Hypnotherapy for Children

Why on earth would children need Hypnotherapy?
 Children and young people can become overwhelmed with emotions or feelings that they don’t understand or for which they don’t yet have coping mechanisms – if they don’t understand the emotions and have no idea where the emotion or feeling is coming from they are unable to do anything about it. Most of the time the problem sorts itself out but sometimes it develops into unwanted fears, phobias or behaviours.

For me children are a joy to treat.
Unlike adults they don’t come with preconceptions about what hypnotherapy is. As long as they want their problem to stop, treatment success is usually very rapid. This ‘buy in’ is critical and parents need to ensure that the child wants to come for treatment - forcing them to come against their will is usually counterproductive. Children usually really enjoy the sessions and look forward to coming back.

With more than 30 years experience as a Specialist Children’s Nurse, I have begun to specialise in treating children in my hypnotherapy practice. With my background I find it easy to develop rapport with children and their parents, it's what I've done throughout my professional career – many hypnotherapists are not keen to treat children and I am grateful to my local hypnotherapy colleagues who have begun referring children to me.

I work with the child’s imagination during a hypnotherapy session
Because children tend to live in a world of their imagination and easily take on various ‘roles’ when they play often they don’t even need to explain themselves in words and the hypnotherapy enables them to use their imagination to express themselves. Sometimes this can happen without them having to say a word, this means that children usually need less time and fewer sessions to move towards a solution to their problem.
With children Hypnotherapy is not just talking, I also regularly use drawing, story telling and role-playing and a variety of other techniques to engage their imagination.

So if your child is having persistent difficulties that seem to be emotional or psychological there are some very effective hypnotherapy techniques that can help.
Common childhood problems I have helped include bed-wetting, constipation, soiling, night terrors, sleeping difficulties and fussy eating.

I have also helped children with various fears and phobias - including heights, needles, taking medication - exam anxiety, school refusal, generalised anxiety, travel sickness, bullying, dealing with family breakdown, bereavement

Please call me if your child has a problem that is interfering with his or her life– the initial telephone consultation is free – if I don’t think I can help I will tell you and direct you towards someone who can.

About the author

Annie Winfield-Shearer

Cognitive Hypnotherapist, Registered Nurse and Coach