Pediatric Hypnotherapy may be utilized for:

* Habit disorders (thumb-sucking, hair-pulling, etc.)

* Nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting)

* Nightmares, and other sleep disturbances

* Swallowing problems, food aversions, and choking

* Anxiety and stress

* Asthma

* ADD

* Cystic Fibrosis

* Fears and phobias

* Migraine headaches

* Cancer-related issues (pain, nausea, vomiting)

1. *Treatments-related issues
   

What is Pediatric Hypnotherapy?

Current research shows that hypnotherapy in children is very similar to what is experienced with adults except that children have a much greater responsiveness. 

Children have a driving need to learn and to discover, and every stimulus constitutes, for them, a possible opportunity to respond in some new way. Since the hypnotic state may be defined as a state of increased awareness and responsiveness to ideas, hypnosis offers to the child a new and ready area of exploration.

Once in this  state, the therapist makes  suggestions to the child (such as recalling times of feeling happy and well in a child with chronic pain) aimed at producing the desired change in behavior, anxiety level, or symptom intensity.

Did you know...

Children are the most hypnotizable subjects!

Children can be active and have their eyes open and still be in a state of hypnosis which allows their subconscious mind to be more open to useful and beneficial suggestions, as well as problem solving.

Children are most often eager to learn a new skill in a fun way, especially one that can help them to be more in control of themselves and to cope better with the world around them.

Children are especially good subjects for hypnotherapy because of:

1. •Their vivid imagination
   

2. •Their readiness, eagerness and need for new learning
   

3. •Their desire to understand and to share the activities of the world around them
   

4. •Their use of pretend and imitation games

For additional information on pediatric hypnotherapy:

* American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH).

* The ASCH is part of the International Society of Hypnosis.

* Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis

* Hypnosis studies at Stanford University currently underway.

1. *Medical Hypnosis--Uses, Techniques, and Contraindications of Hypnotherapy is an informative page from a psychiatrist/hypnotherapist in private practice.
   

* Hypnosis in pediatrics: applications at a pediatric pulmonary center. BMC Pediatrics, 2002.