When you wish to be at your best in any area of your life, regular practice is the key to success. Yet you may struggle to reach the peak performance you are aiming for. There could be times when you are unable to physically practise your skills. Maybe you lack time, have a physical injury or are unable to find the focus you need. Perhaps a previous trauma or upset has led you to lose confidence in your abilities.
Many famous sportsmen and women have turned to hypnotherapy to help them find and stay in the zone when it really matters. However, hypnotherapy is not just limited to helping sports people improve their performance: you might be a dancer or another type of entertainer and want to improve your performance, or you might be keen to improve your driving skills.
There is an increasing amount of evidence that visualisation can be very effective in rehearsing your skills and improving your muscles. Visualisation strengthens almost every muscle group, so even when ill health stops us from physically practising our skills, we still benefit from our mind visualising us practising. The more detail used to visualise the skills required, the more effective the visualisation will be.
Hypnotherapy will move you into a trance state where you feel more relaxed. While in a trance state you will be encouraged to visualise your preferred outcome. Hypnosis has been shown to improve performance in a number of sports including basketball, football and badminton. Most hypnotherapy sessions are split into two distinct parts: ‘the talky bit’ and hypnosis. The talking bit, which could be either counselling or psychotherapy, will help you to understand why you feel as you do and to understand what can be done about it. The length of your hypnotherapy session could vary from 30 – 90 minutes. An initial consultation will generally be held prior to your hypnotherapy sessions starting. This is to agree the aims and goals of your treatment, to discuss any undesirable symptoms and to give you a guide for the number of sessions required. This will vary from client to client and depend on what you wish to achieve.
Peak performance is when you are performing at your best or most effective possible level – physically, mentally or both. When you are experiencing peak performance, you are so absorbed in what you are doing that nothing distracts you. The outside world disappears, so the only thing on your mind is what you wish to achieve and what you need to do to attain it. Peak performance is where you reach your full potential.
If you wish to be the best at anything, then practising the skills required is key. However, sometimes an embarrassing or upsetting event can impact your confidence and focus. It could cause you to fumble your dance steps, words or actions. You might find your attempts to get ahead have plateaued and you are unsure where to go next.
Your focus can be disrupted by stress and anxiety, diminishing your ability to achieve your desired goal. Reducing these mental distractions is vital to allow you to attain that peak state. The distractions could be external, but more often it is your own mind that causes the distraction with worries, concerns, or even a lack of self-belief.
When you attain peak performance, you are engaged, happy, productive, motivated and focused. How you get where you want to be will be different for everyone, as will your individual aspirations.Your hypnotherapist will be able to tailor your sessions to help you achieve the goals you desire.
Tiger Woods’ mental coach, Jay Brunza, hypnotised him to block out distractions on the golf course, when he was just 13 years old.
Mel B, a former Spice Girl, used hypnosis while opening a new performance of Peepshow in Las Vegas, overcoming stage fright and worries about forgetting song lyrics and dance moves.
Crystal Nicholls, a dancer in the West End theatre show of The Lion King, used hypnosis to overcome performance anxiety. She was struggling to overcome a mental block regarding a particular dance routine and was struggling to sleep.
Reece Witherspoon underwent hypnosis to alleviate panic attacks about her role in the film, Wild.
Glen Catley won his WBC Super Middleweight Champion boxing title using solution focused hypnotherapy.
Achieving peak performance is no small feat, especially when confronted with challenges that disrupt focus, undermine confidence, or limit physical and mental capabilities. Obstacles such as poor motivation, stress, and self-imposed barriers can derail progress, while inconsistent performance and skill gaps can further hinder success. To unlock your full potential, it’s essential to recognize and address these common hurdles:
Hypnotherapy is a very relaxing therapy and, once you relax, your body no longer feels in danger. This causes a drop in your cortisol level, which is a stress hormone. This can help you to have a better night’s sleep where you wake up feeling refreshed, with more energy. Hypnotherapy has been shown to help alleviate symptoms of anxiety and stress. Using positive language during hypnosis can help you to feel more motivated, confident and improve your self-esteem.
All of these are important if you want to attain peak performance. However, probably the most important area that hypnotherapy can help you with is visualisation. The use of visualisation in hypnosis has been shown to improve performance in a variety of sports. The evidence supporting visualisation continues to grow. This is where lots of details are used to create a realistic experience in the mind – so realistic that the body has even been shown to build muscle.
When you are in a trance state, you will be in a state of focused attention. Different brain waves become more prevalent and you will be able to see things from a different perspective, altering your perception of your life. The change in brain waves will also make it easier for you to take on new ideas and new ways of thinking. Most hypnotherapists use an element of talking therapy and this supports the trance session by helping you to evaluate your current behaviour and the way you think.
This will vary from person to person. Your hypnotherapist might ask some questions to help them calculate the number of sessions you need, such as, “What do you want to achieve?” or “What is interfering with you achieving your goal?” Another factor to consider is the level of your commitment. You might be expected to listen to an MP3 download every night or to perform some other task between sessions. You will see results much more quickly if you can do the things your hypnotherapist suggests.
The cost of hypnotherapy for peak performance can vary from one therapist to another. This will depend on your location and the qualifications and experience your hypnotherapist has. To give you a rough guide prices can vary from £40- £150 per hour.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support hypnotherapy for helping children to achieve their peak performance. However, there is a need for more research into increasing performance in children using hypnotherapy. It is well known that children often find it much easier to go into a trance state than their adult counterparts. This is thought to be because children are more open about trying new things than many adults.
Even before lockdown many hypnotherapists were running online hypnotherapy sessions for Peak Performance. The good news is that there is now evidence to support the effectiveness of online hypnotherapy sessions for a range of conditions. All you would need to take part in an online hypnotherapy session would be a laptop, tablet or smartphone, access to the internet and somewhere quiet where you can relax.
Hypnotherapy has been shown to be a very effective treatment for the stress and anxiety that underpins poor performance. Research has shown that the visualisation used in hypnosis can increase skills. It was also found that hypnosis was more effective when combined with a psychological element than just hypnosis alone. However, it is not allowed for any hypnotherapist to guarantee any success with the use of hypnotherapy.
Start out with the basics, Search for “hypnotherapy for peak performance” in Google or Bing. The results will contain a map with local hypnotherapy businesses. Start looking through their reviews either in the search engine or on their social (Facebook) pages.
The best hypnotherapists will be registered with a professional association and with organisations that are accredited by the professional standards authority. There are only two in the UK and they are the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) and the National Hypnotherapy Society.
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