February 17, 6:14 PM Glendale Alternative Medicine Examiner Doreen Cohanim Children tend to be better candidates for hypnosis than adults. The reasons are children tend to respond to suggestions better then adults because children are in touch with their imaginations. Think back to a time when you were a child and how easy it was to imagine or daydream. For a child everything is possible, all he has to do is to pretend that he is a millionaire, a truck driver, a police officer or a doctor. He can even imagine himself flying like Peter Pan.
* Children tend to be better candidates for hypnosis than adults. The reasons are children tend to respond to suggestions better then adults because children are in touch with their imaginations. Think back to a time when you were a child and how easy it was to imagine or daydream. For a child everything is possible, all he has to do is to pretend that he is a millionaire, a truck driver, a police officer or a doctor. He can even imagine himself flying like Peter Pan.
Children can be hypnotized as early age of three, In my practice I have learned that children have no worries like adults do. For example: An adult may feel or think that a hypnotherapist will control them or make them tell their deepest secrets while in hypnosis.
Children do like the idea that they can "Stop the Bad Things Happening to them" such as seeing monsters, wetting their bed, hearing voices, sounds, or being controlled by bullies and the list goes on.
A hypnotherapist can help the child with the process of resolving problems such as pain, anxiety, bed wetting, asthma, cancer, fear, phobia, rape, anger, and much more.
This is how a child can be hypnotized! By having the child focus on one point or a spot until their eyes start blinking and begin to feel heavy to a point when the child eyes become sleepy! This is when the child enters into a trance state, this is when the hypnotherapist begins to tell the child some beautiful story relating to the issues a child is facing.
Hypnotherapy is different from one child to another, and it must be followed with a doctor referral in most cases, with doctor referral at least six sessions will be recommended unless the child is not facing the same issues any longer.
A Child can attend four to eight sessions with a qualified hypnotherapist, and during the session he could learn all about seif hypnosis and how to apply the tools to hypnotize himself. In some cases only one or two sessions are needed to solve the issue the child is facing, but no hypnotherapist can predict or tell the parents how many sessions their child will need.
Part of the therapy is to have the parent work with the hypnotherapist as a team. I also ask the child's parent to be in the same room during the sessions depending on the situation and the child's age. Before any therapy begins, written consent is needed, especially if the parent is facing custody issues or the child is under the age of 18.
This is how hypnosis can help a child with issues such as: Enuresis - Bed-wetting, Attention deficit disorder (ADD), and Nightmares.
Many doctors prescribe medicine for children who have a bed-wetting problem or ADD. But now more physicians are turning to hypnosis, because it has some very effective results without the negative side effects. The reason hypnosis work with children is because they are playful and active during the role playing of feeling better.
Asthma & Allergies: When children feel their throats constricting, they begin feeling anxious by starting to breathe heavily with their biggest fear of "I Cannot Breath" when fighting for Oxygen as a fresh air, In this case with hypnosis I teach the child to relax when the attacks occur and I calm him/her down by taking him/her to a safe place using the children's imagination.
* Each child is different, so it is very important to build a report before the therapist takes the child to a safe place, since what can be a safe place for one child cannot be safe place for another child.
Pain: Hypnosis is bypassing the critical Mind of the conscious mind in order to achieve a selective thinking within the subconscious mind, which it is effective by alleviating the pain for children. Children who are undergoing cancer treatments can use hypnosis to take their mind to a safer place, far a way from the pain and that can be done when the child can only access his subconscious mind. This is where the child creates an image that forces him to concentrate and focus on something else instead of his pain, such as using the children's favorite game to destroy the disease. When a child's is using his imagination for optimal recovery making their white blood cell stronger then the cancer cell, it's all about programming the subconscious mind so it can work together with the conscious mind in order to create the positive changes by planting more and more positive suggestions to achieve hopes, dreams, wishes, goals and desire.
The good news is that hypnosis is getting more and more recognized by doctors and many insurance's that will soon start covering it, because hypnosis is a drug free, risk free and no side effects.
Note: for some children it is harder to let go, so the therapy may take longer, parents aren't involved in the actual hypnotherapy session.