Hypnosis and Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is as much a head game as a physical one and there are now rumors of a number of major league players who will be using hypnosis to help them with the mental focus of the game (web).  The MLB rumors goes into more detail . . .

Doctors Thomas Newmark and David Bogacki
have described the use of relaxation, hypnosis, and imagery in sports
psychiatry (Clinics in Sports Medicine, 24(4):973-7, Oct 2005).
Hypnosis is a procedure during which a mental health professional
suggests that a patient experience changes in sensations, perceptions,
thoughts, or behavior. The purpose of this report is to briefly
describe the use of various methods of relaxation, hypnosis, and
imagery techniques available to enhance athletic performance. The
characteristics that these techniques have in common include
relaxation, suggestibility, concentration, imaginative ability, reality
testing, brain function, autonomic control, and placebo effect.
Athletes can use many characteristics of hypnotic trance to benefit
their performance. The techniques described herein facilitate learning
new information that can be applied in competition, provide general
relaxation to enhance performance, and assist in the rehabilitation of
injury or pain. The characteristics that these techniques have in
common include relaxation, suggestibility, concentration, imaginative
ability, reality testing, brain function, autonomic control, and
placebo effect. Hypnotic trance allows access to different functions of
the brain. Two different aspects of brain function are of interest.
First, hypnosis increases the opportunity to understand unconscious
motivations of athletes The unconscious motivations of the athlete are
more accessible in a trance than in ordinary mental consciousness. The
writings of Freud and his collaborators suggest that gaining a greater
understanding of the unconscious motivations of patients facilitates
treatment goals. In this context, hypnosis is only part of an overall
psychotherapy treatment plan. Hypnosis also permits greater access to
the functions associated with the right side of the brain. Gaining
greater access to the functioning of the right brain is useful in the
mental training of athletes. The imaginative skill of the right brain
can help make hypnotic imagery sessions more powerful and
performance-enhancing. It must be stressed that hypnosis is a tool with
techniques.

Hypnosis is not itself psychotherapy. Hypnosis has
its limitations, and will not transform an average athlete into a
superstar. A substantial amount of research supports athletes’ reliance
on imagery. Imagery training has been used to increase time practicing,
to set higher goals, and to increase adherence to training programs.
Generally, research on imagery in sport performance enhancement has
been positive. Another characteristic of the hypnotic trance is the
ability to assist in the control of autonomic function, including blood
pressure and blood flow. This control is important in recovery from
injury, as well as in blocking the adverse reactions to anxiety.
Athletes can be taught how to control autonomic functions through
trance, and can apply the positive effects to enhance performance.
Hypnotic techniques, biofeedback, and autogenic training may all be
employed to facilitate the rehabilitation and healing process. Recently
the power of the individual for self-healing is becoming increasingly
recognized. Much of contemporary psychosomatic medicine focuses on
enlisting the aid of the patient in mobilizing the healing process, and
hypnosis has a long history of energizing the healing forces within an
individual.

We seem to be seeing a trend of late when it comes to hypnosis and sports news.  I use a number of the above techniques when working with athletes or other performers but I also use a number of others not listed above that are even more effective.  It is gratifying to see some positive spin about athletes seeing hypnotists rather than the typical hocus pocus stuff.  These techniques work and they are extremely effective within the appropriate context.

All the best,
Brian

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