The child in need – Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy for children and adolescents

Hypnotherapy is well suited for children and adolescents, especially in the field of psychosomatic disorders. The anxieties and demands of children are very often expressed in body language. Hypnotherapy, based on the work of Milton H. Erickson, offers strategies for changes and solutions. It is based on the belief in the abilities of the child to recreate its self-organising system with the goal to re-establish a higher self-esteem. This process is triggered by stimulating imaginations using the language of children and adolescents: symbolic metaphors, drawings and imaginations, initiated by the therapist. All presented examples emphasize typical Ericksonian instruments such as taking up and integrating minimal cues, reframing, the use of resources and the simultaneous communication with the conscious and the subconscious. The presented techniques are creative, often brief, and astonishing in their effectiveness