Sessions for young people

I work with young people from the ages of 7 and upwards.

Depending on the age, the sessions for young people can look and sound different. This is because as the young person grows so does the way their minds work and I adapt my practice according to this.

I work with the parents or carers as well as the young person as I feel this is the best way for success. Depending on age, I might ask you to be involved in some of the relaxation/visualisation sessions alongside the young person, or it might be that I see the young person separately and then ask you to be involved with homework tasks at home in between sessions. All this will be discussed at the time and always with consent.

All sessions can take place online (via Google Meet) or in person at my therapy room in Compton Dundon, Somerset.

If you haven't been to a therapy session before it can be a bit daunting. If as a parent or carer you have been to a therapy session before, you might be surprised to notice that sessions with young people are different. Below is a summary of what to expect to take the mystery out of it.

The number of sessions required for each young person vary. The average is 3-6 sessions but is not set in stone as everyone is unique in their requirements. I will work with them at their pace.

Discovery call

As a parent or carer of a young person it can be a very anxious and worrying time when you make the decision to come to therapy. During the free 30 minute call, with you the parent or carer, I will take down some details about what prompted you to contact me and the issue you or the young person has. I will explain a bit about how I work and where it may take place, either online or in person.

I will also explain what Cognitive Hypnotherapy is and how it could help.

We can go through any questions you might have, even the ones you might feel are a bit stupid. No question is stupid in my mind.

Once I have had a chat with the parent or carer and you are happy we can book in a free 15 minute chat with the young person so they can ask me any questions that they have and understand the process of therapy.

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Before the first session

Once you decide to go ahead and book your first session with me, I will send over the contracts and an intake form. This consists of some questions to help me get to know the young person and build that rapport quickly.

First session

Sessions are informal and depending on the age it might be more storytelling rather than formal hypnosis scripts. Younger people (under 10) are fully in their unconscious mind. Therefore they find hypnotherapy easier than older people and hypnotherapy for them is engaging their imagination in a session which can make the positive changes.

During the first session I will start to build a rapport with the young person. Sometimes this is overlooked but in my opinion this is vital for success. Because if there is no trust between a therapist and a young person then we are not preparing for success.

This session is mostly a conversation to find out how the young person's mind works so I can find out how work with them during future sessions.

Depending on age this conversation might include explaining how the mind works using drawing or a few videos that are age appropriate.

Sessions will always be fun and informal. I will be flexible on what happens in a session depending on what might crop up in between sessions at home.

Further sessions

As well as a Cognitive Hypnotherapist I am a Hypno4Children™ practitioner. This gives me more flexibility of what frameworks, tools and techniques (such as tapping) I can use when working with young people. I use a Hypno4Children framework called MINDHACK which covers most issues from anxiety to bed wetting. The framework uses a mixture of play, tasks, imagination etc to help the young people identify their wobbly feelings and help build a toolbox to give them the resilience for the future.

For exam and test anxieties there is a special framework I can use from Hypno4Children called STUDYHACK. This is a framework we work through together to give young people all the tools to feel confident during exam season.

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