Hypnotherapy for Athletic Performance

The mental component of athletic performance has been well documented, and most serious athletes know it from the inside: the training may be rigorous, the physical preparation excellent, but something happens at the level of psychological state — anxiety before competition, a mental block that arrives at the same point in every race, the loss of form that follows a significant injury or defeat — that the physical training cannot address.

The hypnotic state allows access to the subconscious processes that govern performance psychology: the anticipatory anxiety, the interference of internal commentary during performance, the patterns around specific competitive contexts or opponents. Working with these directly, rather than applying conscious mental strategies during a performance when the conscious mind is already occupied, can produce shifts that extensive coaching and practice have not.

Specific applications

The practice works with athletes on performance anxiety before competition, mental blocks around a specific skill or situation, loss of confidence following injury or a significant poor performance, pre-competition routines, and the management of pressure and high-stakes situations. Visualisation — rehearsing optimal performance in the hypnotic state, where the subconscious cannot fully distinguish between vivid mental rehearsal and lived experience — is often a component of the work.

The integration with psychotherapy

Mental performance issues in athletes are sometimes purely performance-related. Occasionally they point to something larger: an identity entirely constructed around athletic success, a difficulty with failure that has more to do with early psychological history than with competition, or a transition — injury, retirement, career change — that has unmade a defining self-concept. Dr Jacquet’s background as an integrative psychotherapist means that where the psychological territory beneath the performance issue is relevant, it can be addressed rather than left in the background.

Availability

Sessions are available at the Harley Street and Central London offices and online. For athletes based internationally or with training schedules that make in-person sessions impractical, the full course of treatment is available via secure video.