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| Photo courtesy of Microsoft Guided imagery reinforces the desired behavior as a new known in the subconscious mind and facilitates improved sport performance. |
Imagery
is a powerful tool to help improve your performance in a sport (or just about
every other activity in which you participate). Remember: the subconscious mind
does not know the difference between actually participating in that sport and
“imagining, visualizing, picturing or pretending” that you are working on specific
aspects of your training. Therefore, when you can create that mental movie of
yourself pitching a no-hitter baseball game, nailing that landing on the
balance beam or riding a perfect canter pirouette, etc., the SCM processes this
information like it really happened.
It is beneficial
for me to know as much about the sport in which my clients participate so I can
create an effective, powerful hypnotic script that will help them achieve their
goals. My scope of expertise is in hypnotherapy—i.e., how to help a person
become relaxed and change unwanted habits or behaviors to achieve their
vocational and avocational self-improvement goals. I am also an equestrian; so
while riding and horse-related activities resonate most strongly with me, I
understand the commitment, dedication and sacrifice that all athletes must make to succeed in their sport. Before our first
appointment, I spend time learning about my clients’ sport, including its
rules, terms/lingo and history to get a better sense of their athletic
environment.
When I work with
clients to help them achieve sports-improvement goals, I encourage these
athletes to video-record their training sessions and/or competitions so they
can analyze what they would like to improve and why. It is great if their coach
or trainer will watch the video with them to provide an objective assessment of
their performance, including acknowledgment or praise of what they did right and constructive criticism of the errors
to suggest ways of correcting any mistakes. The client can bring notes from
this discussion to the hypnotherapy session so I can incorporate the
instructions or advice in the hypnotic suggestions. If my client would like me to do this, with his or her permission, I am also happy to speak with the
trainer to get information or clarification about specific nuances of the sport.
These conversations can be especially beneficial because the coach will outline
specific tips to improve the athlete’s technical execution of a technique, and
I can incorporate these technical suggestions in the hypnotic script.
I like to use
therapeutic guided-imagery when I work with athletes because, again, these
techniques activate my client’s subconscious mind to mentally engage in their
sport. It doesn’t even matter whether the person is physically (responds better
to literal and direct suggestions) or emotionally suggestible (prefer metaphor
and inference). When I customize the hypnotic script for an athlete, I take the
person’s suggestibility into account when I incorporate his or her
sport-improvement goal(s). During the imagery journey, the client will have
several opportunities to rehearse or practice making the desired changes to his
or her athletic performance while in hypnosis. In so doing, he or she will be
able to virtually experience how it feels to make these changes by engaging all
five senses: What does it look/feel/taste/smell/sound like when you do “x”? Engaging
the senses in this way not only increases the intensity (“reality”) of the
imagery experience, it also reinforces the behavior as a new known in the SCM,
which facilitates the desired change in behavior (improved sport performance).
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation
Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®
and to set up an appointment, please
visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/
©
2014
