Hypnosis for Children: Alternative ways to treat childhood disorders and illnesses with hypnosis

Next time your child enters that glazed-over dreamy state while you are talking to him about cleaning his room, stop and think for a moment about how that could be used for something more positive. Children, who are easily bored and distracted by an adult's voice, may be the perfect candidates for hypnosis and hypnotherapy. The fact that they can tune out, puts them in the right frame of mindduring the induction stage of hypnotherapy to let that work process work for them extremely well.

Some of the uses for hypnotherapy include many common childhood illnesses or disorders such as:

- Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
- Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Physical Pain
- Anxiety Disorders
- Behavioral Issues
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Most hypnotherapy used with children is in addition to and complementary to medical treatments, even though in many cases the hypnosis alone could be effective. For example, a child with ADD should also receive behavioral training for both the child and parents to compensate for the area of the brain that does not make the connections needed for proper attention span. The schools can also get involved in creating procedures to make up for the inability to focus, such as written instructions and follow up questions related to assignments. Then hypnosis can come in and work at redirecting thoughts so that the step-by-step focus that is missing in a child with ADD can be improved.

The medical and psychiatric community is still in its infancy in the adoption of hypnosis as a complete therapy without the additional medication, but the fact that there are many medical professionals using hypnosis in any form is promising. So in most cases, a child with ADD will still receive medication along with the behavioral management and hypnotherapy.
Hypnosis is basically the same for children as it is for adults. It is just as safe and just as effective, maybe even more so, than traditional therapies. It may be only that the conditions being treated are different. However, when a child or adolescent has something like OCD which can carry into adulthood, it can often be nipped in the bud during childhood with hypnotherapy.

When a child is hypnotized, they are still awake. It is a positive fact that they can easily go into that trance-like state that resembles the attention they give a parent's voice while they are watching their favorite television program. Subconsciously they are hearing the parents or the hypnotherapist, but it doesn't quite register until later. This is the desired result of hypnosis in children, just as it is with adults.

Hypnotherapy in children is not uncommon. It is most often associated with treating post traumatic disorders, but hypnosis is now being viewed as a viable treatment for many childhood conditions.

Steve G. Jones, Clinical Hypnotherapist
http://www.betterlivingwithhypnosis.com/

From Jogging Memory to Solving Crimes: Forensic Hypnosis - How Investigative Hypnosis Can Work for the Average Person

It may all sound mysterious or the stuff that crime dramas are made of, but forensic or investigative hypnosis is just a formal way of describing how hypnosis is used to bring suppressed memories or subconscious thoughts to the forefront. It has, in fact been used to solve crimes much like a composite sketch could be used to visualize a suspect. But there are other everyday ways in which hypnosis can be used to recreate a distant memory or connect the dots of a vague picture captured only by the subconscious mind.

The mind absorbs much more of what goes on around you than the brain actually registers at the moment. There are millions of signals or messages that enter the brain, even though we don’t always focus on them. Sometimes that which happens, but that we don’t recognize or focus on can help to solve everyday problems and not just crimes.

Whether used in recognizing the unrealized image of a get-away car or the reasons behind a compulsive behavior, hypnosis works the same. It is all about reaching a complete state of relaxation and then using that relaxed time to tap into the subconscious memory. It is at this time of total relaxation that everyday problems, stresses, or even the good demands on your thoughts and time are pushed aside so that other thoughts can take center stage.

Here is short list of problems related to suppressed memories which can be helped by hypnosis:

- Fear of Dogs
- Binge Drinking
- Migraine Headaches
- Fear of Intimacy
- Anorexia or Bulimia
- Low Self-Esteem
- Compulsive Lying
- Night Terrors
- Grief

Most phobias, fears, socially unacceptable behaviors, and even physical conditions without an apparent medical cause can be traced back to a trauma or event that in some way impacted a person. For example a fear of intimacy could be traced to being abandoned either physically or emotionally by a parent or a symptom of unrecognized sexual abuse. Until the event is remembered for what it really was, it cannot be properly dealt with. That is where investigative or forensic hypnosis can help.

In the beginning stages of hypnosis, you are directed by the hypnotherapist to imagine a serene situation. This is coupled with imagery that further relaxes and deepens the effect of the hypnosis. At this point, a script that would direct you to recall situations that could have happened in the past and be leading you toward a specific behavior would be introduced. This, which is the heart of the hypnosis session, can reveal memories and details never fully recognized or long forgotten. It is also the beginning to using these memories to move forward and make changes.

Steve G. Jones, Clinical Hypnotherapist
http://www.betterlivingwithhypnosis.com/

Alternative Ways to Manage Pain Using Hypnosis: Hypnosis Makes It on Most Mainstream Pain Management Options Lists

Thanks to the trend away from prescription medications as the only way to treat illness and manage pain, hypnosis is making it on to the lists of top ways to heal and treat a large number of ailments. Even the most scientific and medically minded sources are beginning to embrace the viability of alternative ways to treat patients. Hypnosis is most often found under the general headings of complimentary or alternative medicine and is recognized for its ability to control pain.

One example of the way hypnosis is being viewed can be found in health sections of the top Internet search engines. Type in hypnosis and you will see it appears on many pain management websites for everything from managing labor pain to dealing with pain of cancer and chemotherapy.

Some of the other top pain management uses for hypnosis include:

- Child birth
- Non-cardiac chest pain
- Headaches, including migraines
- Female pelvic pain
- Toothaches
- Healing from an injury
- And more

Pain has an important job and when a pain pill is used to quiet the nagging of pain, we are ignoring the body’s own signaling process. Pain is often a symptom of something wrong with the body. A toothache may mean a cavity needs to be filled. A chest pain could be a signal of heart trouble or simply indigestion. It is important that we listen to the pain as if it were a voice saying, “Hey, check out this headache, because I may need glasses or a new way to reduce stress.”

Hypnosis is used in pain management once the source and reason for the pain is understood. For example, in a cancer patient, if the pain were simply covered up, a tumor could grow and the cancer could spread until it was untreatable. Once, however, the source of the pain is known, the pain does not necessarily go away. This is where hypnosis becomes beneficial and is not just a way to cover up pain like medications do.

Hypnosis used for pain management has the ability to redirect the focus. Pain has a way of screaming for and getting our attention! When you redirect the conscious mind’s attention away from the pain, then the patient gets relief from feeling the pain. This type of respite from consciously feeling the pain can speed the healing process.

In childbirth, the pain is from a very obvious source. As women who have had children come to realize quickly, the pain is short-lived and the reward is a new baby. Pain is forgotten very quickly once that baby is placed in her arms. Traditional methods of managing the pain of labor and delivery have used a form of hypnosis for decades. The woman who employs the Lamaze method is trained to focus on an object and on breathing techniques that take the mind off the pain. Consciously placing ones thoughts on something other than the pain i.e. counting, breathing in a specific pattern, or focusing on an object is a form of hypnosis. It induces a state of relaxation and replaces thoughts of pain with something else. This is a similar technique used in hypnotherapy and is the reason hypnosis is so effective in managing all types of pain.

Steve G. Jones, Clinical Hypnotherapist
http://www.betterlivingwithhypnosis.com/