Hypnosis is a natural mental state and this state of hypnosis can be used for various positive outcomes. As people are open to suggestion while in a hypnotic state, they can learn to change their thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and attitudes. Actors, athletes, professionals … anyone from any walk of life can use this state to improve performance, to change habits, to overcome fears and phobias – the possibilities are limitless.
Hypnosis of children was first described in 1779 by Mesmer, who reportedly used hypnotherapy to treat a child with visual problems. Historically, hypnotherapy was rarely practiced with children because people thought that children could not be hypnotised. In the 1970’s, however, observations suggested that children were easier to hypnotise than adults, and that hypnosis could be used in the treatment of behavioural and physical problems in children.
As currently practiced, hypnotherapy most often involves teaching a child how to use mental images — similar to a daydream or fantasy — to enter an “altered mental state” (in other words, to induce hypnosis). Hypnosis is able to change thought patterns in the child and can make effective changes in the child’s behaviour.
Children are usually excellent hypnotic subjects as they are relatively untouched by prejudices and biases. They have wonderful imagination and are often in a state of self-hypnosis when they are playing imaginary games. The hypnotic state is easily induced in them by, for example, asking them to imagine that they are taking off in a space craft or that they are taking part in their favourite television program or movie.
Children experience a hypnotic state many times a day quite naturally; when they are waking from sleep or falling asleep, or just becoming absorbed in thought or in imaginative play. Generally, therapists who work with children make use of a light state of hypnosis. In this state, their minds are very creative and receptive to positive suggestions and can come up with solutions to problems.
Usually children from ten upwards - sometimes even younger - are quite happy to close their eyes, relax and enjoy a guided ‘daydream’ packed full of positive suggestions for them to ‘act out’ in their imagination. (This sort of practice has existed in Indian tradition for centuries and some may know it as yoga nidra). My sessions usually include positive suggestions for confidence and self esteem whatever problem is being addressed.
Younger children just see/ feel /hear things in their imagination as guided by the therapist. The process is more like engaging in active imagination games and they do this with the greatest of ease. Ask them to see their problem as a shape or a colour and shrink it or change it, they just do it! Children spend half their lives in their imaginations and when I work with them I get them to use their imagination in a positive way in order to help overcome their problems. They may close their eyes or they may seem wide awake; whatever they do will be right for them and whatever is right for them is fine with me.
They are encouraged to relax and feel at ease. Hypnotherapy has been used to help control hundreds of behavioural disorders, chronic diseases, and pain and discomfort that children go through: Habit-disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, nightmares and other sleep disturbances, swallowing problems, food aversions and choking (not related to anatomical problems or disease), nail biting, stuttering, various kinds of habitual spasms, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), pain-management, nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy, conduct at home, conduct at school, to improve grades, to improve reading and writing skills, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and ADHD (now, over-diagnosis of children as having ADD or ADHD has been to the detriment of many children).
Some Common Problems 🔗
The kinds of problems that I deal with on a regular basis are fears, examination anxieties and worries, bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), soiling, sleeping difficulties, coping with being bullied, trichotillomania (hair pulling), thumb sucking, nail biting, lack of confidence, lack of self esteem etc. Treatment varies according to the problem and the age of the child but will always include positive suggestions for confidence and guided imagery so that the children vividly imagine themselves overcoming their problems with ease. I encourage them to see, hear and feel themselves responding in a way that seems right for them.
Dyslexia 🔗
In a study on Dyslexia in 1975, Crasilneck and Hall showed that over 75% of dyslexic children can be helped with direct hypnosis. Following hypnotherapy that included suggestions for improving performance and pronunciation, recognition of words became automatic and faster.
Nocturnal Enuresis, or bed-wetting 🔗
Bed-wetting is particularly distressing to both child and parents. There are a number of possible physical causes that first need to be checked out by a physician. Equally, there are a number of psychogenic factors that may play a role such as loss of a parent, sibling rivalry, emotional immaturity due to over-protection etc. Very often the symptom is a form of passive rebellion by the child against the parent/s. The child discovers that bed-wetting is a weapon against the parent/s and often this pattern will continue long after the original cause for the (perceived) hostility is forgotten. To address bed-wetting, we have to help the child establish a motivation for bringing about a change in his/her life.
Asthma, wheezing or shortness of breath 🔗
Many children who suffer from bronchial asthma are anxiety-ridden, lack confidence and are dependent on one or both parents to an extreme degree. There may be physical factors that are directly implicated but often the parent is told that the child will “grow out of it”. More likely the child (and maybe even the parent) simply matures enough to resolve the emotional issues that triggered the problem in the first place.
Allergies 🔗
Allergies are another problem suffered by children, and allergic reactions are often associated with stress. There can be a whole host of stressful events in a child’s life such as relations with siblings, school, dependency on a parent, fear of interaction with peer groups, and aggression towards one or both parents sometimes arising from a past traumatic event. You may have heard about an experiment carried out on children whose allergen was flower pollen. In hypnosis they were asked to smell a rose in a sealed glass jar, whereupon they immediately had an asthmatic attack. Subsequently under therapy they were instructed in ways to control, and then altogether stop having asthmatic attacks, principally through the use of self-hypnosis.
Finally, there is the terror of the dentist’s chair. A professional hypnotherapist is able to use post-hypnotic suggestions with the child before the visit to the dentist. Here at Evolve with Hypnotherapy, everything is gentle, positive and is aimed at helping children overcome their present difficulty. The process is natural and safe. What is very important is that both you and your child are comfortable, confident and at ease with the therapist that you choose.
Like adults, children can be easily regressed in hypnosis and can then reveal the underlying cause of their problem. There is an effective therapy called the “Talking Puppet Therapy” where the child states to a puppet, in the hypnotic state, their fears and hang-ups about parents, teachers, siblings, school etc. The puppet is the grown up they normally will not speak to or about. The hypnotherapist is then able to reframe that which has been spoken about by the child to his or her great benefit. Hypnotherapy can be used in pill-swallowing, injections, and medical procedures for children. Also Hypnosis has been shown to be very effective in helping children through painful medical procedures like injections, dental work etc…