Children & adolescents

The pediatric literature describes clinical hypnosis as a well-tolerated approach used with children and adolescents for a range of difficulties — anxiety and fears, sleep, pain and functional complaints such as recurring stomachaches or headaches, and habit problems — with reviews noting encouraging results and few adverse effects. The honest version of that sentence matters: the research base in children, as in adults, is stronger for some uses than others, and no responsible practitioner promises outcomes. What is clear is why the approach suits young minds: children move naturally in imagery, and a method built on imagination meets them where they already live.

Concretely, a session with a child looks nothing like the adult stereotype. It is short, playful and interactive — stories, favourite places, imaginary remote controls that turn worry down and courage up. The child stays aware and in charge throughout, and the skills are explicitly theirs to keep: a portable calm place, a way of dialling down the volume on a fear or a pain, practised until it belongs to them. Adolescents get an age-appropriate version — more collaborative, respectful of their autonomy, and often appreciated precisely because it hands them the controls rather than adding another adult instruction.

Two commitments frame all of it. Parents are always in the loop — the work is explained before, debriefed after, and built with the family, never behind it. And hypnosis never substitutes for medical evaluation: recurring physical complaints see a doctor first, and the psychological work begins once the medical picture is clear. Within that frame, the sessions have one quiet ambition — that the child leaves not just calmer, but equipped.