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Lizzy Yarnold (pictured) had great sporting success in the Sochi Olympics, winning the only British Gold, in the Skeleton, a fast downhill sled event. At the time of her win the Guardian featured her use of visualisation in training (see my blog from feb 2014). As you know many of our tracks feature visualisation so I wondered how Lizzy used this and a few days ago she gave me an interview which is featured in my most recent blog .
It is a very interesting interview, it turns out that Lizzy had developed the technique from scratch just from speaking to her coach. This is very similar to the origins of Positive Mental Training - Lars Eric Unestahl created mental training for Olympic athletes by interviewing Gold Medal winners about the techniques they used. We then decided that these were skills which might help recovery from mental health problems. It is really amazing to find that Lizzy developed these techniques for herself. It’s a fascinating interview. Lizzy says ‘‘I am excited to learn that similar techniques I used to win races can help people within the NHS recover from depression and anxiety.'
We're excited too and feel that this confirms our observation that the same skills are required whether you are an athlete or an ‘ordinary’ person under distress. These skills will lift you out of stress and depression and allow you to function at your peak. Sometimes this really comes home to us when we hear that a patient has enjoyed great sporting success after using Positive Mental Training for recovey from debilitating mental illness.
Glasgow Workshop
Sheila and I are running an advanced workshop at the World Congress of Psychosomatic Medicine (WCPM) conference in Glasgow on the 20th of August at 1.00 pm, in which we will be discussing the use of altered states of consciousness in the treatment of psychosomatic disorders. As you may know we conducted an RCT in Irritable Bowel Syndrone. We have gained a number of insights from this and other research into psychosoma, including new work by Karl Friston and Anil Seth on predictive mechanisms and what they mean for mind/body medicine..
New box set format available
Positive Mental Training is now available in a box set including the DVD and 3 CDs (female voice only). This is particularly good for public libraries, health centre libraries, pharmacies and when used in situations where follow-up is not possible or less likely.
Training Dates
Please keep an eye on our training dates page to see when workshops are on near you. We will put up more in the Autumn
We wish you all a great summer.
From the FPMH team
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