Sports hypnosis – hypnosis and body-oriented hypnosis in competitive sports
Introduction
Be it in the job, in competitive sports or privately – stress plays a role that must not be underestimated. It does often not make a difference, whether the stress is physical or mental. Hypnotherapy (hypnoanalysis) and body-oriented hypnosis are two important methods of sustainably processing stress (dissolving form of hypnosis) and recover one’s body. In much the same way, hypnotic strategies, such as suggestion hypnosis, imaginative methods as well as auto-suggestive methods are suitable to help a competitive athlete alleviating physical complaints (clinical aspect), improving movement patterns (aim of sparing movements), or being fit and motivated in competition to the point (concentration and motivation).
In the following article, the key bases of chronic strain phases are explained (reaction of the human nervous system to permanent stress) and some major clinical and non-clinical methods from hypnotherapy, body-oriented hypnosis and body psychotherapy are introduced.
The 3-phase model for permanent stress according to Selye
Particularly in competitive sports stress plays a role that must not be underestimated. For the human nervous system often it does not make a difference whether the stress is physical or mental (cf. more details under stress-related tensions). In this context, it is important to note that in the human nervous system there are two counterparts, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems (cf. graph):
The parasympathetic nervous system is the component of the vegetative nervous system that is responsible for the arbitrary control of most of the inner organs and the blood circulation that is not subject to a person’s will. It is also called the “calming branch of the nervous system”, as it serves the metabolism, the regeneration and the creation of endogenous reserves.
The sympathetic nervous system, in contrary, becomes active whenever we experience stress, for instance when we feel physically and/or mentally threatened (distress) or positively challenged (eustress). Its activation serves the purpose of providing energies in connection with the evolutionarily older flight or fight reactions.
First indications that there is a correlation between stress and many chronic diseases are obvious from the relatively new field of research of epigenetics. Co-evolutionary hypotheses for a joint (parallel) development of the central and the peripheral nervous systems also play a role in that. Particularly the origins of stress research, co-founded by Professor Hans Selye and his 3-phase stress model, indicated this correlation hitherto largely neglected in conventional medicine – perhaps except for psychoanalysis according to Sigmund Freud – already in the middle of the 20th century.
What we can learn from the research of stress pioneer Selye?
Selye recognized that the nervous system of animals that are exposed to (permanent) stress always undergoes a 3-phase model: starting with the alarm phase (phase 1 with the full activation of the stress mechanisms), followed by phase 2 (resistance phase in case of longer lasting stress and strain phases), and concluded by phase 3 (exhaustion phase with a possible affection of the “weakest organ” and eventually death).
Consequence 1 of stress: How stress inhibits the parasympathetic nervous system (“calming branch of the nervous system”) and why particularly competitive athletes often suffer from psychosomatic medical conditions
Why humans and competitive athletes are more susceptible to permanent stress than animals
Stress researcher Selye did his studies with animals. With respect to the complaints of psychosomatic nature of competitive athletes, however, (other than in comparison with Selye’s studies involving animals) I believe that it is utterly important that modern man has a far more advanced feeling for time (remembrance of the past, expectations directed towards the future) than the animals that Selye used in his studies. Particularly in competitive sports and other professions that are physically and mentally very demanding, a sufficient regeneration is important, yet sometimes impossible. Additionally, some past emotional injuries (unprocessed feelings from the past) and the associated negative thoughts, self-assessments, etc. contributed to it that competitive athletes miss the necessary recovery phases. In fact, in connection with burnout the struggle for recognition by performance often plays a crucial role. While animals often do not “think” of the past and the future, a competitive athlete is frequently still processing a currently ongoing competition. But his or her thoughts are maybe already occupied with the next competition, maybe because the next one is more important.
In this way, an athlete often decisively (and in most cases unconsciously) decisively contributes to maintaining the permanent stress and the associated emotional and physical strains (cf. also Zapolsky, R., 1994. Why Zebras Don’t get Ulcers. W.H. Freeman and Company: New York). In specialist language this is also called habituation.
Emptying the mind is a basic principle of meditation. This might be why it is so useful in dealing with and reducing stress. However, I believe that the therapeutic strategies outlined below are even more useful.
Consequence 2 of stress: How stress causes poor body postures among competitive athletes, which, in turn, promote psychosomatic medical conditions and thus impair the performance
On the other hand, with respect to stress among competitive athletes there are often very individual body postures, which, in turn, are associated with an individually acquired stress reaction. This is visualized in the following illustrations (see below).
Body pattern in case of distress: Stop pattern (body schema of anxiety according to Feldenkrais)
The body pattern in distress contains of tensing the flexor muscles in the body (flexor twitch) and holding one’s breath: This could also be referred to as “remaining in exhalation” Phase 1 of the Moro reflex comprises the paralysing reflex for fear that is visualized in the graph.
Body pattern in case of eustress: Start pattern
The body pattern in case of eustress (in which a situation is not perceived as threat, but rather as a challenge) is expressed in a stress on the extensor muscles (illustration to the left), some kind of “remaining in intensified inhalation”. The situation is thus tackled with a positive approach, albeit with inner resistance: Relaxation is not possible because of insufficient exhalation. I often find this body schema in my practice among athletes, in particular football players (including the associated bandy legs because of continuously tensed extensor muscles). They very often suffer from back pain and knee problems.
Consequence 3 of stress: Psychosomatic nature of high blood pressure and heart trouble
Stress, breathing, high blood pressure and heart trouble
Typical in the context of stress, changed breathing and the body postures described above is a high blood pressure. In conventional medicine antihypertensive drugs are used as a proven and effective means. However, it does not treat the cause for high blood pressure, but only a symptom. If the cause is to be treated, it is important to address the causes of the stress-related adoptions of an organism: Stress and unprocessed feelings such as fear, anger or loneliness. These issues can be worked on, both with respect to the emotions as well as the body posture associated therewith.
Necessary synchronisation of heartbeat and breathing
More recent research results show that the heart (heart muscle) and breathing (in particular the diaphragm) have to be aligned and “synchronized”, which is known as heart rate variability. Against this background it is not astonishing that undetermined heart troubles and cardiac arrhythmia are often associated with specific breathing, posture and movement patterns. It is not astonishing either that heart patients can benefit enormously from deepening abdominal respiration and loosening the tension in the musculature – this is apparent from the experiences with body-oriented methods. In many cases the respective complaints vanish completely.
Consequence 4 of stress: The “sensomotoric amnesia” – when the nervous system “amputates” parts of the body in times of chronic stress phases
The sensomotoric amnesia (SMA) describes the lack of memory of the sensomotoric areas in the human brain that are responsible for sensing (sensor system) and controlling (motor skills) the musculature (cf. also graphs). In most cases sensomotoric amnesia is produced by unconscious and long-lasting muscle tensions during chronic stress phases (by physical or mental stress) or following a trauma.
All feelings can usually always be located in the body – fears, for instance, in the abdomen and the chest. With respect to many feelings the brain areas that are originally active for the sensation of pain are involved as well. If a physical strain is too high (e.g. pain in an injured lack following an accident), or if feelings are unendurable, it may be that the central nervous system conceptually “amputates” some parts of the body. This happens in order to prevent having to face the pain in its entirety. This is most probably the process in the central nervous system underlying the principle of displacement according to Freud.
I think it is not unlikely that many psychosomatic disorders among competitive athletes correlate with exactly these changes in the central nervous system and the associated impairments of the metabolism: among other things because of the lack of movability of the part of the body in case of an SMA and the reduced ability to express changes in emotion in general.
Hypnotherapeutic strategies for treating psychosomatic blockages and hypnotic strategies for increasing the performance in competitive sports
Due to the mechanisms described above that probably lead to the changes in the central nervous system and the body, in competitive sports there are also many new possibilities to treat different complaints of psychosomatic nature and increase the performance. In conventional medicine these new methods are mostly ignored:
Hypnoanalysis (therapeutic hypnosis) in cases of complaints of psychosomatic nature (such as back pain) in competitive sports
With hypnoanalysis (dissolving hypnosis) the emotional causes for many chronic diseases can often be treated. On the one hand, the work with the subconscious often helps to find out how the main basic emotions (anger, anxiety, etc.) correlate with the current problem of the respective competitive athlete. On the other hand, the straining emotions (unprocessed feeling) can in most cases be treated and dissolved with hypnoanalysis.
Body-oriented hypnosis for treating blockages (such as back pain) and for optimizing movement patterns in competitive sports
The body-oriented hypnosis is the means of choice when treating competitive athletes with strong physical blockages (such as back pain) – cf. sensomotoric amnesia above. It can also be applied in order to optimize movement patterns. With hypnosis an athlete gets completely different access to his or her body and can “watch” even the slightest movements. Due to the fact that the so-called basic activation in hypnosis is much less than when under strain, in this way many small, yet decisive improvements in the movement patterns can be achieved (differentiated learning on the level of the body-self). These can certainly not be achieved with the standard training methods, as the cognitive ability is constricted under strain.
Hypnosis for the increase in performance in competitive sports – Use of imaginative methods and auto-suggestions in competitive sports
Along with the hypnotherapeutic treatment of physical blockages and the improvement of movement patterns with body-oriented hypnosis (treating and improving of basic capabilities as, for instance, in case of back pain), hypnosis can support an athlete in attaining an even better performance in a competition. This particularly includes imaginative methods, suggestive hypnosis as well as auto-suggestive methods.
Imaginative methods could for instance be used in order to run through a competition or the competition route in the state of trance before. In this way, the athlete gets a feeling for the competition situation. In the same manner, suggestive hypnosis methods can help approaching competitions with more ease. I also teach the competitive athlete to apply auto-suggestive methods. The athlete can apply them before, during or after the competition. The athlete is concentrated to the point and is able to regenerate and relax after the competition (or the training) quicker and faster.
Sensomotoric body psychotherapy in competitive sports
Body psychotherapeutic methods in competitive sports
Along with the hypnosis methods, in working with competitive athletes I often also apply body psychotherapeutic methods. In particular in case of anxieties anchored deeply in the body (among other things stress, e.g. back pain) these methods proved particularly helpful. They also help perceiving one’s own movement patterns more clearly due to the direct feedback of the therapists, change and optimize them.
Hereunder I want to explain the individual body psychotherapeutic strategies in more detail.
- Pandiculations according to Professor Thomas Hanna
By using the sensomotoric feedback loop between the brain and the body, it is possible to learn – with the help of a therapist – to no longer tense muscles that are unconsciously perpetually tensed (muscles that are not consciously felt and that cannot be relaxed, cf. also “sensomotoric amnesia“) in a first step. These muscles can be relaxed ever more consciously and with more control, little by little. The patient learns in this way to retract the superfluous muscle tension in a controlled way. In the course of the therapy the muscle tonus of individual muscles and body parts and the entire body is reduced during therapy.
If the pandiculations according to Professor Hanna do not suffice for relaxing the muscular tensions and the restrictions in perception (“sensomotoric amnesia“), in many cases some specific tensions can still be found in the musculature:
- Active trigger point or myogelosis treatments of the musculature
With this form of treatment, the therapists work selectively with the affected, hardened, mostly aching muscles. This method can also be applied for treating indurations of the connective tissue (fascias or subcutaneous tissue). With that, most of the pain points quickly dissolve. Typically, the pain syndromes cease to exist as well. Such a selective approach can be useful also for problems with the inner organs, if the pain points (or the tensed muscles) block nerve tracks, so that the nerves supplying the organ do not work properly or are unable to transmit electric impulses, respectively.
- Kinetic mirroring according to Feldenkrais
Some muscles are so strongly tensed that the loosening of the tensions is not even possible with methods such as the trigger point treatment or pandiculation. In these cases, it is possible to discharge the central nervous system (brain) producing the tension in the musculature by means of kinetic mirroring. Once the brain understood that for keeping up the protection patterns there is now “help from outside” it helps relieving the muscular tension at least a little bit. Thereafter, other methods can be used in the treatment.
By means of the three aforementioned methods, as a rule it is possible to selectively (by working directly at the tensed body parts) achieve improvements very quickly, so that the pain is quickly alleviated or even vanishes. However, in order to prevent that the pain does not even occur in the stress and strain phases, it additionally required an improvement of the body awareness in a change of the movement organisation:
- Sensomotoric learning according to Feldenkrais and body awareness training
If it is achieved that the tension in the musculature is selectively relieved, it is of course important for the patient to experience a sustainable success, and not to fall back in his or her old pain cycle due to the next stressful situation or old habits. With sensomotoric learning according to Feldenkrais and body awareness training the patent gradually understands how he or she contributes to maintaining dysfunctional (movement) patterns and what he can do so that the pain occurs less frequently even in stressful situations or does not occur at all.
- Integrative respiratory therapy – ideal for treating mental diseases and very pronounced protective patterns
When working with pain patients, selectively relieving tensions often causes greater relief. When working with patients with mental disorders (or with strong protective patterns, such as whiplash, for instance), I rather prefer the use of the integrative respiratory therapy. In fact, with respect to all mental disorders it can be observed that unconsciously tensed muscles obstruct one’s breath: They thus prevent that the diaphragm (the main respiratory muscle) shortens the inhalation and opens the lung, or – when exhaling – is relaxed again to reach the normal tension level.
In integrative breathing therapy, jointly with the patient I try to find out by means of soft touches and small, cautious movements where these muscles blocking breathing actually are. If the patient feels again where he/she unconsciously creates tension and learns how this tension is related to his/her breathing, these protective patterns are opening up little by little. Therapy here acts as exploratory, playful process. All patients with whom I have worked so far, really enjoyed the process. Actually, it addresses our innate childish curiosity and is not “educational”.
This procedure largely also corresponds to my philosophy as a therapist: The patient does not need to subordinate to my patterns, but instead I put my whole self in his or her issues. We then jointly elaborate on solutions for the patient’s problem.
Psychotherapy in competitive sports
In order to make physical and mental change processes fathomable and more manageable for the competitive athlete, I mostly also work with methods from psychotherapy. In this way the athlete can understand how his or her own behaviour has led to his or her complaints (psychoeducation). If the competitive athlete is already undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment, hypnotherapeutic and body psychotherapeutic methods can of course be a good supplement for psychotherapeutic treatment such as a behavioural therapy. According to my experience, the results obtained are more sustainable. However, this should be discussed with the treating therapist.
Notes and literature recommendations for competitive athletes
Notes
Please always seek classic medical clarifications for your complaints in advance. Acute problems should always be treated with conventional medicine.
Literature recommendations
- Selye, H.: The stress of life Published 1957 in the Econ publishing house.
- Zapolsky, R. M.: Why zebras do not get ulcers. Published 1996 in the Pieper publishing house-
- Barral, J.-P. (2006): The messages of our body. Südwest publishing house.
- Grossman, P. & Defares, P. B. (1985): Breathing to the heart of the matter: Effects of respiratory influences upon cardiovascular phenomena. In Peter B. Defares (Ed.): Stress and Anxiety, Vol. 9, Hemisphere Publishing Corporation: Washington D.C.
- Hymes, A. & Nuernberger, P. (1980): Breathing patterns found in heart attack patients. Research Bulletin of the Himalayan International Institute 2(2), p. 10-12.
- Acharya, U. R., Joseph, K. P., Kannathal, N., Lim, C. M. & Suri, J. S. (2006): Heart rate variability: A review. Med Bio Eng Comput, 44, p. 1031–1051.
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