Children

8-12 years

Kohen and Olness in their book Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy with Children argue that hypnotherapy is a hugely underutilised modality for treatment of children and that, too often, it is only considered as a last resort. Despite the fact that hypnotherapy might have several advantages over other therapeutic techniques which, they mention, include “fewer risks and side effects, frequent rapid response to treatment and the fact that hypnotherapy fosters attitudes of independence and mastery in coping with problems.”

Additional research has also confirmed that children are better and more natural hypnosis candidates than their adult counterparts due to the fact that a child’s mind is naturally more flexible than that of an adult and because children are naturally highly imaginative, and eagerly use fantasy on a daily basis. As a result I believe that hypnotherapy is a helpful addition to the treatment of a wide range of emotional and behavioural disorders in children and adolescents.