Hypnotherapy and Children
I have written about this subject before, however, things have occurred over the past several weeks which makes me want to revisit this subject again. Does hypnotherapy work with children? The answer is yes, children have very active imaginations which assists the hypnotherapy process considerably. Do they have the attention span to undergo hypnotherapy? That depends on many factors including intelligence, maturity and other more subjective qualities. Are hypnotherapists qualified to work with children? This is where I want to focus this piece.
There are many people who enter the profession wanting to help people especially children. Now, the motives here are perfectly reasonable and laudable. However, children are not little adults, they are children. Child therapy requires a specific skill set in order to be effective. There is NO hypnotherapy training to my knowledge, anywhere, that provides this skill set.
Hypnotherapists who want to work with children need to be qualified to work with children in some other arena. Teachers are a good example, and of course there are psychotherapists who undertake specialist training to work with children. Just because a person has the desire to work with children does not mean that they should do. Scope of competence is essential and this is the dual responsibility of both practitioner and professional body. Please before undertaking hypnotherapy for your children, ensure that the person is qualified to work with children and don’t be fooled an Advanced DBS check IS NOT a qualification to work with the under 18’s.
