Hypnotherapy for life…
Nick Wright, former Editor at Golf World magazine
An increasing number of people are turning to hypnotherapy to overcome anxiety, depression and a wide range of stress-related disorders. But guess what? it’s a great way to improve your golf, too. Former Golf World editor, Nick Wright, is a qualified hypnotherapist with a busy practice. In this article, he explains how and why this particular form of therapy is so effective on and off the course!
“People often ask me how and why I decided to become a clinical hypnotherapist. My response is that the journey has been long-winded and convoluted but very relevant. And it’s especially relevant given the unusual and increasingly stressful times in which we find ourselves living. The importance of monitoring and managing our mental health has never been so important.
A sports writer and golf magazine editor by trade, I have been fortunate during my career to have spent time with many world-class athletes and coaches, including Olympians and major-winning professional golfers. These experiences have given me a deep insight into the personal mindset and psychological processes that not only lead to the highest levels of sports performance but also clear direction and control over one’s life.
I discovered hypnotherapy when my own life took some unexpectedly difficult twists and turns. Out of school, I went straight into investment banking thinking that I’d make a lot of money, retire early and spend the rest of my life on the beach or the golf course. The only problem was that I hated my work. I hated the greed, the culture, the suits and ties and the nine-to-five…everything. So, one day, at the age of 23, I walked out. For the last 25 years or so, I’ve been a golf writer and editor. I like to pretend it’s a proper job but, quite frankly, it’s mostly been playing golf at nice places, attending tournaments and shooting photographs of famous golfers. That part has always been fun; the publishing business, not always so. I started a publishing agency in 2004 with a couple of business partners and within five years we had an amazing roster of clients, including Callaway Golf, Rolex, Sotheby’s and John Deere. Life was rosy. I was living in the USA and enjoying all the trappings that came with running a thriving business.
Then out of nowhere came the great recession. The situation we now find ourselves in with Covid-19 is eerily similar. The economy crumbled, we lost nearly all of our clients and we ended up in court as business partners. To compound matters, during this same time period, I lost both of my parents to cancer. The whole situation hit me hard, destroyed my confidence and, over time, caused me to suffer panic attacks and develop OCD tendencies. I tell you this not to invoke sympathy – after all, plenty of people have endured far greater personal and financial hardships – but to explain how a gradual accumulation of stress can alter your perspective on life and the lens through which you view it.
I found help in the form of hypnotherapy. Once the inner workings of the brain were explained to me, I knew I was dealing with anxiety and depression. The panic attacks and the OCD were manifestations of an overload of stress that I was unable at the time to eliminate. Through hypnotherapy, I was able to rectify my thinking. I quickly became adept at spotting the warning signs of impending negativity and could consciously evade it and remain in the intellectual part of my brain. Of course, there were times when I slipped up and allowed myself to get low, but those lapses quickly became few and far between.
The first thing that impressed me about the whole process was how my hypnotherapist never, ever asked me about my problems. We always looked forwards instead of backwards and we worked solely on creating positive actions, positive interactions and positive thoughts – what I now refer to as the “three Ps”. I now know that doing so creates a flow of serotonin, a neurotransmitter created by our body that acts as a catalyst for mentally healthy behaviour. The second was the speed of the improvement. Within a couple of sessions, I was sleeping better, and within six or seven sessions I had greatly reduced my anxiety and I was no longer depressed. Most importantly, by operating from the creative intellectual mind instead of the reactive primitive mind, I was able to start taking the necessary steps to rebuild my business and change my life. All in just a couple of months!
I was so impressed by the speed of my turnaround with hypnotherapy I decided to explore the subject in more detail. The more I immersed myself in the neuroscience that underpins it, the more I realised that the levels of success or happiness in our lives are largely determined by the quality of our thinking. It quickly hit me that, during the first part of my career, I had instinctively operated from the intellectual and creative part of my brain but that, more recently, I had allowed the primitive part of my brain – the negative and obsessive part – to take control of my day-to-day thinking. And once the negative mind begins to take over, the brain always operates within the primitive parameters of anxiety, anger and depression. Fortunately, I was never the angry type!
One of the decisions I made to help get my life back on track was to use the information and processes I had learned during my own hypnotherapy to help others. I decided to study to become a solution-focused hypnotherapist and that decision has led me to where I am now – fully qualified with my own successful practice. Too many people fail to achieve their dreams, goals and ambitions – whether in sport, business or general life – simply because of unproductive or damaging thinking. I enjoy helping people replace anxiety, anger and depression with more productive and mentally healthy thinking. What’s more, the same philosophies that can help you improve the quality of your life can also help you improve your sports and/or business performance. It’s no coincidence that many high-achieving sports stars are highly organised, motivated and coping in their personal and business lives, too.
There are various forms of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy, but the genre I believe to be the most effective is Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (SFH) – a combination of psychotherapy and hypnosis. It is based on the work of the famous psychologist Milton Erikson and uses the best elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) and Brief Solution Therapy.
Whereas traditional therapy often focuses on discussing an individual’s perceived issue or delves into their past to seek its underlying cause – a process that can be unnecessarily stressful and upsetting – SFH focuses on the vision of who the individual wants to be and the change in thinking needed to get there. Hypnosis (trance) is used during sessions to help create the relaxed state that enables the subconscious mind to implement those beneficial changes. And, no, the sessions never require the use of a pocket watch!”
If you are struggling with anxiety, depression or any other kind of stress-induced disorder, such as panic attacks, OCD, PTSD, phobias and smoking, hypnotherapy can be a highly effective solution. Please feel free to contact Nick at any time at nickjameswright@icloud.com. You can also listen to a selection of guided meditation audio tracks at his YouTube channel, “Nicholas Wright Hypnotherapy”.