When you think of the life of a child, what do you think of? Little-to-no responsibilities, playing all day long, not a care in the world.

Wrong!

Think about it – from the moment children are born they begin to learn, to communicate, to walk, to talk. Their perception eventually expands to include others around them in order to understand how to interact within their world.

Through the first few years they are usually absorbing information like a sponge, they’re copying and assimilating those closest to them. This includes watching how others react to situations or events, and to each other. Through this limited understanding of the world they learn, sometimes incorrectly, how to experience and react to their own situations.

So, now let’s add all the current global, societal, cultural influences into the mix. Children also vicariously absorb the stress that we adults are experiencing.

child, mature, growing up, walking, playing, freedom, issues, mindset, confident

Many of the childhood cases that I’ve treated stem from incorrectly adopted emotional reactions or behavioural reactions formed after trauma events. Be aware that the symptom the child is presenting may not be the cause of the problem.

Children who suffer from physical or medical factors may have underlying anxiety – often worrying about situations beyond their control or comprehension. This leads to a distinct lack of confidence because of the elongated dependence on one or both of their parents or care-givers. This mental stress can causes physical upsets.

Sometimes the child will simply “grow out of it”, the child (and maybe even the parent) matures enough to resolve the emotional issues that triggered the problem in the first place. Various ‘attachment styles’ may develop as a foundation for future interactions.

What is creating the child’s challenge?

Many events in a child’s life can produce a stress response – traumatic events, relationships and interactions with siblings or peer groups, school, dependency on a parent and a lack of control or comprehension. Recently, it has been isolation, home-schooling and the stress that can be caused by loneliness and lack of interaction with friends.

Nail biting, skin picking, stuttering, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and other habits can be addressed by simple mindset coaching using techniques such as hypnosis/meditation, CBT and NLP.

Hypnosis, a relaxing form of guided meditation, is a very effective tool that I employ with children to help them overcome their symptoms. Children are usually outstanding hypnotic subjects. They often have such magnificent imaginations that you can introduce positive suggestions easily and rapidly by getting them, for example, to imagine launching into space or taking part in their favourite television program or movie.

child, playing, relax, confident, fears

Relaxation is able to play a major role in guiding thought patterns in the child and can help the child to make effective changes in their own behaviour without the need to become stressed or overwhelmed.

Bed wetting or Enuresis, can be particularly distressing to both child and parent and is a very common complaint. My first suggestion is to visit a GP in order to rule out any physical causes. Then address the possible psychological factors, these may involve loss, grief, sibling rivalry, emotional immaturity or trauma, etc.

Sometimes the child may simply be rebelling against a parent
– and what better way is there?

A child’s wet bed is a real weapon against the parent, and before long a habit is formed. The child may have long forgotten the original cause for their hostility but the habit remains. Bed wetting is then resolved by establishing a motivation for change in the child’s life.

How about the terror of the doctor or dentist’s chair.

A child’s encounter with a doctor or a dentist can be traumatic because of various factors. The child may feel ill when visiting the doctor so the child’s experience is already tainted, the doctors may have to inject the child or administer foul tasting medicine – traumatic sensitising events occur.

clown, fear, child, scared, issues,

A dentist may have to extract a tooth or use what appears to be scary equipment, again a traumatic event. A few enlightened doctors and dentists, who have had an adequate training, can diffuse the child’s phobia of the dentist’s chair or doctor’s surgery by using mild hypnosis.

A professional hypnotherapist can use post-hypnotic suggestions with a child before they visit a doctor or dentist.

Children can be easily regressed in hypnosis to reveal an underlying cause of a problem. After a rapport has been established, a child will often express their fears and hang-ups about parents, teachers, siblings, school etc. to a therapist who will act as a substitute for the grown up they normally will not speak to or about. The hypnotherapist is then able to reframe that which has been spoken about by the child to his or her great benefit.

Here is a list of children’s challenges that I’ve used hypnosis and NLP to help alleviate:

  • Accepting a Parent’s New Relationship
  • Anger Management
  • Appetite Increase
  • Child A.D.H.D.
  • Child Anxiety Release
  • Child Fear of Flying
  • Child IBS Relaxation
  • Child Life Changes
  • Child Meditation
  • Child Obesity
  • Child Stuttering
  • Child Teeth Grinding
  • Childhood Defiance
  • Concentration
  • Confidence
  • Coping with Divorce
  • Encopresis
  • Enjoy New Food
  • Enuresis
  • Fear of Being Alone
  • Fear of Mascots
  • Fear of Needles
  • Fear of Sleepovers
  • Fear of Swimming
  • Fear of Tornadoes
  • Fear of Vomiting
  • Fear of the Dentist
  • Fitting in with your Peers
  • Flying Blanket
  • Hair Pulling
  • Honesty
  • Juvenile Diabetes
  • Living With Childhood Infections
  • Magic Spot Injections
  • Magic TV
  • Magical Bedtime
  • Nose Picking
  • Nail Biting
  • OCD
  • Opposition Defiance Disorder
  • Perfect Parenting
  • Problem Solving
  • Safe Sleeping
  • School Phobia
  • Selective Mutism
  • Separation Anxiety
  • Sick Sibling Jealousy
  • Sleep Soundly
  • Stop Sniffing
  • Teenage Time Management
  • Thumb Sucking

If your child is facing a challenge and you’re unsure if I can help – email me at richard@mynd.works or…