He's best known for leaving his opponents in a spin on the canvas of the boxing ring.

But now former world champion Glenn Catley will be working patients into a daze in his new career as a hypnotherapist.

Mr Catley has just completed a two-year psychology qualification and will be treating clients for everything from anxiety, weight loss and phobias at a practice in Clifton.

Although he has never officially retired from boxing, the 36-year-old says he intends to see out his working life as a hypnotherapist and is keen to help sports people improve their performance using the technique.

The super-middleweight, who last fought in 2007, says he has used hypnotherapy to prepare himself for bouts for the last 10 years with great success.

Mr Catley, who lives with his wife Kelli and four children in Frampton Cotterell, said: "I make no secret of the fact I used hypnotherapy throughout my boxing career.

"Although people make a joke out of it, psychology in sport is becoming more recognised and people are seeing its benefits. It's phenomenal how it benefited me.

"My bread and butter will be helping people for things like anxiety, bad habits and smoking but I would like to help sports people with their performance."

Mr Catley, known as Catman, began his professional boxing career in 1993 and won the WBC title against champ Markus Beyer in 2000.

He took a break from boxing in 2003 after becoming disillusioned with the sport. Despite successful comeback fights in 2006 and 2007, he put his career in the ring on the back burner.

He said: "If the right fight came up for the right amount of money I would do it again but that's not going to happen. After the comeback fights I tried to get sponsorship but couldn't.

"I decided not to get bitter and twisted over it and thought I would keep on moving forward. I was inspired by David Newton, who was my hypnotherapist for 10 years and played a major role in me becoming a world champion."

Chipping Sodbury-born Mr Catley, who now has a diploma in hypnotherapy and psychology, said: "It's quite a big career change and for the past two years I've been training my mind rather than my body.

"There are quite a lot of misconceptions about hypnotherapy because of stage shows and Paul McKenna.

"People think those who receive treatment are totally out of control but it's a completely natural state to be in. We all go into a trance state during many parts of the day."