Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of body awareness training on anxiety symptoms, emotion regulation, and psychological well-being in elite female volleyball players with mild depressive symptoms.

Method: This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all elite female volleyball players in Rashtkhar in 2025, from which 30 participants were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The experimental group underwent eight weeks of body awareness training (including focused attention techniques, body scanning, and breathing exercises), consisting of two 45-minute sessions per week, while the control group received no intervention during this period. Data were collected using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Gross and John Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the short form of the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance.

Results: The findings demonstrated that body awareness training significantly reduced state and trait anxiety, increased the adaptive cognitive reappraisal strategy, decreased the maladaptive expressive suppression strategy, and improved the total score and all six dimensions of psychological well-being in the experimental group compared to the control group.

Conclusion: The findings indicate the strong effectiveness of body awareness training in reducing anxiety, improving emotion regulation, and promoting psychological well-being in elite female athletes with mild depression. Therefore, integrating these exercises into the psychological preparation programs of sports teams is recommended as an effective, low-cost, and feasible intervention.