Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy With Children

537 Pages·2011·6.153 MB·English

by  Daniel P. Kohen, Karen Olness

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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Kohen, Daniel P.
Hypnosis and hypnotherapy with children / Daniel P. Kohen, Karen Olness.
-- 4th ed.
p. cm.
Summary: “Updated and revised in response to developments in the field, this
fourth edition of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy with Children describes the research
and clinical historical underpinnings of hypnosis and hypnotherapy with children
and adolescents, and presents an up-to-date compendium of the pertinent world
literature regarding this topic. The authors focus on the wide variety and scope of
applications for hypnotherapy; including an integrated description of both clinical
and evidence-based research as it relates to understanding approaches to various
clinical situations, case studies of practical aspects, and how-to elements of teaching
hypnotherapeutic skills to clients”-- Provided by publisher.
Prev. ed. had Karen Olness’ name first in the author statement.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-415-87627-8 (hardback)
1. Hypnotism--Therapeutic use. 2. Child psychotherapy. I. Olness, Karen. II.
Olness, Karen. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy with children. III. Title.
RJ505.H86O46 2011
615.8’5120835--dc22 2010043258
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the Routledge Web site at
http://www.routledgementalhealth.com
Contents
Note to the Fourth Edition vii
Introduction ix
Part I Hypnosis With Children
1 Scenes of Childhood 3
2 Early Uses of Hypnosis With Children 7
3 Norms of Hypnotic Responsivity in Children 19
4 Correlates of Childhood Hypnotic Responsiveness 35
5 Hypnotic Induction for Children: Techniques,
Strategies, and Approaches 55
Part II Hypnotherapy With Children
6 General Principles of Child Hypnotherapy 89
7 Therapeutic Communication: Uses of Language and
Facilitating Effective Hypnotherapeutic Relationships 101
8 Hypnotherapy for Psychological Disorders 113
9 Hypnotherapy for Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorders 159
10 Hypnotherapy for Habit Disorders 167
11 Hypnotherapy for Problems in Learning,
Performance, and Attentional Disorders 207
12 Hypnotherapy for Pain Control 225
13 Hypnotherapy for Pediatric Medical Problems 245
v
vi • Contents
14 Hypnotherapy for Pediatric Surgery and Emergencies 317
15 Hypnotherapy in Palliative Care, Grief, and Bereavement 347
16 Biofeedback, Other Mind–Body Interventions,
and Hypnotherapy With Children 367
17 Self-Hypnosis: A Tool for Prevention and Prophylaxis 379
18 Psychoneuroimmunology 385
19 Applications of Hypnosis With Children Globally 397
20 Ethics: Legal Considerations, Children, and Hypnosis 403
21 Teaching Child Hypnotherapy 407
22 Looking to the Future 423
Appendices 435
References 467
Author Index 513
Subject Index 531
Note to the Fourth Edition
After over 30 years of applying hypnotherapeutic strategies toward helping
children and adolescents help themselves, I remain privileged and grateful
to coauthor this fourth edition of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy With Children
with my dear friend and colleague, Karen Olness. I have never tired of my
ongoing review of the vast array of research and clinical papers that have con-
tributed so substantially to our understanding of hypnosis with children. I am
thrilled to know that today, around the world, hypnotherapy with children
is evidence-based medicine and that hypnosis is indeed mainstream and no
longer considered alternative and complementary medicine.
I am grateful to Karen Olness for her creativity, steadiness, humble leader-
ship, and continued visionary approach and belief in what is possible. I offer
thanks especially to my earliest teachers and friends and colleagues, Kay
Thompson, Bob Pearson, Franz Baumann, Bertha Rodger, Harold Golan, and
many incredible others. Their influence and words live on in the successes and
growth of so many young people I have had the opportunity to meet, teach,
and help. Special thanks go to all of the children and their families through
whose learning of hypnosis I have continued to be inspired and through some
of whose stories this volume teaches what really is possible.
I dedicate this book to my family: to the memory of my parents, Benjamin
L. and Roselea Kohen (Z’’L), and my sister-in-law, Janet Kohen (Z’’L), whose
love always supported me; to our children, Aaron, Sarah, and Joshua, for their
independence, creativity, love, confidence, and pulling off that amazing sur-
prise party; to our grandson, Chai, a truly bright light and incredible person for
whom even the sky is not a limit; and to my partner and wife of 41 years, Harriet,
for her love, wise counsel, guidance, and sustained belief in my endeavors.
DANIEL P. KOHEN, MD, ABMH
As I did literature reviews and read many papers in preparation for this fourth
edition of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy With Children, I was fascinated by the
fact that we were able to review absolutely all papers about children and hyp-
nosis available when preparing the previous three editions. That is no longer
the case. This is good news. It means that much research has been done that
relates to children and hypnosis, and it also means that more child health pro-
fessionals are helping children with this wonderful tool, and there is now much
evidence-based medicine to support the use of hypnotherapy with children.
vii
viii • Note to the Fourth Edition
Again I give thanks to those on whose shoulders we stand and whose
clinical observations have now been validated in research studies. Since the
publication of the first edition in 1981 many of my teachers in hypnosis have
passed on. I remember with gratitude Walter Majewski, who first made me
aware of the benefits of hypnosis; Franz Baumann, the first pediatrician in the
United States to teach hypnosis to children; and Erik Wright, Esther Bartlett,
Bertha Rodger, Bill Kroger, Harold Golan, Kay Thompson, Bob Pearson, Larry
Staples, Selig Finkelstein, Philip Ament, and many amazing others. They were
all regarded as iconoclasts; they were all courageous, positive people. Blessed
be their memories.
I also thank all the children and families from whom I have learned so
much, gifts I have been able to pass on to other children and to child health
professionals. I am thrilled to see so many younger colleagues teaching hyp-
nosis so well, not only in the United States but also in many countries through-
out the world.
I dedicate this book to Hakon Torjesen, my husband of 48 years, who has
always been the wind beneath my sails with his continuing love, his laughter,
and his encouragement and advocacy.
KAREN OLNESS, MD, ABMH
Introduction
More than 40 years ago, G. Gail Gardner, a clinical child psychologist, and
Karen Olness, a pediatrician, separately became interested in the possibilities
of using therapeutic hypnosis with children. They were impressed with the
lack of knowledge in the area of child hypnosis, not only among child health
professionals but also among hypnotherapists, most of whom worked only
with adults. Child health professionals generally believed that children were
not responsive to hypnotherapy or that this was not an appropriate treatment
for them.
Drs. Gardner and Olness scoured the literature, found a few people who
did use hypnotherapy successfully and appropriately with children, discarded
all the wrong information given to them, and began to use hypnotherapy with
child patients. Soon they met each other, and they began teaching together in
the early 1970s. Interest and knowledge expanded, in the United States and
elsewhere. Eventually, they decided that the available information warranted
a comprehensive text on the topic and published the first edition of Hypnosis
and Hypnotherapy With Children in 1981. This was followed by a second edi-
tion published in 1988. Coauthor of the third edition, and now the fourth
edition, was Daniel P. Kohen, a pediatrician who has applied hypnotherapy in
pediatric practice since 1977, has participated in many controlled studies of
hypnotherapy, and is well known as an author and lecturer about hypnosis.
We still hear that child hypnotherapy is a recent development. This is not
true; it is only the breadth of interest that is recent. Hypnotherapy has been
used with children for more than 200 years. In 1959, Dr. Andre Weitzenhoffer
published A Bibliography of Hypnotism in Pediatrics, which contained 86 ref-
erences, many in French and German, that spanned the years 1886 to 1959. In
1980, Gardner published a bibliography of 114 references dating from 1955 to
1980, almost entirely limited to publications in American journals.
The growth of interest in child hypnotherapy is also reflected in expanded
opportunities for training in this subspecialty. For example, in 1971, Dr.
Gardner was invited to lecture for an hour on child hypnosis as part of
an advanced-level workshop sponsored by the Society for Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis. In 1976, the same society initiated a full 3-day work-
shop on clinical hypnosis with children, which has been conducted annually
since then. In 1988, the Society for Behavioral Pediatrics began offering a
3-day workshop on clinical hypnosis with children. Each year since then, the
maximum attendance limit has been reached. Seminars on hypnosis, includ-
ing child hypnosis, are now included in many medical school curricula and in
ix
x • Introduction
graduate programs in clinical psychology, social work, and nursing. Teachers
of child hypnotherapy are often asked to present hospital grand rounds on
this subject. As a result, hypnotherapeutic methods with children are used in
many hospitals, clinics, and in private practices.
A generic term for self-regulation, cyberphysiology, was coined by Earl
Bakken (1988), founder of Medtronic, about a decade ago. “Cyber” derives
from the Greek kybernan, meaning “helmsman” or “steersman.” The term “to
govern” evolved from kybernan. Hence, cyberphysiology refers to self-regu-
lation or self-governance of physiological processes. It is useful to think of
hypnotherapy, relaxation-imagery training, or biofeedback as strategies facili-
tating cyberphysiologic controls.
In line with the heightened interest in child hypnotherapy, three broad top-
ics are discussed in this book. First, the early history of therapeutic hypnosis
with children is reviewed. This historical review emphasizes the 19th-century
literature so as to collect in one place those intriguing reports that predated
modern scientific method. Second, issues especially important in child hyp-
nosis are discussed. The normative studies of the 1960s and 1970s are reviewed
in detail. These uniformly conclude that, in general, children have a higher
level of hypnotic responsiveness than adults. This section also includes devel-
opmental issues and hypnotic induction techniques appropriate for children
of different ages and abilities, including biofeedback as an important adjunct
in child and adolescent hypnotherapy. The third broad topic is hypnotherapy
with children and adolescents, including chapters devoted to the treatment of
specific psychological, medical, and surgical problems. A critical review of the
literature and samples of clinical experience are included.
It is important to distinguish between hypnosis and hypnotherapy, terms
too often confused. Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness or aware-
ness. No scientist claims fully to understand its parameters, but most people
in the field agree that it is a state of consciousness different from the normal
waking state and from any of the stages of sleep. It resembles in some ways
various kinds of meditative states, especially with respect to characteristics
of narrowly focused attention, primary process thinking, and ego receptivity
(Fromm, 1977, 1979).
Characteristic alterations in cognition are also especially associated with
deeper levels of hypnosis, and those forms of “trance logic” may be elicited by
careful experimental methods (Orne, 1959). Hypnosis is sometimes indistin-
guishable from simple physical and mental relaxation, and both adults and
children may enter an altered state of consciousness or awareness spontane-
ously, in the course of daily activities.
Hypnotherapy, in contrast, is a treatment modality in which the patient is
in the altered state of hypnosis at least part of the time. The patient in hypnosis
is then treated with any number of methods ranging from simple suggestion
to psychoanalysis. Strictly speaking, no patient is treated by hypnosis—that