01 Jul Hypnosis for Children and Teenagers
Did you know that hypnosis can be very helpful for children and teenagers, as well
as for adults?
Everyone, regardless of age, has the capacity to access their inner, or
subconscious, mind and to change thought patterns, limiting beliefs, habits and
behaviours. There is no limit to what hypnotherapy can achieve nor who it can help.
All that is needed is a willingness to enter this deep state of relaxation and a genuine
desire to make the necessary changes and improve outcomes.
Let me tell you a bit more about how it works, through the story of one child I had the
pleasure of working with.
‘Billy’ was an eight-year old boy who found it very difficult to go to sleep at night. He
had resisted sleep all his life and felt very anxious when he went to bed. This was, in
part, due to him being autistic and having a very over-active mind, with his brain
taking in so much information and him being hyperemotional and anxious. When his
head hit the pillow and his body was still, his mind went into overdrive. He worried
about everything. This had been his pattern all Billy’s life and his mother had tried
everything. She was at her wit’s end as she worried about the impact of Billy’s lack of
sleep which was also causing her reduced sleep and wellbeing. Hypnotherapy was,
as it so often is, the last resort when all other approaches and attempts had failed
and sleep continued to elude Billy.
Having established what was preventing sleep for Billy and getting to know what this
inability to sleep was like for him, I began to work on what might induce it. Firstly, it
was important to ascertain whether or not Billy actually wanted to sleep more easily.
When working with children, a first step is to set goals with the child and ensure that
it is the child who wants this change and not just the parent (Occasionally, I have
worked with the parent on his/her responses and approaches to the child’s issue as
well as, or instead of, working with the child). This little boy did want to go to sleep.
He really did not enjoy his racing thoughts and worries and had become fearful of
bedtimes.
Through building rapport and a positive relationship, I discovered what Billy did find
relaxing and where and when he felt most at ease, safe, calm and peaceful. For
everyone, this is different. For Billy, it was a quiet, calm and cool forest filled with
nature and gentle wildlife.
We worked on visualising this forest and really feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling,
tasting and sensing all that was in it. The wonderful thing about working with children
is that they tend to be very willing and open to using their imaginations and this
comes naturally to them. They don’t generally need to be induced into a trance as
they are able to achieve this state of relaxation and access their inner/subconscious
mind very easily and readily – they are good at using their imaginations! Billy had no
difficulty in imagining this cool, soothing, soporific forest in infinite detail and he
enjoyed doing so.
For the hypnosis, I incorporated describing this forest for him and facilitating his
imagining of it as he lay ready for sleep. I included the instruction to choose sleep
and to fall asleep easily.
During hypnosis, we are aware of what is being said to us and are always fully in
control. It is a perfectly safe and natural state that everyone accesses several times
a day. For example, when daydreaming, when arriving at a destination and not being
aware of the route you’ve just taken, just before falling asleep and just after waking
up. There is no loss of control and no danger as a hypnotherapist cannot make you
do anything you do not want to do. It can only work for good.
This was very successful for Billy in just three sessions. Sometimes it takes two and
occasionally only one session is required. Sometimes, it takes a few sessions. A
recording can also be used and I often create these after the first or second session.
‘An anchor’ can be set in sessions so that a child/client can access the state or
feelings required easily by themselves. Billy did not need a recording or an anchor.
His brain learned very quickly that this special forest meant time to sleep.
Hypnotherapy retrains our brains very quickly to work in the way we want them to
and that is more beneficial for us. It resets patterns and behaviours for positive
change.
After the second hypnotherapy session using the forest script, Billy reported that he
could not remember hearing anything beyond when he arrived at the forest and
entered it and the feelings, sights and sounds at that time. Billy needs only to hear
the first few lines or the instruction to arrive at his forest for his brain to get the
message that it is time to sleep. Two years later, this still works for him and he can
get himself to sleep easily. All he needs to do is begin to imagine this ‘special,
sleepytime forest’ and he enters a relaxing state, continues to drift thinking of this
forest and imagining it and, in no time at all, he has fallen asleep.
Such is the power of our subconscious mind and of hypnotherapy! Why not give it a
go to remove your own barriers to joyful and peaceful living or to support your loved
ones to do the same?
To book with Karen or learn more contact her at: [email protected]
