Certified Hypnotherapist QHHT Practitioner
Serving Long Beach and Orange County
4000 Long Beach Blvd.
Long Beach CA. 90807
Serving all of Greater LA
Shafaa Integrative Medicine & Dentistry
5767 West Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016
Child/Teen Hypnosis
As parents it is our responsibility not only to provide help and support for our children to the best of our ability, but to teach them strategies to help themselves as they grow into adults. Because hypnotherapy focuses on helping patients discover personalized ways of managing life’s challenges from a calm perspective, it is one of the most empowering gifts you could possibly give them.
The day-to-day life of a child/teen is all about learning and discovering. In today’s world this comes along with sometimes unexpected challenges which at times can cause stress, anxiety and manifest behavioral issues, just as it can happen for adults. No parent wants this for their child and absolutely no child is comfortable being in this state of mind. Hypnotherapy is one of the fastest ways in which a child/teen can resolve the issue gently and in a relatively short amount of time. Here is a short list of behaviors hypnosis can help with:
Issues for younger children:
Bedwetting
Fear of the dark (Nyctophobia)
Thumbsucking
Frequent nightmares
Impulse control
Issues for older children:
Stress/Anxiety
Self-esteem problems
Homework struggles
Focus/concentration
Test phobia
These are among some of the issues that can be helped tremendously with hypnosis. Hypnotherapy works amazingly (especially?) well for children. One reason for its particular effectiveness is that for children even into their teen years, playing in the imaginative mind comes very easily. This is a huge benefit when doing hypnosis work as it requires working with the subconscious mind, where the imagination lives.
PRE-HYPNOSIS
To begin a session we will spend time getting to know each other, discussing the issue and talking about the hypnosis process. For a younger child a parent is in the interview helping the child feel safe and comfortable, and is probably doing more of the talking. For a pre-teen and teen, they sometimes will choose to do this partially or entirely without the parent present. It is important to follow their lead on this. Since it was the parent who first spoke with us, we generally have plenty of information from the parent’s perspective going into the session.
An important aspect during this time is that the child/teen will be asked how they want to change the issue for themselves. Oftentimes they may not have the words to describe their feelings and how they want to change them. It is then that I will use positive affirmations to help the child understand that they have the ability to choose however it is they want to feel. For example, they may want to focus on feeling more relaxed, feeling focused, being more confident or in control. It is essential to help them understand the power they have in terms of controlling their own emotions and behaviors, and I help them find the tools they need to access this power.
HYPNOSIS
The child is guided into a calm, meditative and relaxed state of mind; a state of hypnosis. With younger children a parent is always present. It is in this state the ideas and suggestions for change discussed prior are given and they can use their imagination to solve their problems. It is important that the child wants to solve their problems. Rather than just taking your child to get hypnotised, it is important to first discuss with the child the issue they are having, help them identify it and make sure it is something they want to fix for themselves. During hypnosis they are assured, once again, that they do have the ability to solve their own problems. This can be a very empowering experience for a child and can have lasting benefits throughout their lives.