Kyren Wilson’s incredible hypnotherapy journey from ‘breakdown’ in front of wife to winning Snooker World Championship
KYREN WILSON revealed needing to be picked up from the floor by his wife after suffering a breakdown was the final straw that made him turn to hypnotherapy.
And he is convinced that he would not have reigned supreme at the Crucible last year if it were not for that decision he made a fortnight before the 2024 Snooker World Championship.
Wilson, 33, beat Jak Jones 18-14 in the Sheffield final coming up to 12 months ago.
He has added four further ranking titles since, including March’s Players Championship.
But as he prepares to defend his Crucible crown, starting with a first round tie against Lei Peifan, Wilson told SunSport reaching out to solution-focused hypnotherapist and psychotherapist Chris O’Connor transformed his fortunes.
The Warrior said: “I had a breakdown. My wife had to pick me up off the floor in my games room because I was just staring at the wall thinking, ‘What is going on with my career? I don’t understand. I’m putting the hours in… it’s just not happening.’
“We wanted to try something new so gave Chris a try two weeks before the World Championships. I had nothing to lose.
“I’ve always felt I’ve had the capability of winning it but probably wouldn’t have won it last year if it wasn’t for Chris’ help.
“We started visualising kissing the trophy and lifting it in the air. During the final I’ve never felt so calm.
“I’ll never be able to compare anything to the pinch-me moment, the spine-tingling sensation when I made that happen. I can still see it now, it was just unbelievable.
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“It’s certainly a very powerful tool. You’ve seen a lot more of a natural style of snooker play from me since working with Chris. He is a massive addition to my team.”
Rather than the initial association with Derren Brown’s mind-boggling entertainment TV shows, hypnotism is used as part of therapy by a qualified hypnotherapist.
O’Connor, 48, focuses on mental struggles including fears, phobias, depression, anger and anxiety.
Sessions revolve around brain-based therapy to make behavioural changes by reprogramming thoughts, feelings and actions to involve positive thinking, ‘emptying the stress bucket’ and then trance or visualisation work via the ‘sleeping’ subconscious mind.
And Wilson certainly believes he is reaping the rewards of his weekly Zoom calls with O’Connor – or more frequent talks during tournaments.
He added: “Straight away, I felt really calm. My sleep improved dramatically.
“Something negative might have happened but Chris takes you straight to focus on the positives. You feel a load of weight come off your shoulders.
“Keep that stress bucket empty and the world’s your oyster, you can handle potentially catastrophic things much better.
“I would catastrophise things in the past. Now I can be more level-headed and not let things blow up.
“Just listening to Chris’ voice, I feel like I could go to sleep. No disrespect to him but every time I’ve spoken to him, I’ve just conked out!”
Former police officer O’Connor got into the industry after his own struggles and suicidal thoughts, finding that hypnotherapy helped in ways traditional counselling and medication did not.
He reckons any backlash, criticism and scepticism to using hypnosis comes from a lack of understanding and education.
The Manchester United season ticket holder has helped people from all walks of life – from GCSE students, pensioners and sufferers of IBS and MS to a drug-addict businessman and elite-level sports stars.
O’Connor – who runs Eccleston Park Hypnotherapy just outside St Helens and credits fellow clinical hypnotherapist Cathy Eland for her support – explained the practicalities of hypnosis: “We utilise the subconscious mind to make changes through activating our hypnosis which is a form of dreaming, a deep concentration, focus and relaxation.
“Trance work is like telling a good story, getting the client nice and relaxed, maybe take them on a beach or a tropical island.
“Usually my voice will drift in and out.
“They might see colours or shapes. They might feel heavy, stuck on the couch. They might feel like they’re floating which is a really nice feeling. They might feel sensations of warmth or cold. It’s different for every person.
“The sessions I do with Kyren are the same sessions I do with a six-year-old girl and a 90-year-old lady who are coming to see me. Hypnotherapy is universal.
“Aside from Kyren, my greatest success story is helping a functioning addict off heroin.
“He had his own scaffolding business and sat in front of me and said, ‘I’m going to kill myself or kill someone else.’
“He was smoking heroin before work and was really concerned he was going to do something silly.
“This helps everyone who wants it to work. You can’t make someone do something they don’t want to do.”
Anxiety doesn’t know if you’re a highly-powered business person, giving a school assembly to 1,000 people or playing at the Crucible. Anxiety is anxiety. It’s emotional, irrational, impulsive, erratic.
Chris O'Connor
Wilson is not the only high-profile athlete to turn to hypnotherapy – with Rory McIlroy revealing he took the same approach before finally conquering his Masters hoodoo at Augusta.
O’Connor, meanwhile, counts Stephen Bunting, Nathan Aspinall, Raymond van Barneveld, Ross Smith, Tom Aspinall and Stuart Bingham among his long list of sporting clients alongside the snooker world champ.
He has enabled more than 60 players globally to overcome ‘dartitis’, a condition that sees a mental block physically stop someone from releasing a dart.
Bunting mental
And for Premier League Darts duo Bunting and Aspinall, who both have sessions on Thursdays, their fortunes have turned around dramatically since collaborating with the hypnotherapist.
O’Connor explained: “I started working with Stephen when he was No35 in the world.
“He was struggling with confidence, having panic attacks, hot and cold flushes, not confident at all and was on about actually giving the sport up.
“Within six months, his performances went through the roof. Now he’s in the Premier League and No5 in the world.
“Stephen advised Nathan to see me. His transition has been amazing within three months.
“Anxiety doesn’t know if you’re a highly-powered business person, giving a school assembly to 1,000 people or playing at the Crucible. Anxiety is anxiety.
“It’s emotional, irrational, impulsive, erratic. It’s not what you want when you’re performing at the highest level.”
‘I could help Fury’
O’Connor was an amateur boxer in his younger days but remains heavily involved in boxing and now UFC as a timekeeper, watching the clocks for some of the biggest fights in recent years.
He worked ringside for Oleksandr Usyk vs Tony Bellew, Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol, Amir Khan vs Kell Brook and even for Tyson Fury bouts.
And of all professional sports stars, O’Connor identified the Gypsy King as the one he would most like to work with.
He said: “I think Tyson could really benefit from hypnotherapy. He is a high-performing athlete and complex character who says he’s got obsessive behaviours.
“I could help with keeping his anxiety levels really low, help his sleep, help his performance, help the way he is in his life.”