreshing ability to make others feel at ease while expressing her views, opinions and beliefs effectively. However, she candidly admits that during her early years of training as a mental practitioner within sport, it took time to develop and refine her now-evident ability to seamlessly balance her professional and personal identities.
“Learning to balance the professional and personal me was a challenge at times in the early days. One of the things I struggled with was ensuring I didn’t lose my personal identity but still finding a way of leading with my professional one at the forefront when needed. It was mainly in the non-formal moments where maybe every now and then I’d have a moment when someone would say something and I’d be quite reactive or my face would give something away. It took a wee bit of time but there isn’t a big difference between sport psychologist Jillian and non-sport psychologist Jillian, maybe a bit more sarcastic and a darker sense of humour.”
While she now effortlessly blends her personal identity with her professional role in helping athletes enhance their mental potential, working in sports wasn’t always the path she envisioned for herself.
“My intention was always to be a primary school teacher, but I didn’t get the grades to go into a teaching course. I got into Glasgow Caledonian University though to study an undergraduate degree in psychology. Overall, the first few years I thought were okay, but then I had a coaching psychology module and absolutely loved it, it was by far the most engaged in the course I had been.
“I found it was a much more positive version of psychology. It’s something I appreciate in other practitioners, the fact their case load is pretty negative. In sport, you have the balance of working with people who obviously sometimes aren’t in a great place, but a lot of the work places a heavy emphasis on progression and development. That was a massive appeal to me, the balance of both.”
That initial placement at Morton was pivotal in solidifying her desire to pursue sport psychology as her career focus. However, it also opened her eyes to what her future would look like and revealed several aspects of the role that she would look to approach differently in the future.
“Morton was great, we had really good staff and I was working within the academy. It was totally new as we were the first cohort to come through the doctorate at Glasgow Caledonian. It was the first placement of its kind and there was no psychologist on site. I didn’t actually know what a sport psychologist looked like. Now I look back and think I didn’t do this, or I did too much of that. A lot of it was integration, observation and feedback.
“I then went from Morton to Rangers, had two years at Rangers and spent two seasons in England with Southampton. Halfway through my time at Southampton, I joined Hearts which was a real challenge due to the commute. I’d spend the first half of the week in Southampton and the second at Hearts, my days off traveling.”
Getting her teeth well and truly stuck into full-time sport psychology at elite football clubs during this period, with the academy at Southampton and the first team at Hearts, these experiences allowed Jillian to come to the realisation of just how important a certain trait is within her role.
“Patience is the main thing to consider. It’s a complete privilege to have this role, to have people’s unfiltered opinions, feelings, history or whatever they decide to share with you. An absolute privilege. For me though, I think we can fall into the misconception that trust and people opening up to you is just expected, as if just because you say they can trust you they automatically do. A lot of the early stages in this job is having patience, creating conversations and observing.”
Now, currently into her third season working in her role at Airdrieonians, this patient approach is at the forefront in everything she does.
“I’ll go into a club and for the first four weeks I’ll just observe and create conversations no matter how generic or simple they are. We were on a pre-season trip and spent a lot of the time playing a question game, which was a really easy and simple way to have these discussions with the players.
“The role came about through a connection I had with the owner. They have an incredible recruitment team and I met with them and they said they were keen so would have a meeting with the manager and ultimately it would be his decision. I met with Rhys and he seemed relatively excited about it, I think he thought it would be helpful as they had a very young squad and he was a new manager, still playing and recognised there’s a space for psychology.
“Some players immediately came to see me and we noticed a quick positive change in their performance, which helped give me the buy-in with the players and manager. It’s not as if Rhys was apprehensive, but there’s always going to be an element of needing to build that trust. We were looking at the numbers of uptake across the squad and it’s crazy, I think out of a squad of 29 I had, at some point, 23 come in to see me. That is the biggest uptake I’ve had in a squad.”
After earning promotion to the Scottish Championship in 2023 and narrowly missing out on the Scottish Premiership through the play-off system last season against Partick Thistle, the club has garnered widespread praise for its patient, cohesive and passing style of play — something Jillian says has been a gradual process.
“It’s been about finding a way to communicate the message in a really simple way. Rhys and the coaching staff are really clear on how they want to play, how he expects the boys to do it and that is replicated in training.
“Airdrie had a lot of players come in this season and (coaching the playing style) is often getting people out of habits. There might have been specific styles that people have been used to playing in the past, but it’s a gradual process. It didn’t come from balls being launched over the top and then Rhys had them suddenly playing tik-tak football immediately, you look at the formation adaptions and change of personnel and it has been a slow process for the boys to build the confidence that they can play that style and create evidence to show there is real benefit to playing that way.
“It’s about trying not to over-criticise mistakes and focus on things like intention. Also, the manager is really big on taking accountability for when it doesn’t go well but they still play that way.”
Last season there was minimal expectation given they had freshly gained promotion from the league below through the play-offs. This season however, given the challenge they placed on teams throughout the season whilst staying true to their principles, will the expectations prove a challenge?
“We’ve got to take each game as it comes. It’s a team effort, everyone will play their part and contribute so it’s about managing the group. You’re always going to get outside noise within football, whether you’re an amateur or playing in the Premier League there’s always expectations, Airdrie just focus on what they know they do well and building that strength in the squad.
“For me, I want the players to be able to discuss anything they want with me. As I said, we’ve got a lot of new boys in this season so having them in the same position where they can talk to me freely and not be thinking about what they say, helping them develop and progress, I just want to be that person.
“I always say, I just want to do good work with good people.”
Quick-fire Questions
Describe yourself in three words: Genuine, ambitious and caring.
How would your family/friends describe you in three words? Determined, thoughtful and authentic.
Are you more introverted or extroverted? Extroverted.
Most challenging moment of your career? The commute between Southampton and Hearts? I can’t really think of anything major really.
Best moment of your career so far? Winning the play-offs with Airdrie. Pure pride.
What is your death-row meal?
Drink: Pepsi mix or, if alcoholic, gin and fresh lime.
Starter: Sushi.
Main: Nasi goreng, a Malaysian fried rice.
Dessert: Biscuits and cheese? Not a massive dessert person.
Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Sleep on it.
