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Sports Psychology spreads its wings
The first group of students completing the new Certificate in Sports Hypnosis received their certificates this week, so I thought I'd put some thoughts down about my impressions of the course and it's impact.
Hypnosis is increasingly being used in sport, and a handful of sports psychologists have added it to their repertoire of skills, however it is still largely the domain of hypnotherapists, who usually only touch on sports performance as part of their basic training.
What's different about this new certificate is that it introduces qualified hypnotherapists to sports psychology, enabling them to understand both the psychology of sport as well as how hypnosis can be used in many typical interventions. Hypnotherapy too often gets a bad rap, and this course hopefully goes some way to providing some credibility to hypnotherapists working in a sports setting. It also enables those looking for a suitable hypnotherapist to know that someone with Cert.SportsHyp(CSH) after their name, has done advanced training in the subject.
What has been particularly pleasing has been the response, not only from the students, but also from sports psychologists who have been in touch. There's clearly a demand for better and more standardised training in specialised areas like this, and the keenness to learn more about sports psychology from hypnotherapists is very encouraging. This course won't make a hypnotherapist a sports psychologist, or vice versa, but I hope the very least it does is provide practitioners with a greater understanding of the subject, so they can use it effectively.
If you're interested in Sports Hypnosis at all, or want to know more, please feel free to join the iStadia club, or have a look at The Centre for Sports Hypnosis website. The next course is end of January 2009 - this one's for hypnotherapists, but if you're a sports psychologist then please get in touch as a course for you is currently being designed.
