Hypnotherapy and mindfulness for children

Children of all ages can benefit from the practice of mindfulness, the simple practice of bringing a gentle, accepting attitude to the present moment.

It can help parents and caregivers too, by promoting happiness and relieving stress.

From our earliest moments, mindfulness can help to reduce anxiety and increase feelings of happiness.

How It Helps
Adversity comes at us from the moment we are born. Infants get hungry and tired. Toddlers grapple with language and self-control. And as children develop through adolescence to become teenagers, life grows ever more complicated, and the more complicated life gets, the more stressful it gets.
At each developmental stage, mindfulness can be a useful tool for decreasing anxiety and promoting happiness.

Mindfulness has thus emerged as very much a mainstream practice for people in all walks of life. What was once considered a fringe activity is now an approved NHS therapy.

Early Habits
Children are uniquely suited to benefit from mindfulness practice. Habits formed early in life will influence behaviours in adulthood, and with mindfulness, we have the opportunity to give our children the habit of being peaceful, kind and accepting, while at the same time providing them with a formidable coping strategy for the future.

Of course, being a parent is an incredibly stressful experience in its own right. For those raising children, practicing mindfulness meditation for even a few minutes a day can be hugely beneficial. The very act of teaching mindfulness practices to others, no matter what their age, can be very much a therapeutic exercise in itself.

Just learning how to take a ‘Mindful Moment’, connecting the mind with the breath, can take the energy out of a crisis situation, and can allow you to feel in control once again.

It is easy then to understand how such practices can benefit both child and caregiver alike.

Just as children can benefit from mindfulness to adjust as they move through school, so they are also ideally placed to benefit from the use of Hypnosis.

Hypnotherapy is now well established as a means for boosting various skills, academic and sporting, as well as enhancing coping mechanisms and implementing strategies for success.

Hypnotherapy for Children - when is it useful?

There is an ever expanding number of problems affecting children that often respond well to Hypnotherapy.

These include:

Bedwetting // General anxiety // Separation anxiety // Various fears and phobias - fear of dogs being the most common // Study and exam related stress // School bullying // Thumb sucking // Nail biting and various compulsive habits // Childhood Tics // Selective eating // Anger problems // Lack of confidence and Poor Self-esteem.

Less common, but sadly on the increase are issues such as :

Body image anxiety // Depression and Self-harm.

How does hypnotherapy work with children?

With teenagers, the process is fairly similar to that used with adults. With younger children the process is much more about active engagement of the mind. It could be described as a highly focused, daydream-like state which allows stories to be played out in the child’s minds eye.

It is sometimes relaxing, but it is also very common that the child’s eyes are opening and closing, with plenty of wriggling around, specially during the first couple of sessions.

Children often respond well to self hypnosis audio recordings, specially at bedtime. I provide age appropriate audio files as part of a program of therapy for adults and children alike.