The Benefits of Hypnosis for Children

Children are very easily hypnotised. Some hypnotists say they are in a constant state of trance.

What does this mean? Well. To begin with, it means to be suggestible, to believe what one is told.

Suppose a child is being picked on, or bullied. That child will undoubtedly believe what being  said to them over and over.

Take another child, whose parents constantly tell her ”you’re pretty, you’re bright, we love you”. That child is also being hypnotised, but in a positive way.

The subconscious mind soaks  up repeated messages. Estimates are that a child hears 10,000 hours of messages about who they are , what they are capable of and what their options are, by the time they grow up.

Most children have insecurities. These may manifest as bed wetting, thumb sucking or nail biting. These behaviors can become a vicious circle. A bedwetting child cannot go on sleepovers. A thumb sucking child may be made fun of by peers, and require expensive orthodontics. Both will feel more and more insecure, unable to establish positive peer relationships or have parents who approve of them.

Hypnosis changes the subconscious programming that led to the problem in a very short time.

A single traumatic experience can lead to  maladaptive behaviour.  It becomes self-reinforcing. A child who feels insecure may revert to baby-like behaviour. They get attention for this, usually negative but sometimes it is  positively experienced, so the child feels that at least some attention is focused on him.

However, a child should not be getting attention this way; it short-circuits all the possible  ways a child can get positive attention (making age-appropriate friends, doing well in school, having parents say “I’m proud of you”.

It is easy to hypnotise children, which is to say, make them relaxed enough to listen to  what an authority figure (like a friendly therapist) may have to say. And what she will say is something like

A child hypnotist writes a script before seeing the child, after phone consultation with the parent. She then establishes rapport with the child, says they are going to play a game in their imagination, and gets them  relaxed and involved. This is called the induction .

Then comes the script itself, with the positive message about what the child is capable of.

Last is the returning to the regular state of awareness. The whole session with the hypnotist will take less than an hour , as kids have short attention spans.

Christing Nightengale, B.A., C.H., R.M. (www.nightingalehealing.com) has been an Alternative therapist for 15 years and is a Certified Hypnotherapist. 

The material provided here is for general information purposes only and is not medical advice. Readers should always seek professional medical advice or diagnosis from an appropriate, qualified and practicing medical physician.

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