Childhood Anxiety, Worry, and Fear: Individualizing Hypnosis Goals and Suggestions for Self-Regulation

Abstract

Determining hypnosis goals and specific suggestions for childhood anxiety, worry, and fear can be enhanced by a developmental psychopathology perspective. This article examines underlying causal risk factors that guide a focused assessment and individualized interventions, targeting self-regulation of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological arousal and reactivity. The author summarizes current knowledge about childhood anxiety disorders and outlines a hypnotic approach when encountering anxious children and youth, including strategies to use spontaneous trance states and enhance underdeveloped resources (e.g. locus of control, discrimination of realistic risk appraisal, coping capacities).

Clinical Hypnosis with Children and Adolescents—What? Why? How?: Origins, Applications, and Efficacy

“…More specifically, hypnosis is a tool to strengthen children’s existing or under-developed skills in self-regulation, i.e ., capacities to shift attention , maintain focused attention , inhibit and control reflexive actions, delay gratification, use problem solving strategies, and self-monitor and modulate thinking, emotion, behavior, and psycho-physiological reactivity [42]. Children typically develop this capacity during infancy and childhood [43].…”

“…Children typically develop this capacity during infancy and childhood [43]. With appropriate clinical pediatric hypnosis training, child health clinicians can help children and youth to identify, discover, develop, and cultivate these capacities and other internal resources for their own benefit in managing and shaping their responses to a broad range of health and life problems, dilemmas, and challenges [42]. In this regard clinical hypnosis helps children and their parents develop and refine the concept of “skills not pills” [44] as strategies to apply to their particular problems or concerns.…”

Unconscious Agendas in the Etiology of Refractory Obesity and the Role of Hypnosis in Their Identification and Resolution:A New Paradigm for Weight-Management Programs or a Paradigm Revisited?

“…A 2006 Cochrane collaboration review of obesity interventions for adults contains reference to only one study using hypnotherapy as a stand-alone therapy (Shaw et al, 2006), and despite the evidence that hypnosis can be beneficial and efficacious for many childhood and teenage problems (Olness, 2008: Kohen, 2011Kaiser, 2011) (Ernst, Pittler, Stevinson & White, 2001;Ernst, Pittler & Wider, 2006). The editors of these books subsequently proceeded to use the data collected during the preparation of their publications, in an attempt to quantify the efficacy of three of these therapies (hypnotherapy, autogenic training and relaxation therapy), and to monitor any apparent changes in their effectiveness between 2000 and 2005 (Ernst, Pittler, Wider & Boddy, 2007).…”

Hypnosis in 53 Children With Anxiety Disorders, Nocturnal Enuresis, or Insomnia

“…Many articles in the medical literature suggest that hypnosis may be an effective method to help some children who manifest a variety of disorders [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. These include symptom reduction for mild-to-moderate acute or chronic intermittent anxiety states, including phobias and compulsions Manuscript accepted for publication August 14, 2013 [7,12,13], sleep disorders, including nocturnal enuresis and delay of nocturnal sleep onset [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] acute or chronic pain reduction, including anticipatory pain reduction during painful procedures such as insertion of indwelling catheters [6], and chronic non-progressive headaches [20,21].…”

“…These include symptom reduction for mild-to-moderate acute or chronic intermittent anxiety states, including phobias and compulsions Manuscript accepted for publication August 14, 2013 [7,12,13], sleep disorders, including nocturnal enuresis and delay of nocturnal sleep onset [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] acute or chronic pain reduction, including anticipatory pain reduction during painful procedures such as insertion of indwelling catheters [6], and chronic non-progressive headaches [20,21]. A literature search from PubMed and the Cochrane Databases revealed 60 publications, mostly case reports based on 2 to 60 cases, addressing the use of hypnotherapy in various child psychiatric conditions [22].…”