In her last article for The Mind Sanctuary, Kate Patterson of The Hypno Clinic explained what Hypnoanalysis is and how it can help people’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Hypnoanalysis can also be an effective way to help children from the age of five upwards who have experienced emotional difficulties or trauma, for example a bereavement, car accident or divorce.
We spoke to Kate to find out how to identify emotional problems in children, the benefits of Hypnoanalysis, and advice on what else parents can do to support children, including those under five.
Hypnoanalysis For Children Experiencing Emotional Difficulties
1. How can you tell whether children are struggling with their emotions?
It may not be obvious that children are struggling with emotional problems.
Signs to look for:
- You may notice that your child is very irritable and always arguing with their siblings, friends or parents.
- They may be angry and getting into fights at school or when they are with other people.
- They may be very withdrawn and quiet, perhaps not wanting to go to school or join in other social events with friends and family.
- They may get very upset when they feel as though they have made a mistake, perhaps bursting into tears or running off into their room or some other safe place.
- They may complain of stomach-aches or headaches that, despite pain killers or doctor intervention, keep recurring.
- Their ability to concentrate may lessen and they may become easily distracted.
- Over a period of time they may have become overweight /underweight because they are eating all the time e.g. having secret stores of food, not eating or potentially making themselves sick..
- They may develop fears or phobias.
- They may begin wetting the bed.
- They may have problems sleeping.
2. How can Hypnoanalysis (or analytical hypnotherapy) help children experiencing emotional difficulties?
Hypnoanalysis is effectively a psychotherapy, a talking therapy, that simply uses hypnosis as a tool.
The hypnosis aspect enables a child to relax, and once in this state (as with adults) the child’s conscious mind quietens and their experiences and associated emotions will then come to the surface.
Often children will not feel safe enough to talk to anyone about the things that are troubling them because they feel either afraid of being judged, may feel too embarrassed, or may even feel very ashamed of themselves.
Giving them an opportunity to release those bottled-up emotions and then flood their subconscious mind with positive suggestions for their wellbeing can be very effective.
Ultimately Hypnoanalysis seeks to find the root cause of an individual’s problem. When the root cause of a problem is revealed, (usually some kind of bottled-up emotion which ‘fuels’ the person’s difficulties), the symptoms can just disappear, bringing about positive long-term change.
3. What five tips can you offer parents if their children are experiencing emotional difficulties?
- Good communication. Develop a supportive relationship with your child where the boundaries of acceptable behaviour are clear, their opinions are valued, and their voice can be heard and respected.
- Help your child to have some perspective on how they are feeling. Encourage them to remember both positive and less positive experiences and develop their own awareness of the things they have learned about themselves.
- Help them learn and improve their own problem solving skills. This will help them to be more independent and resilient. For example, if a child articulates a problem they have experienced, encourage them to stay focused on it and ask what they might be able to do to improve the situation or reach their goals. When children offer alternatives, repeat their ideas and ask them what else could be done. Be careful not to criticise their ideas. Instead, prompt more solutions by asking the child questions. If they cannot think of alternatives, ask them to imagine how they think someone else might handle the situation.
- You can play the following game, which is a helpful tool to build childrens’ self-esteem. Sit down with your child and help them decide on 5 things that they feel really proud of themselves about. It might be reading a new word, recognising a new letter, scoring a goal, helping a friend, passing an exam etc. These achievements can be big or small; the only important thing is that the child feels proud of their own achievement. Now give each of these achievements a number, for example: 1 writing my name; 2 mending a puncture on my bike; 3 scoring a goal at football yesterday etc.
The game is that Mum/Dad randomly shouts out any number between 1 and 5 and the youngster has to reply accordingly. For example, Dad might come home from work and call out “Number 3” and the child replies with their achievement: “I scored a goal at football!”
What happens in this process is that the child is developing an awareness of their own self-worth / self-esteem. In time, the child will want to add more things to the list and gradually the game will no longer be necessary for them to articulate their achievements. What is important is that the child has learnt to recognise their own value, which is an important step in the process of managing our own self esteem. In doing so, we become far more resilient.
- Parents can read the Harry the Hypno-potamus series of books to their child. These books by Linda Thomson have the goal of teaching and empowering children to help themselves in an imaginative and creative way. Therapeutic suggestions are embedded in powerful and fun metaphors that bypass resistance and help the child to take control of and resolve their own problems.
To find out more about Kate at The Hypno Clinic, please read her profile on The Mind Sanctuary Directory or visit The Hypno Clinic website.
