Harvey Dorfman was obviously one of the greatest mental coaches sport has seen. When you have that many players attesting to his help—that says it all.
Conventional wisdom and training suggests that an in your face approach as both Mike Pelfry and Dan Wathren attested worked for them—is not what works with all players. And perhaps Dorfamn did not use this with all of his clients, but it certainly was effective with Pelfrey and Wathren and I bet a few others.
Treatment and helping others takes many forms. I am always searching to help people understand the meaning of their behaviors and try hard not to be judgmental of others.
I have people who come to me who have seen psychics and after they tell me wait for my response. I usually ask them if they found it helpful and often the response is yes. While I do not employ psychics to assist me, if others find it helpful then that is all that counts.
There remains a stigma both in sports and the general population that if you see therapist or psychologist, or mental coach as was the case with Dorfman, you have severe problems. That is far from the case as Pelfrey noted in the article posted below.
I am for what helps people and makes them feel better. If in fact Dorfman’s approach was helpful to his clients then his body of work stands for itself.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/pelfrey-laments-death-of-psychologist-1.2722598.