Stephen Bunting reveals hypnotherapy technique he uses to compete with Luke Littler

Stephen Bunting has revealed how working with a hypnotist ‘changed his career’ to help him keep pace with his rivals.

‘The Bullet’ has established himself among darts’ top-ranked players over the last decade, as well as being a hugely popular figure on the PDC Tour.

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Currently ranked 9th on the PDC Order of Merit, Bunting has previously placed as high as fourth in the world.

Despite his continued presence at the top of the sport, the 41-year-old has struggled to translate his impressive spot in the rankings into major tournament victories.

His best results at major tournaments include two World Championship semi-final appearances, as well as reaching the last four of the World Grand Prix, UK Open and Grand Slam of Darts.

Bunting also famously ended a ten-year wait to win a Premier League match in 2025, before going on to record his first nightly win.

This followed on from a breakthrough victory at the World Masters in 2024, which saw the Liverpudlian defeat world champions Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen en route to glory.

With Bunting taking his game to a new level in recent years, he revealed part of his secret to success comes is hypnotherapy.

The secret to success?

Ahead of this week’s US Darts Masters in New York, Bunting hopped across town to join talkSPORT’s White and Jordan live on the 50th Floor of the World Trade Center.

When the topic turned to the pressures of playing in front of sell-out crowds against leading names like Luke Littler, the darts star opened up on how working with a hypnotherapist has helped him to cope.

Bunting said: “When you’re up there, there’s only you that can control everything that goes on. You can’t control how your opponent’s going to play.

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“I’ve been seeing hypnotists and sports psychologists to try and get the best out of my game and get that extra percent to be able to compete with these guys.”

And Bunting insisted that hypnotherapy has transformed his game for the better, as he revealed it inspired a huge upturn in fortunes.

He continued: “I can’t speak for everyone, but in my scenario, it was an important thing to look at. 

“A few years ago I was down on form and I was going home and taking it out on my family, locking myself away. I needed to obviously change some stuff.

“I’d seen a hypnotist and he literally got me thinking really positive, which was unbelievable. He changed my career, to be honest.

“We’d done a lot of visualisation as well, lifting trophies and stuff. Two weeks later than that, I went on to win the Masters trophy.”

Bunting isn’t the only big name sports star working with his hypnotherapist – with 2024 world snooker champion another client employing his services.

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Wilson discussed his positive experiences of hypnotherapy with talkSPORT in 2025, which has helped him to cope with the pressure.

Listing his hypnotherapist’s success stories, Bunting said: “He worked with Kyren Wilson and he went on to win the Snooker World Championship.

“And he also worked with Tom Aspinall, who went on to become the MMA heavyweight champion.”

Bunting hails hypnotherapy benefits

Explaining how hypnotherapy has helped him to combat stress and anxiety at the oche, Bunting also claimed it can benefit other areas.

The PDC star highlighted dartitis as an issue which can be helped by hypnotherapy, with the psychological condition causing players to be unable to throw their dart.

He explained: “The dartitis as well. My hypnotist, he deals with stuff like that. I know people who have had dartitis who he’s really helped.

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”The way he describes that, is you’ve got a bucket in your brain and every negative thought goes into this bucket. It overflows like any normal bucket. And that’s where your stress, your anxiety, dartitis, everything comes from, and the only way of dealing with that is the REM state.

“So obviously, a 40-minute session with my hypnotist is the equivalent of like four and a half hours of sleep, which helps empty the bucket.

“And that’s how you get rid of stuff.”