Articles

Fear of Flying disappears using Hypnosis and NLP

Studies show that fear of flying is very widespread, with perhaps as many as 1 in 4 people suffering to some extent, from those who have never flown to those who used to fly confidently until they unwittingly developed fear. You can overcome it! We have been able to help many people disappear their 'flying fear', or 'flying phobia' and, usually this has been accomplished in one to three hours, quite often in one session.

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Hypnosis for Pain

Can the power of suggestion really help you reduce pain, anxiety, and blood pressure? It just might.

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Stress Reduction Using Hypnotherapy

Stress has been called a disease of cultural sophistication. Our distant ancestors didn't know stress as we understand it today. Their less complex environment, while certainly more dangerous than ours, and lacking in modern conveniences and comforts, was more suited to a "flight or fight" response, which offered them the opportunity to act on their impulses in a way which we deny ourselves, by virtue of our many cultural inhibitions.

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Hypnosis Patients Twice As Likely To Quit

Study of 71 smokers showed that after a two-year follow up, patients that quit with hypnosis were twice as likely to still be smoke-free than those who quit on their own.

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Scientific Studies Show Hypnotherapy Can Boost Weight Reduction

More than a decade of controlled scientific studies and analytical reviews show that hypnotherapy, in conjunction with proper exercise and nutrition, can enhance weight reduction and help keep the weight off longer. A review of studies published in leading medical journals between 1985 and 1998 offers compelling evidence that hypnotherapy is the added ingredient that helps people stay on track with weight control.

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Unable to attain your goals?

THE WINNING EDGE IN SPORTS: A recent Wall Street Journal article (February 11, 2002) brings recognition to the field of hypnotherapy. Bronze medal Olympic champion Adam Malysz used hypnosis for his ski jump victory: "And before ascending the ramp and lurching down that icy slide in the 90 meter event, he descended an imaginary staircase-20 slow deep steps into a trance." (1) Then again, the Soviets and Eastern block countries have used hypnosis much longer than other countries for sports enhancement. Eleven hypnotherapists accompanied the Russian Olympic team in 1956.

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Flying Phobia Help - Using Hypnotherapy and NLP

Fear of Flying disappears using Hypnosis and NLP

What will you do to eliminate my fear of flying?

Everyone's 'fear of flying', or 'phobia of flying' is different, so the techniques we use to help you will match your particular circumstances. Essentially, we utilize a combination of NLP and hypnotherapy, the techniques we have found to be the fastest, easiest and most effective. The NLP Fast Phobia Technique, invented by Dr Richard Bandler, is often the most effective technique to help you get rid of your fear of flying for good, but it is not the only thing that we do. Sometimes, simple direct suggestion delivered with hypnosis to stop the flying fear, delivered comfortably in hypnotic trance works perfectly.

More often than not, a combination of approaches will help you the best.

What is Fear of Flying (Flying Phobia, Aviaphobia)?

Fear of flying is simply a learned response. The only fear a baby is born with is that of loud noises. How you learned your fear of flying is totally irrelevant in terms of eliminating the 'fear' response. At some point you simply got very scared about flying. Maybe there was a lot of turbulence during a flight, maybe the plane spent ages flying in a holding pattern above an airport waiting for permission to land and you began to wonder how much fuel was left; perhaps you saw pictures of an airline crash on television, or in a newspaper. Many people don't even remember how the flying phobia started.

However, like we say, it doesn't matter how the fear started, it can be eliminated anyway.

Categories of Fear of Flying

Most often people simply imagine something disastrous is going to happen to the plane while taking off, flying or landing.

Sometimes people have a fear of confined spaces (claustrophobia) as well which just compounds the fear of flying.

Occasionally, it is the fact that they are not 'in control' of the situation.

When people have more than one fear, such as falling, claustrophobia, losing control etc they are sometimes said to have what is called a 'complex' phobia, rather than a simple phobia such as spiders, snakes, mice etc.

In our experience a so-called 'complex' phobia is just as manageable as a simple one.

Symptoms of Fear of Flying

What virtually everyone with this fear has in common is that they imagine feeling scared ahead of time. Those with these fears who do fly (and there are many who fly despite being extremely anxious) will often use sedatives or alcohol in the hopes of controlling their thoughts and feelings.

Many will have sleepless nights thinking about an impending flight, sometimes months ahead.

Any or all of the symptoms of high anxiety may be experienced, such as sweating, tightness of chest, hyperventilation, dizziness, nausea and so forth.

Fear of the fear is common, being scared because you are imagining being scared.

Fear of Flying - Coping Strategies

Some will teach you that breathing techniques can be used to help control the fear, eating well before the flight, avoiding caffeine and sugar and alcohol, having plenty to distract you while flying (magazines, books, music etc.)

While these tips may well help some people some of the time, they are of absolutely no use to someone with a full-blown phobia, and in our opinion, only of limited use to those with a less overwhelming fear or anxiety.

How long will it take you to eliminate my fear of flying?

By using this combination of hypnotherapy and NLP we expect to eliminate the fear of flying, on average, in a 1 - 3 hour long session.

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Hypnosis and Pain Reduction Research

Hypnosis Reduces Frequency and Intensity of Migraines

Compared the treatment of migraine by hypnosis and autohypnosis with the treatment of migraine by the drug prochlorperazine (Stemetil).
Results show that the number of attacks and the number who suffered blinding attacks were significantly lower for the group receiving hypnotherapy than for the group receiving prochlorperazine. For the group on hypnotherapy, these 2 measures were significantly lower when on hypnotherapy than when on previous treatment. It is concluded that further trials of hypnotherapy are justified against some other treatment not solely associated with the ingestion of tablets.

Resource: Anderson JA, Basker MA, Dalton R Migraine and hypnotherapy International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis 1975; 23(1): 48-58.

Hypnosis Reduces Pain and Speeds up Recovery from Surgery

Since 1992, we have used hypnosis routinely in more than 1400 patients undergoing surgery. We found that hypnosis used in patients as an adjunct to conscious sedation and local anesthesia was associated with improved intraoperative patient comfort, and with reduced anxiety, pain, intraoperative requirements for anxiolytic and analgesic drugs, optimal surgical conditions and a faster recovery of the patient. We reported our clinical experience and our fundamental research.

Resource: [Hypnosis and its application in surgery],[Article in French],Faymonville ME, Defechereux T, Joris J, Adant JP, Hamoir E, Meurisse M.,Service d'Anesthesie-Reanimation, Universite de Liege., Rev Med Liege. 1998 Jul;53(7):414-8.

Hypnosis Reduces Pain Intensity

Analysis of the simple-simple main effects, holding both group and condition constant, revealed that application of hypnotic analgesia reduced report of pain intensity significantly more than report of pain unpleasantness.

Resource: Dahlgren LA. Kurtz RM. Strube MJ. Malone MD. Differential effects of hypnotic suggestion on multiple dimensions of pain. Journal of Pain & Symptom Management. 1995; 10(6): 464-70.

Hypnosis Reduces Pain of Headaches and Anxiety

The improvement was confirmed by the subjective evaluation data gathered with the use of a questionnaire and by a significant reduction in anxiety scores.

Resource: Melis PM. Rooimans W. Spierings EL. Hoogduin CA. Treatment of chronic tension-type headache with hypnotherapy: a single-blind time controlled study. Headache 1991; 31(10): 686-9.

Hypnosis Lowered Post-treatment Pain in Burn Injuries

Patients in the hypnosis group reported less post treatment pain than did patients in the control group. The findings are used to replicate earlier studies of burn pain hypnoanalgesia, explain discrepancies in the literature, and highlight the potential importance of motivation with this population.

Resource: Patterson DR. Ptacek JT. Baseline pain as a moderator of hypnotic analgesia for burn injury treatment. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology 1997; 65(1): 60-7.

Hypnosis Lowered Phantom Limb Pain

Hypnotic procedures appear to be a useful adjunct to established strategies for the treatment of phantom limb pain and would repay further, more systematic, investigation. Suggestions are provided as to the factors which should be considered for a more systematic research program.

Resource: Treatment of phantom limb pain using hypnotic imagery. Oakley DA, Whitman LG, Halligan PW.Department of Psychology, University College London, UK.

Hypnosis Has a Reliable and Significant Impact on Acute and Chronic Pain

Hypnosis has been demonstrated to reduce analogue pain, and studies on the mechanisms of laboratory pain reduction have provided useful applications to clinical populations. Studies showing central nervous system activity during hypnotic procedures offer preliminary information concerning possible physiological mechanisms of hypnotic analgesia. Randomized controlled studies with clinical populations indicate that hypnosis has a reliable and significant impact on acute procedural pain and chronic pain conditions. Methodological issues of this body of research are discussed, as are methods to better integrate hypnosis into comprehensive pain treatment.

Resource: Hypnosis and clinical pain. Patterson DR, Jensen MP., Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle 98104, Psychol Bull. 2003 Jul;129(4):495-521.

Hypnosis is a Powerful Tool in Pain Therapy and is Biological in Addiction to Psychological

Attempting to elucidate cerebral mechanisms behind hypnotic analgesia, we measured regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography in patients with fibromyalgia, during hypnotically-induced analgesia and resting wakefulness. The patients experienced less pain during hypnosis than at rest. The cerebral blood-flow was bilaterally increased in the orbitofrontal and subcallosial cingulate cortices, the right thalamus, and the left inferior parietal cortex, and was decreased bilaterally in the cingulate cortex. The observed blood-flow pattern supports notions of a multifactorial nature of hypnotic analgesia, with an interplay between cortical and subcortical brain dynamics. Copyright 1999 European Federation of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Resource: Functional anatomy of hypnotic analgesia: a PET study of patients with fibromyalgia.
Wik G, Fischer H, Bragee B, Finer B, Fredrikson M., Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Karolinska Institute and Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, Eur J Pain. 1999 Mar;3(1):7-12.

Hypnosis Useful in Hospital Emergency Rooms

Hypnosis can be a useful adjunct in the emergency department setting. Its efficacy in various clinical applications has been replicated in controlled studies. Application to burns, pain, pediatric procedures, surgery, psychiatric presentations (e.g., coma, somatoform disorder, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress), and obstetric situations (e.g., hyperemesis, labor, and delivery) are described.

Resource: Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2000 May;18(2):327-38, x., The use of hypnosis in emergency medicine. Peebles-Kleiger MJ., Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry and Mental Health Sciences, Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas, USA. peeblemj@menninger.edu

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Stress Reduction Using Hypnotherapy

Primitive peoples, when confronted with threats to their physical safety, had the choice of fighting or running away; both actions were fueled by, and consumed, body/brain chemicals, so that either choice guaranteed the dissipation of any long-term accumulation of these. Biologically, we and our earlier ancestors are much alike, and the "flight or fight" response is still very much a part of our natural rhythms. However the threats we face today are not usually imminent threats to our physical safety, but more likely to our dignity - our sense of ego - and since our cultural bias precludes the options of either fighting or fleeing, we are left with an overload of body/brain chemicals and no way to dissipate them. Essentially, this is the origin of the "new disease" of stress.

A stranger jostles us rudely on the street. Less than 100 years ago, this slight to our sense of self would have been settled with a heated verbal exchange, a fist fight, or perhaps even a shootout, thereby resolving the issue immediately. Today, given the same situation, we are more than likely to feel a jolt of righteous indignation followed swiftly by a searing rush of adrenaline - and then our cultural prohibitions cut in to remind us that we have no recourse, we actually have no socially acceptable option but to pretend to ignore the slight and act as though nothing had happened. Here we are, primed by our nature for a confrontation, but prohibited from engaging in one. The result is stress, stress, and more stress.

Our employer promotes an obviously inferior co-worker to a position of prominence. Some fool in an SUV the size of an earthmover cuts us off in traffic. One too many telemarketers calls while we're trying to watch "Lost." The brother-in-law from Hell asks to borrow money. You get the picture. One event after another annoying, frustrating, infuriating us . . . and there's nothing we can do to purge the toxic accumulation of body/brain chemicals. Stress, stress, and more stress.

But the picture isn't all bleak. Not only can hypnosis provide immediate stress relief by encouraging the mind and body to relax completely, actually to FOCUS attention on the act of relaxation by repetition of calming, soothing suggestions, but, through even deeper suggestion work at the subconscious level, hypnosis can promote dramatic changes in the way we interpret our environment, eliminating many of our preconceptions about what we find frustrating, infuriating and, thus, stress producing.

Although we are capable of an infinite number of choices, most of us have unconsciously narrowed our options down to only a few; we have a "knee-jerk" reaction to people and situations in our environment and we have come to believe that these are unavoidable and inevitable. What hypnosis can do is to reacquaint us with our true nature as choice makers and remind us that we do not need to be bound to our old habit patterns and reactions, but are actually quite capable of choosing different, more helpful and life-affirming responses to the situations and people we encounter in our lives.

Many people would be skeptical if told that being cut off in traffic need not evoke a stress-producing reaction, but through hypnosis - and its amazing ability to allow us to "reprogram" ourselves at the subconscious level - not only is it possible to avoid experiencing stress in such a situation, we can actually teach ourselves to take such a situation and turn it to our benefit. Imagine for a moment how refreshing it would be if every person and situation in your environment to which you now react with anger, or some other unproductive, stress-producing emotion, suddenly became your personal trigger for a smile and a flood of calming, relaxing emotions.

If this sounds too good to be true, that's only because you haven't yet understood the amazing power of your own mind to transform your life in any way you desire and intend. Stress-free living can be a reality for you. With hypnosis, it's all within your power to achieve.

Lynsi Eastburn, Certified Hypnotherapist, Denver Colorado

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Hypnosis to Quit Smoking Research

90.6% Success Rate Using Hypnosis - Of 43 consecutive patients undergoing this treatment protocol, 39 reported remaining abstinent at follow-up (6 months to 3 years post-treatment). This represents a 90.6% success rate using hypnosis.

Resource: University of Washington School of Medicine, Depts. of Anesthesiology and Rehabilitation Medicine, Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2001 Jul;49(3):257-66. Barber J. Freedom from smoking: integrating hypnotic methods and rapid smoking to facilitate smoking cessation.

95% Success Rate Using Hypnosis With NLP - A comparison of hypnosis to quit smoking and hypnosis combined with NLP reported a 95% success rate using hypnosis combined with NLP and 51% using hypnosis alone.

Resource: Smoke Free International's Proprietary Method Smoke Free International
http://www.smokefreeinternational.com/report.php

90% Success Rate With Hypnosis - Authors report a success rate in smoking abstinence of over 90% with hypnosis.

Resource: MMW Fortschr Med. 2004 May 13;146(20):16. Klager, R., [Article in German]PMID: 15344725 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

87% Reported Abstinence Using Hypnosis - A field study of 93 male and 93 female CMHC outpatients examined the facilitation of smoking cessation by using hypnosis. At 3-mo. follow-up, 86% of the men and 87% of the women reported continued abstinence using hypnosis.

Resource: Performance by gender in a stop-smoking program combining hypnosis and aversion., Johnson DL, Karkut RT., Adkar Associates, Inc., Bloomington, Indiana. , Psychol Rep. 1994 Oct;75(2):851-7, PMID: 7862796 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

81% Reported They Had Stopped Smoking - Thirty smokers enrolled in an HMO were referred by their primary physician for treatment. Twenty-one patients returned after an initial consultation and received hypnosis for smoking cessation. At the end of treatment, 81% of those patients reported that they had stopped smoking, and 48% reported abstinence at 12 months post-treatment.

Resource: Texas A&M University ,System Health Science Center College of Medicine, USA. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2004 Jan;52(1):73-81, Clinical hypnosis for smoking cessation: preliminary results of a three-session intervention. Elkins GR, Rajab MH.

Hypnosis Patients Twice As Likely To Quit

Study of 71 smokers showed that after a two-year follow up, patients that quit with hypnosis were twice as likely to still be smoke-free than those who quit on their own.

Resource: Guided health imagery for smoking cessation and long-term abstinence. Wynd CA., Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2005; 37:3, pages 245-250

More Effective Than Drug Interventions - Group hypnosis, evaluated at a less effective success rate than individualized hypnosis (at 22%). However, still demonstrated here as more effective than drug interventions.

Resource: Ohio State University, College of Nursing, Columbus 43210, USA, Descriptive outcomes of the American Lung Association of Ohio hypnotherapy smoking cessation program. Ahijevych K, Yerardi R, Nedilsky N.

Hypnosis Most Effective Says Largest Study Ever:
3 Times Effectiveness of Patch and 15 Times Willpower.

Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. A meta-analysis, statistically combining results of more than 600 studies of 72,000 people from America and Europe to compare various methods of quitting. On average - hypnosis was over three times as effective as nicotine replacement methods and 15 times as effective as trying to quit alone.

Resource: University of Iowa Journal of Applied Psychology - How One in Five Give Up Smoking, October 1992. (Also New Scientist October 10, 1992), Schmidt, Chockalingam

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Scientific Studies Show Hypnotherapy Can Boost Weight Reduction

Here's what the studies found:

Hypnotherapy is effective in weight reduction when used in conjunction with behavioral therapy.
Effective hypnotherapy programs generally consist of six to eight or more sessions of group or individual hypnotherapy.
Study participants who scored highest in hypnotisability had the most significant weight reduction results.
In studies comparing a control group to a hypnotherapy group, the group exposed to hypnotherapy lost more weight and kept the weight off longer.
Hypnotherapy helped people correct faulty thinking and associations around food and helped them get control over non hunger-related eating.
In a study comparing behavioral therapy to hypnotherapy, both groups of participants showed the same results at the end of the study. At follow-ups at eight months and again at two years, however, only the hypnotherapy group continued to lose weight.
Hypnotherapy can be administered by a therapist or via hypnosis tapes or self-hypnosis; all three methods proved effective.
Hypnotherapy helped study participants remember specific weight reduction goals and behavioral recommendations.
Unlike most programs, which focus only on diet and exercise, hypnotherapy might include suggestions for ego strengthening, decision making, stress management, self-soothing, mental rehearsal, and enhanced motivation, all of which are helpful in successful weight management.

References

Allison, D. B., and M. S. Faith. 1996. Hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive-behavioral
psychotherapy for obesity: Ameta-analytical appraisal. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64 (3): 513-16.
Andersen, M. S. 1985. Hypnotizability as a factor in the hypnotic treatment of obesity.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 33 (2): 150-59.
Barabasz, M., and D. Spiegel. 1989. Hypnotizability and weight loss in obese subjects.
The International Journal of Eating Disorders 8: 335-41.
Bolocofsky, D. N., D. Spinier, and L. Coulthard-Morris. 1985. Effectiveness of hypnosis as an adjunct to behavioral weight management. Journal of Clinical Psychology 41 (1):35-41.
Cochrane, G. 1992. Hypnosis and weight reduction: Which is the cart and which is the horse? American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 35 (2): 109-18.
Cochrane, G., and J. Friesen. 1986. Hypnotherapy in weight loss treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 54: 489-92.
Coman, C., and B. Evans. 1995. Clinical update on eating disorders and obesity: Implications for treatment with hypnosis. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 23 (1): 1-13.
Farrington, G. 1985. Effects of self-hypnosis audiotapes on weight loss: Relationship with ego-strength, motivation, anxiety, and locus of control. Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (6B): 2048.
Greaves, E., G. Tidy, and R. A. S. Christie. 1995. Hypnotherapy and weight loss. Nutrition and Food Science 95 (6).
Kirsch, I., G. Montgomery, and G. Sapirstein. 1995. Hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral weight loss treatments-Another meta-reanalysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 63: 214-20.
Schaumberg, L. L., C. A. Patsdaughter, F. K. Selder, and L. Napholz. 1995. Hypnosis as a clinical intervention for weight reduction and self-esteem improvement in young women. International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing Research 1 (3): 99-107.

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Unable to Attain Your Goals?

THE WINNING EDGE IN SPORTS: A recent Wall Street Journal article (February 11, 2002) brings recognition to the field of hypnotherapy. Bronze medal Olympic champion Adam Malysz used hypnosis for his ski jump victory: "And before ascending the ramp and lurching down that icy slide in the 90 meter event, he descended an imaginary staircase-20 slow deep steps into a trance." (1) Then again, the Soviets and Eastern block countries have used hypnosis much longer than other countries for sports enhancement. Eleven hypnotherapists accompanied the Russian Olympic team in 1956.

On the evening of June 2nd 2002 the L.A. Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings in overtime in the 7th game of the Western Conference Championship. After the game coach Phil Jackson credited his morning practice of self-hypnosis, meditation, and visualization with giving the Lakers the belief that they could win. Coach Jackson insists that the Chicago Bulls practiced daily self-hypnosis when he coached Michael Jordon and the Bulls to their 6 NBA Championships.

It is well known among golfers that much of the score depends on how a golfer thinks. Ben Hogan says, "Golf is twenty percent technique and eighty percent mental." (2) Jack Nicklaus has stated many times that he believes that golf is 90% mental preparation and only 10% skill. He prepares for matches by visualizing problem putts and mentally rehearsing how he will execute each drive.

Boxer Ken Norton has used hypnosis training before his famous victory over Mohammed Ali. That was the fight in which he broke Ali's jaw. Mark McGuire uses hypnosis to help him relax. Even Tiger Woods is believed to have done extensive hypnosis and meditation and continues to use a hypnotic trigger to focus his mind. (3)

Most professional athletes who use hypnotic techniques to help them perform are reluctant to discuss the matter openly. Perhaps it would appear to the public to admit weakness, perhaps some publicity concern around the stigma of "hypnosis" or perhaps they don't want to give away to competitors their own prescriptions for success.

Some key areas hypnotherapists can be of service to the professional, amateur or recreational athlete regardless of age, skill level or sport include 1) mental imagery and mental rehearsal of positive experiences or feelings, 2) confidence and belief in self, 3) concentration and focus, 4) dismissal of negative experiences, mistakes or losses, 5) anxiety control. Overall, this means practice in feeling, thinking and being the best one can be whether it's for sports improvement or life. Hypnotherapists frequently work with confidence, anxiety and concentration in a wide variety of applications, and sports is no exception.

Specific mental imagery skills for sports are a key component in reaching the winning edge. At the elite sports training centers, mental tools such as visualization, imagery and mental rehearsal are becoming an increasingly dominant part of the training regiment. Athletes watch video/digital recordings of their own successful performance or that of a favorite sports idol. Hypnosis can then be used to integrate desired changes or rehearse a success or win until it becomes part of the athlete's reality. With hypnosis, all the senses, feelings and positive thoughts can be enhanced and put into action. Posthypnotic cues can be used to rapidly trigger a state of calm, confidence or energy whenever needed. For instance, Iwan Thomas used the post-hypnotic cue of gently tugging on his left ear lobe moments before the gun sounded to start his world cup 400meter race. This cue brought him to a heightened state of concentration and helped him block out the noise of the crowd. He won the race and had the best season ever. Robert Fargo, a hypnotherapist who works with athletes at his hypnosis clinic in Windsor, England says, "What hypnosis does is it takes the champion's best performance, makes it available 100% of the time." (4)

Mental rehearsal of a precompetition routine develops consistency and improved performance. Hypnosis can be utilized to remember and practice mentally the routine used on a previously successful event or to create and rehearse a series of actions that are used prior to an event. Focus on a routine allows less time for the intrusion of negative thoughts, which give birth to anxiety and tension, two leading causes of failure in performance.

Hypnotherapists can have an active role in assisting athletes of all skill levels to reach their ideal performance state, often referred to as "the zone." J.E. Loehr (1986) found the following conditions to be key to optimal performance: physically relaxed, mentally calm, low anxiety, energized, optimistic, enjoyment, alert, mentally focused, self-confident and in control. (5) The value in controlling the onset and maintenance of the flow state through hypnosis is unlimited. Ken Perry (PGA pro) summarizes it well: "I notice when I'm in the "zone," when I'm playing really good golf, I hear nothing. I hear no cars, people, no nothing. I'm so focused, so tuned in, and it's so easy. But if I am a little off sync, I back off until I can go into my routine."

Anchors and dismissal techniques can be included in a sports hypnotherapy session as well. By exploring the visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities present during a success, win or even "the zone," positive cues or "anchors" can be identified and rehearsed. Anchors, for example, may include the smell of the grass, the sound of the bat hitting the ball, the feeling of running past the base, etc. Accessing these anchors before, during and after an event can create a positive mental state, give added energy or calm when needed and reinforce improvements or enhanced performances. Having an image or word/phrase to let go of or dismiss a negative move, mistake or event is important in any performance. For example, the baseball player could put the negative picture in a glass frame and shatter his picture with a baseball. Practicing this with hypnosis helps make it automatic following the actual incident. Such a tool serves to clear the mind of the distractive reinforcement of mentally repeating the event and the accompanying negative thoughts, thus reducing anxiety and quickly recapturing the necessary focus and concentration needed. (6)

Hypnosis can also be used to remove emotional blockages from the past that are affecting performance, relieve insomnia (especially prior to an important event), manage anger or other inappropriate reactions, assist in healing from injuries, improve pain tolerance and control negative habits. Habits may include dietary choices, practice schedules, alcohol/drug usage, self-nurturing and many more. Hypnotherapists can be instrumental in assisting the professional or recreational athlete to not only be the best they can be, but also to remind them to have fun. Improvement occurs when an athlete remembers the origin of their involvement-the kid in themselves enjoying the sport with pure and innocent delight. If you enjoy what you do, you are always a winner!

Artie McMurtrey, Larry Skolnik, Nancy Wheeler: Oregon 2002

Notes:

Barry Newman, Berry. (2002, February 11). The Key to Ski Jumping? Never Think About It. The Wall Street Journal.
Miller, Larry. (1996). Beyond Golf. Walpole, NH: Stillpointe Publishing, pp106.
Andrisani, John. (2002). Think Like Tiger: An Analysis of Tiger Woods'. Mental Game. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Gains, Paul. (1998, December 29). Vital Signs Performance; For Athletes, Better Focus With Hypnosis. Health and Fitness
Loehr, J.E. (1986). Mental Toughness Training for Sports: Achieving Athletic Excellence. New York: Plume.
Glad, Wayne and Chip Beck. (1999). Focused for Golf. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, pp24.

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so that they can see their potential and reach their dreams.

Contact Attain Greatness - 416-628-9827

DISCLAIMER: Although the techniques used by Attain Greatness™ enhance the self-healing process at all levels, these practices should not be construed as a substitute for medical examination, diagnosis, or treatment. Consult a physician or other qualified medical specialist for any mental or physical ailment. These are Holistic, Integrative (or Complementary) techniques and do not replace the advice of a Medical Doctor or other licensed healthcare provider. NOTE: Attain Greatness™ is not affiliated with any religious organization.