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Children today face a growing number of pressures, problems and demands that can adversely affect their motivation, sense of self-esteem and ability and these can be helped through hypnotherapy.
Some of the common areas that can be helped by hypnosis are:
- ADD
- Fears and anxieties
- Depression
- Pain
- Bed wetting
- Thumb sucking
- Nightmares
- School issues
- Building confidence
- Nightmares
- Death
- Divorce
- New baby
- Pain with cancer and cancer treatment
- Learning difficulties
- Weight problems
- Relationships
Hypnosis can be seen as a state of concentrated and focused attention, directed inward that is very similar to daydreaming. It allows access to the highly suggestible unconscious by quieting or bypassing the conscious mind. The rational processes of the conscious mind are suspended while the mind itself is occupied by deeper and more significant feelings and images.
Most children do not fully develop cognitive processes until they reach the age of 11 or 12. Until that age information is uncritically experienced by the child rather than being processed and critically evaluated. It is sometimes perceived that children have short attention spans, so many parents have not thought of using hypnosis with children.
In fact children do not worry about the same theories and facts about the world and how things should be. Children are often in a state of self-hypnosis when they are playing imaginary games They respond easily to stories that create images of the desired results. They have such wonderful imaginations and such a strong belief in and fascination of magic and really wonderful things can be created for them. Most hypnosis with children is done using their imagination. Imagination is the doorway between the conscious and unconscious levels of the mind. It is important however that the child wants to come and recognizes that they have a problem that they want to solve. Hypnotherapy and other altered-state methods is about empowering the child to help themselves, so that they can deal effectively not only with the present but also with any problems in the future.
SESSIONS
Children aged 6 or older respond best to the hypnosis.
As in any therapy, it is important for parents to know what is going on. But in the actual session the parent is either relaxing and waiting outside of the therapy room or in the background. So they really don't play any part in the actual therapy. Most sessions with children are shorter, generally about 45 minutes.
It is not being said that hypnosis is always successful, but in the substantial majority of cases the child achieves a satisfactory outcome. Hypnotherapy does not rely on synthetic drugs. The power of the child's mind in hypnosis is much more effective and physiologically harmless. Children are often able to cope better without the need for drugs.
HOMEWORK
Children are sometimes given homework to do. This could involve learning a magic spell, keeping a reward chart or diary, drawing pictures or some other simple exercises. This is about empowering the child to help him or her self, and build confidence and the belief that they did most of the work in solving the problem.
Research: Suicides linked to antidepressants
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/04/health/main634089.shtml
Research: Secret US report surfaces on antidepressants in children
Click on this link for full info:
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7461/307?ecoll&eaf
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