Give children and teens the tools to face life’s ups and downs with resilience. Therapy sessions are designed to address common challenges faced by children and teens, such as anxiety, phobias, stress, and low self-esteem. To find out more about how I can help your child,

Or, to understand more about children and therapy in general terms, read on …

Improving children’s mental health

Especially since COVID, there has been more discussion about children and young people’s mental health and the help that therapy can offer them. Hypnotherapy, coaching, EMDR/BLAST, and NLP are all helpful in supporting children and teaching new coping strategies.

Hypnotherapy aims to help your child to find and put in place new ways of coping with problem situations. This could be fear and anxiety, worrying, phobias, bedwetting, changing schools, trouble making friends, or exam stress. I can also teach them resilience to help them through the more stressful times in their lives.

Having said that, there are some special considerations when I am working with children.

Exactly like any other client, your child has to take an active part in their hypnotherapy. The fact that you see a problem or want them to do things differently is not enough. They have to be ready and motivated to work towards change and use the techniques they learn in the sessions.

You may also have to change the ways you do some things as a family, to support the changes your child is in the process of making. But if you are willing to do this and they are genuinely open to the idea of change, then I would be happy to work with you.

How to arrange therapy for a young person

A free introductory session, held in person or via Zoom, is the first step. This will usually be around 30-40 minutes.

With younger children, I will ask you to attend without them. This offers a chance for you to find out more about the help I can offer. You can also tell me your thoughts about the situation frankly without being concerned that your child is overhearing.

With older children, it might be better for them to attend this session with you. We can discuss what’s best when you first contact me.

If we are both confident that I can help, we will make an appointment for your child to start therapy.

Age limits for therapy

Hypnotherapy can be used with quite young children, but I work only with older children and teens (10+). If your child is younger, I can often recommend someone suitable to help them. Feel free to drop me an email.

I need your written consent to work with your child. If they are under 13, the GDPR says I must be able to verify their date of birth as well.

  • If your child is under 13, we will have a chaperone in the room when I am working with them.
  • If your child is between 13 and 16 they may prefer not to have a chaperone. I use their preferences and yours, plus a ‘Gillick competency’ assessment to decide if this is appropriate.
  • You need to sign a permission form if your child is aged 16-17. But they can otherwise be treated as an adult and seen without a chaperone unless there are specific reasons that this might not be the best option for them.

To learn more, please download these free information sheets or contact me.

A parent’s guide to whether your child should be accompanied during therapyDownload
A parent’s guide to supporting your child during therapyDownload

If your child is not yet ready to work with a therapist, look at my recommendations for books and audios that may help you support them at home.