Why UFC champion Tom Aspinall and other top athletes use hypnotherapy for managing anxiety and maximising sports performance.

You might not expect to hear about hypnotherapy in MMA, but that’s exactly where it’s making an impact. Hypnotherapy isn’t just for stress and anxiety — it’s a powerful tool for performance too. UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall recently shared how it helps him during an episode of The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett. He’s now seeing his hypnotherapist twice a week to keep anxiety in check, sleep well, and stay “in a tranquil place” so he can manage the mental pressure of elite sport.

In a recent podcast with Steven Bartlett (The Diary of a CEO), Tom spoke openly about how hypnotherapy helps him deal with anxiety, get better sleep, and prepare for the intense mental demands of his sport.

What I love about his account is how down to earth it is. He admits that, at first, he thought he had to concentrate hard and follow every word of the guided visualisations. But when he told his hypnotherapist he was drifting off or struggling to focus, the response was, don’t worry, your subconscious is listening. I find I have to remind clients about this too. It’s a natural concern — that you mustn’t lose your thread and you must follow every word but, in fact, you don’t have to try hard. You don’t need to follow every word avidly, you can simply relax — and while you do, your subconscious mind gets to work below the surface.

Tom’s not alone. More and more athletes are turning to hypnotherapy to fine-tune their mental and physical game. Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Joe DiMaggio and many others sports stars have used hypnotherapy to feel calmer, more focused, or more in control.

There is a solid evidence base behind hypnotherapy for many conditions such as stress and anxiety. As Aspinall says, it’s not “woo-woo”, it’s a well-established approach that helps people change the way they think, feel and respond. And the evidence is there for sports use too: a recent systematic review ‘Therapeutic hypnosis and sports performance: a systematic review’ found that therapeutic hypnosis significantly improves athletic performance, speeds up injury recovery and reduces psychological distress.

It’s not surprising that sports people are open-minded as they are already used to physical training to enable their their bodies and muscles to perform unconsciously, instinctively and with strength and precision, as well as mental training to control their nerves and feel confident.

But you don't have to be an elite athlete to benefit. At its heart, hypnotherapy is simple and effective. There’s no swinging pendulum to set you off, or barking like a dog as you exit the therapist’s clinic. It's just you, relaxed, guided by a calm voice into visualisation or gentle suggestion, while your subconscious mind realigns. You have all the resources and answers you need within you and your hypnotherapist helps you to tap into those and train them.  Your mind is wonderful, powerful and ready to help you live the best life possible.

Read more from Tom Aspinall from the The Diary of a CEO interview:

Steven Bartlett: You mentioned a term earlier on that we didn't go into, which was hypnotherapy. For someone that doesn't know what hypnotherapy is, can you give me like a broad idea of what it is and the role that it's played in your life, and any evidence you might have seen that it actually works?

Tom Aspinall: So I'm going, like, quite hard on the hypnotherapy now. I actually spoke to my hypnotherapist yesterday and I'm going to start doing twice a week now — for a few different reasons really, both personal and professional.

I had a situation recently with my kid where my kid was in hospital and it really kicked off my anxiety massively, and since then I'm struggling to relax a little bit more than I would usually, struggling to switch off.

So I think that, for me personally — again, I don't want to sit here and preach about hypnotherapy because it's not my expertise at all — but for me personally, it brings my anxiety down a lot, so it helps with that. It also helps with sleep. It also helps with just being in a more tranquil place in general. And when you add those qualities into what can be a very anxiety-filled sport, I think that's just a massive advantage — not to mention the other stuff that we talked about, like life and just general stressiness as well.

Steven Bartlett: For someone that doesn't know anything about the hypnotherapy, they might think that it's like, you know, back in the day, it was like swinging the thing in front of your face and then you fall asleep and they tell you you're a dog and you bark and stuff. It used to be on TV when I was younger, but it's not like that, is it?

Tom Aspinall: People are going to start thinking it's some woo-woo thing where you start going unconscious, and it's nothing like that. Essentially, you're just in a room — the way that I do it at least — I'm in a room with a guy talking to me. I'm completely relaxed, laying down, or sat up, doesn't matter — usually with my eyes closed. And usually he'll take you through a story, like you're going to a place, you're walking down a street, or he'll set the scene.

And I used to think I need to listen and focus in on every word he's saying, follow the story, exactly as he's telling me to follow it. And I actually spoke to him about it and I was like, "I'm struggling to, like, listen for that long, 'cause it goes on like 45 minutes. I'm struggling to, like, follow the path that you're leading me down for that long." And he said, "Listen, don't worry. You can be thinking about whatever you want, you don't have to follow what I'm telling you, ’cause your subconscious is listening all the time.

A couple of times I was, like, fighting to stay awake 'cause I was tired, and most of the time I did it after training as well, so I'm tired, like, fighting to stay awake. And I said, "Look, I'm fighting to stay awake, I'm, like, getting really tired." And he's like, "Look, if you fall asleep, it doesn't matter. Your subconscious is still listening." So it doesn't matter what's going on. And a lot of the time I'm just there, I'm just, like, chilling out. I'm listening to what he's saying, but I'm also drifting off with my own thoughts.

And I don't know how — again, I'm not like a psychologist, hypnotherapist, or anything like that — but I only know from my own personal perspective that when it comes to, like, anxiety and positive thinking and just generally being in a better place mentally, I just believe in it a lot. I think it really helps my anxiety."

Watch the full interview.

References

Miró, A., Mesperuza, M., Jensen, M. P., Day, M. A., García, F., & Miró, J. (Accepted/In press). Therapeutic hypnosis and sports performance: a systematic review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology.