Stephen Bunting won a PDC major for the first time in his career last weekend. 'The Bullet' owes his success in part to a hypnotist.
Bunting was too strong for Michael van Gerwen in the final of the Masters, 11-7. Afterwards, he revealed that hypnosis helped him regain his top form. ''A one-hour session with a hypnotist is (effectively) a four-hour state so it helps you to focus, it helps you look at all the positives and stop looking at the negatives," Bunting told the Daily Star. “Your mind is 95 per cent negative so everyone of us will be in the negative side of the brain without even knowing it."
"I don't think there are many players who have dipped into that (positive) side, but to have that extra one or two per cent has helped to make me a champion now," continues Bunting. "I had to do something about my form because it was getting me down."
Mentally, Bunting was getting repeatedly put through the wringer over recent seasons. “It was awful - I was walking into events and I felt like everyone was laughing at me. I felt like no matter what I was doing everything was going wrong," he explains. “I was taking it out on my family and locking myself away. I was depressed, it was an awful place to be. Thankfully working with a psychologist and hypnotist has helped."
"To be honest, I was against it (consulting a psychologist) at first but I thought I needed to do something and that was probably the last step that I could take and I went," concluded the 38-year-old Englishman.
"He taught me how to think - not just about darts, but your family, your home life. I know they say in Peter Pan you think about happy stuff and you can fly, but it is the same sort of logic in darts. If you turn up and you are feeling happy, then you can win anything.”
It wasn’t a dream. Honestly woke up every hour through the night to keep checking the trophy was still there. So proud of my performances this weekend. I would just like to thank all the fans, my family, management and all my sponsors. Without you guys this would never be…
