- Are you or your child constantly tense, worried, or on edge?
- Does you or your child's anxiety interfere with work, school, or family responsibilities?
- Are you or your child plagued by fears that you know are irrational, but can’t shake?
- Do you or your child believe that something bad will happen if certain things aren’t done a certain way?
- Do you or your child avoid everyday situations or activities because they cause you anxiety?
- Do you or your child experience sudden, unexpected attacks of heart-pounding panic?
-
Do you or your child feel like danger and catastrophe are around
every corner?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions Hypnosis can change
your life. Call immediately for an appointment.
Anxiety, fear, and worry among children and teenagers are on a
continuum from transient
disruptions to clinical disorders. For example, when faced with the
common stressor of
an immunization or blood draw, a child might display momentary bother,
then shift his
or her attention. Another child’s extreme fearfulness about upcoming
threat and danger
might prompt overwhelming anticipatory
anxiety and catastrophic worry, followed by
a panic episode and uncontrollable escape behaviors during the
procedure, reflecting a
clinical diagnosis of specific phobia.
It is unfortunate that most pediatric medical and mental health
professionals receive
little training on how to assess and treat children and teenagers with
these challenges.
The use of superficial, one-size-fits-all scripts or other global
suggestions to “relax” or
“get calm” are common approaches when using hypnosis for such young
people. In
contrast, determining specific goals and tailoring suggestions to the
needs of a particular
pediatric patient is the theme of this article. Leading experts in the
field of pediatric
hypnosis, Kohen and Olness (2011) emphasized the importance of
empowering the client:
Clinicians treating youth with anxiety, worry, or fear can best design specific hypnosis goals and suggestions that are individualized for a particular child when using a developmental psychopathology perspective and an assessment focused on the causal processes fueling specific symptoms. The use of HOW questions isolate underlying patterns in thinking, feeling, behaving, and psychophysiological responses, which then become the specific hypnosis goals to fit the presentation of each particular child. By focusing on underlying risk factors for childhood anxiety and difficulties with emotional, cognitive, behavioral and psychophysiological self-regulation,
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