Finding an Identity in Sports Psychiatry With Compassion and Commitment

Jowan Watson was an NCAA Division I athlete, playing football at Georgetown University, when a major knee injury knocked him out for his sophomore season.

“That definitely impacted my psyche,” he said. But he was also jarred to discover that “there wasn’t a lot of work being done around preparing athletes for the possibility of losing that huge aspect of their identity.”

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Now on the cusp of graduating from Harvard Medical School with an MD, Watson has worked to change the narrative by creating a first-of-its-kind residency training curriculum in sports psychiatry so future doctors can better help athletes in similar situations.

That work exemplifies Watson’s interest in helping patients navigate mental health and deal with the stressors in their lives — which in turn represents one aspect of his lifelong determination to help others.

Homing in on medicine and psychiatry

That commitment has taken many forms. Watson reaches people through teaching music. He touches hearts through faith leadership. He entertained the masses as a football player. But above all, he chose to bring his compassion and strength of will to the world through medicine.

“I’ve always had a passion for community and volunteerism and giving back, stemming from my upbringing in the church and my big family and the support that they have been,” he said. “I feel called to do this type of work.”

Through his time learning about medicine — first as an undergraduate, then during his master’s studies in biomedical sciences at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and most recently at HMS — Watson has explored a few different specialties. He has published on how the gut microbiome affects depression, how the sensation of vertigo is portrayed in popular music versus its actuality, and how mentorship can improve diversity in the medical field.

But once he discovered psychiatry, he was hooked. He worked with elderly patients struggling with periodic catatonia, igniting an interest in geriatric psychiatry. He helped other patients cope with a cancer diagnosis through expressive writing.

Helping student athletes come to terms with their new identities once college sports is no longer an option proved to be the most personal project he’s worked on yet.

“I see creating the residency program as a really great opportunity for us to be prudent and provide for individuals who are interested in sports psychiatry,” he says.

Watson will be furthering his knowledge of the field in general through a residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital psychiatry department.

Faith and mentorship

Watson said his faith and family taught him to approach everyone, no matter their backgrounds or beliefs, with love.

“Faith is the most important thing in my life,” he said. “It’s helped me in navigating patient conversations, respecting individuals’ perspectives and values and beliefs. It informs the way I interact with people at all levels.”

His drive to help others and meet them where they are drew him to become a mentor with the MV3 Foundation, which aims to empower Black undergraduate scholars who will impact the future of health and biomedical sciences, and an executive board member of Hope Medical Scholars, an HMS student-founded organization that provides an immersion program for underrepresented minority and first-generation students in New England. Watson also reached out on social media to let medical student hopefuls know he is willing to be a guide.

He has never lost sight of the importance of representation.

“It is hard to be what you don’t see,” he said. “Just providing visualization conveys that it’s possible and that you do belong in these spaces.”