My colleague Keith keeps asking me to get in touch with my beloved football team Nottingham Forest and offer my services to them… I tend to grumble back hesitantly… it looks as though we are less in need of it right now though… We have won our last 3 league games, knocked out of the FA cup one of the richest teams in the world and on Friday night managed an away draw in the next round of the cup to our arch-rivals Derby. Things are on the up with our new manager in place!

Another football league team have been using the services of a hypnotherapist though, yes indeed, the once mighty Ipswich Town, with some European pedigree just like Forest, have used the services of a hypnotherapist in recent weeks. Let me tell you some more:

This hypnosis article in the Sun states:

LOOK deep into the eyes of Ipswich players before their Chelsea showdown and there will be no fear and no doubts.

Neither will there be any evidence that they have turned into zombies.

That assurance came from the Australian hypnotist called in to try to help the Tractor Boys create a huge FA Cup upset at Stamford Bridge today.

Instead of waving watches in front of players to put them in a trance, Rick Collingwood supplied them with soothing CDs to help them fall asleep last night.

He insists that will be enough to ‘unlock the hidden power of their minds’ and help them play out of their skins against their Premier League opponents.

Ok, so when you wade through the clichés in the writing, you see that Ipswich are having hypnotherapy, but via CDs to use at home? I mean, why would you not work with them individually? If you are going to do something, you may as well do it properly, no?

The team and hypnotherapist involved apparently got some sitck:

Collingwood said: “There’s a lot of nonsense talked about hypnotism, and since the news leaked out that I was working with Ipswich I’ve been amazed at how much the club and myself have been slagged off.

“Luckily, I have developed pretty thick skin to deal with the stuff you get from people who don’t know any better.

“People tend to think about stage hypnotists, who get audience members barking like dogs, or imagining the cushion they are sitting on is filled with hot coals.

“Hypnotherapy is totally different. But it was pretty obvious that most of the players were extremely sceptical when I first got involved.

“The first thing I had to do was convince them I wasn’t there to turn them into a bunch of zombies, or promise them I could turn them from good players into world-beaters.

“You can’t hypnotise someone who has never kicked a ball and transform him into the best player in the world.

“But you can give players a vital edge, by convincing them the pain in their muscles is not as bad as they think, and by helping them concentrate better over 90 minutes.

“What hypnotherapy can do is considerably enhance your performance, by tapping into the subconscious mind to remove doubt, banish the fear of failure and boost self-confidence.

Ok, so there is some real sense being spoken within the fending off of dissenting opinions… I listened to the match report on Saturday and Ipswich did put up a great show against Chelsea despite losing 3-1. Their defence was actually hard to break down and their commitment was obvious by all accounts.

Another nice mention of hypnosis and hypnotherapy this weekend was from cricket commentator and ex-fast bowler, the legendary Bob Willis, in this interview in the Times, it states:

How did you get yourself in the right frame of mind as a player?

In 1977, I got quite heavily into hypnotherapy, which relaxed me. I also did a lot of long-distance running. I’d sing Bob Dylan songs to myself while waiting for the traffic lights to change.

Great to read that even back then people were benefting from hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

Ok, onwards and upwards with the week ahead… Have a great day!