The nice weather has got me thinking about how hypnotherapy can be used for one of my favourite pastimes – golf.

I have been working with a golf professional currently on tour in the USA. Whilst he was still here in Bramhall Cheshire we did a number of hypnotherapy sessions around his golf game.

Confidentiality prevents me from naming him, but suffice to say I am constantly checking on his scores and results. A strange thing happened with the hypnotherapy CD that I prepared for him. I played it back to myself and I won the next two competitions in Cheshire that I entered and also my son listened to it and he won the next junior competition at Disley Golf Club. Living proof that hypnotherapy works with sport, particularly golf.

Those of you who play will realise that it is all ‘between the ears’ and you know when you are relaxed and confident you are at your best.

Hypnotherapy helps to increase relaxation and confidence for many situations, but the results are extremely visible in sport.

I have played for 30 years and my best golf is when life is generally good and my mind is calm. Anxiety manifests itself in the golf swing or the putting stroke and is then reinforced. So when things go wrong you swing even faster or you TRY even harder to get that stupid ball in the hole!! Anxiety breeds speed and too much speed is bad in golf.

Along with a colleague who works in other sports I have devised a programme of hypnotherapy for groups and individuals that aim to improve your enjoyment of the game. (Otherwise as Oscar Wilde says – it just becomes a good walk spoilt.) We can deliver the courses which use a combination of sports hypnotherapy and other techniques at clubs around the Cheshire and South Manchester area.