ABOUT ME

Clinical Hypnotherapist, Counsellor, Past Life Regression Therapist, NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer

Dr. Maria Pauline Vasudevan is a qualified clinical hypnotherapist and trainer registered and endorsed by the American Hypnosis Association USA, as well as the Indian Board of Alternate Medicine. She is a Trans Personal Regression Therapist also a member of The Earth Association for Regression Therapy (EARTH). She is a counsellor, Master NLP Practitioner, Yoga Therapist and practitioner of Alternate Medicine and a Life Coach.

Maria’s career in clinical hypnotherapy evolved through her interest in music and dramatics – she has been singing and performing from the age of three and trained under some of Mumbai’s most renowned singers and dramatists, going on to sing on stage, over the radio and over television. Since 1996, Maria has been training students to give the Speech and Drama exams conducted by the Trinity College of London, UK. Interacting with a large number of students as well as their parents, Maria saw the great need for counseling and realised the potential of hypnotherapy and NLP to help people. The experience of flying for over three decades as a manager with an international airline also highlighted for her today’s need for a form of therapy free from pain, trauma, drugs and other artificial stimulants.

As a therapist, Maria is widely known and regarded for her work with empowering men, women and children. She has also successfully worked with dispelling traumas, fears and phobias from her clients and has addressed issues of addictions. Along with practicing hypnotherapy, Maria also practices Past Life Regression and Life Between life Regression. Music and dramatics continue to be her passion and she still teaches Speech and Drama at her “Everything Else School”.

Maria’s intuitive grasp of the different values, traditions and expectations of each client makes her sensitive to each individual’s needs and she has been able to help many people overcome their problems. She has been doing such transformational work for more than twenty six years. She has fully completed the Silva Mind training for Silva Mind Body and Spirit Healing and the Life System Training.

Maria has also taken the responsibility of working and empowering women and children, healing and restoring their lives at the NGO “Shanti Ghar” using hypnotherapy, NLP, etc. for the abandoned children and battered women who take shelter there.

HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. It is described as a normal state of focused attention where one feels very relaxed and calm. During hypnosis, the mind is more open to suggestion than usual. Hypnosis is a natural mental state. For example, children are often in a state of self-hypnosis when they are playing imaginary games. Actors, athletes and professionals often use it to improve their performance. As people are open to suggestion while in a hypnotic state, they can learn to change their thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and attitudes.

People can take these changes that happen during hypnosis and use them for self-improvement in their usual state of consciousness. For example, hypnosis can be used to help reduce anxiety, control pain, control the perception of discomfort during medical procedures, lessen discomfort of physical symptoms, and break bad habits.

As the workings of the mind are not completely understood, there are many mistaken beliefs about hypnosis. Allow me to straighten out a few misconceptions:

HYPNOSIS:

• Is a natural state.
• Can be used to heal.
• Can be used to give up bad habits.
• Can be used to improve one's performance/confidence/productivity

The Possibilities are limitless!

At Evolve with Hypnotherapy, I have used Ericksonian hypnosis to heal psychological wounds and traumas for the past 26 years. Psychological wounds, even if not visible, affect us in the form of depression and other psychosomatic illnesses. With Hypnotherapy, I heal those fears, anxieties, stresses and other psychosomatic conditions and help people experience health, peace and happiness.

Hypnosis is an altered state of awareness but a very natural and normal state of consciousness. We all have experienced hypnosis at sometime or other during which the mind remains clear, alert and focused on some thing or on some feeling. Hypnosis simply bypasses the Critical/Conscious mind from the Unconscious mind so that one has access to one’s full mental capacity. The gateway to success in hypnosis is the Unconscious / Subconscious Mind. The Subconscious Mind not only holds information that is outside your consciousness, but also manages sensations, feelings, and body functions. As you were reading the sentences above, you probably were not aware of the sensation of your feet against the floor, or the way your body is aligned on your chair. You have sensations coming to your body all the time, but you are unaware of them most of the time. In addition to managing all these sensations, your Sub/Unconscious Mind keeps your heart beating and other bodily functions working, e.g. digestion, respiratory system, circulatory system, hair and nails growing etc. all without your conscious awareness. Your Sub/Unconscious Mind manages all of that with perfect precision (in a healthy mind-body continuum).

Now, psychologists, psychiatrists and scientists have begun to realise the full extent of the Mind/Body connection and there is evidence that our mental processes, mental states, and mental behaviours continuously affect all the cells in our body.

Hypnosis is a verified and effective technique that can promote accelerated human change. With Hypnosis, one can create desired changes in behaviour and encourage mental and physical well being. It is valuable to anyone seeking to resolve specific problems. Of course you need to genuinely desire to resolve the specific problem and your consent is imperative. Ericksonian Hypnosis is a more respectful and courteous approach to hypnotherapy and makes possible the changes that the client desires. It is an indirect approach to hypnosis giving the client more control. The hypnotherapist acts merely as a catalyst to facilitate the client to achieve certain therapeutic outcomes himself/herself and not as someone with special powers.

In fact the therapist teaches the client how to achieve the trance state, stimulates the imagination and then makes the desired change through various methods. Importance is placed on the client’s ability to naturally experience hypnosis for oneself with the hypnotherapist’s guidance. When the client goes through a hypnotherapy session, the sensations upon “awaking” will be pleasant, refreshing and invigorating.

NLP

Neuro Linguistic Programming

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Hypnosis are usually used in tandem. At Evolve With Hypnotherapy, I use NLP and Hypnosis in practically every session. NLP helps to handle the client’s painful emotions and memories with sensitivity and care; it integrates neurology, psychology, linguistics, cybernetics, and system theory. NLP is a great tool that assists in producing results with ease, keeping in mind the client’s comfort.

Neuro Linguistic Programming comprises three distinct words:

• Neuro: refers to the brain and neural network that feeds into the brain. Neurons or nerve cells are the working units used by the nervous system to send, receive, and store signals that add up to information. All our experiences, both conscious and subconscious, are derived through and from our senses and central nervous system.
• Linguistic: refers to the content, both verbal and non-verbal, that moves across and through these neural pathways. Our mental processes are given meaning and they get coded, organized, and are transformed through the language we use.
• Programming: is the way the content or signal is manipulated to convert it into useful information. The brain may direct the signal, sequence it, or change it based on our prior experience; or it could connect it to some earlier experience we have stored in our brain to convert it into thinking patterns and behaviours that are the essence of our experience of life. People interact as a system in which experience and communication are composed of sequences of patterns or “programs”.

NLP explores the relationship between how we think (neuro), how we communicate both verbally and non-verbally (linguistic) and our patterns of behaviour and emotion (programs & conditioning).

In the 1970’s distinguished names such as David Gordon, Leslie Cameron-Bandler, Steve and Connirae Andreas, Robert Dilts, Richard Bandler and John Grinder developed methods that are a continuum in a constant state of evolution – a practical application of how people think. NLP is based on the work of Alfred Korzybski, Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson, Fritz Pearls and Gregory Bateson, among others. NLP analyses and transfers human excellence, which results in a most valuable, helpful and practical application of psychology. NLP is a method, a technique to transform our depression to happiness and fear to excitement. NLP gives us the tools to change, and guides us to accomplish our goals as the structure of the sentences we use, can be changed, modified, improved, or removed from our life. It’s a fluid framework that is capable of quick transformation at much deeper levels than once imagined. Most therapy is remedial, directed towards solving problems from the past. NLP goes even deeper. It studies human excellence and teaches skills that promote positive change generating fresh possibilities and opportunities.

NLP can be used in various fields: business, management, negotiations, consultations, education, counseling, psychotherapy, relationships, parenting, nursing, public speaking, sports performance ... in any area where communication plays a part. NLP can enhance results generating fresh possibilities and opportunities.

PLR

Past Life Regression

Whether it’s a challenging childhood, a problematic boss, a devastating physical ailment or a failed / illogical relationship, we all have our baggage. Unresolved issues can manifest as pain or illness as well as blocks to personal fulfilment and accomplishment.

Past Life Regression is a therapeutic technique for accessing and re-experiencing your past lives directly. As a branch of hypnotherapy, Past Life Regression Therapy has grown over the last 50 years to be an important addition to healing therapies.

At Evolve with Hypnotherapy, I have been practicing Past Life Regression Therapy (PLR) for over 15 years in Mumbai, helping people identify, resolve, heal and find permanent solutions to their past-related problems, whether they are physical, psychological or to do with relationships.

I’ve studied with many of the pioneers in the field of Past Life Therapy, have a Master’s Degree in Counseling, and an MD in Hypnotherapy, and I estimate I’ve regressed more than a 1000 people since 2002. (Actually, I have lost count!)

In Past Life Regression therapy sessions, you, the client, take an active part. They are NOT passive past life readings. They must be done in person and cannot be done over the phone or via Skype.

The benefits of Past Life Regression Therapy are numerous and often transformative. It can heal deeper and get results quicker than many other therapeutic approaches. Here are just a few of the advantages you can realize:

• Clear emotional stress, trauma and physical issues.
• Soothe feelings of anxiety and depression.
• Heal troubled relationships. Understand and deal with relationship dynamics that seem to have a life of their own (intense attraction/aversion to another person, deep-seated issues that defy resolution etc).
• Understand and change behaviour patterns and tendencies.
• See personal relationships in a new light.
• Get rid of phobias – intense fears such as fear of heights or fear of water, that seem unconnected to an experience in the current life.
• Resolve certain chronic physical ailments, sensations and pains, recurring nightmares, fear of death.
• Uncover dormant past life gifts and talents; actualize those in this life.
• Reveal past life souls that you may know in this life.
• Mentally, emotionally and spiritually unify past life experiences with your soul’s life lessons.
• Reconnect with your Spiritual Center.
• Receive spiritual guidance and direction.
• Experience universal wisdom and peace not always available to us in our Earthly bodies.
• Energize talents and abilities from the past.
• Release fears and anxieties linked to past life traumas.
• Release past life traumas at the root of physical problems.
• Experience the transitional states of death and beyond.
• Understand and align with life purpose.
• Sexual dysfunction addictions.
• Past Life Regression is a path for personal growth and healing.

Past Life Regression works dynamically, at the sub-conscious level. While there maybe no proof that one has had a life prior to the present one, PLR empowers, heals and enlightens one.

Under Past Life Regression (PLR), the memories of Past Lives can be accessed in order to understand certain physical or psychological ailments, which may otherwise be inexplicable. This technique is also used to understand some relationships in our life, which affect us deeply, but seem to have no logical reason. PLR has its roots in the belief of reincarnation –the Law of Karma.

While in a light trance, you experience each past life yourself. You see it, sense it, and feel it. You are the central character deeply involved in the past life story. Regression provides detailed strategies for fine-tuning your psychic senses, retrieving past-life baggage, clearing karmic clutter, healing family and romantic relationships and undertaking a spiritual make over. Using techniques of Past Life Regression, you’ll learn to recognize and overcome destructive emotional patterns and self-defeating attitudes, gain clarity, achieve goals, improve relationships, and align with your greater purpose.

Often people feel very happy and peaceful; others may feel tired or even experience some pain or a headache related to the release of stored trauma. All of these reactions are normal and not harmful. It could be that you want to be alone afterwards to integrate and review the session. You may want to rest, take a relaxing walk, or write up any notes or reflections from the experience. You may continue to have past life recall after the session through dreams or intuitive insights that will give you even more detailed memory of that life. Past life memories may also appear during meditation.

Past Life Regression Therapy can transform your life. It will help you develop your full potential, unlock hidden talents, and create more compassion and love for yourself and others. It can reveal your life-purpose and reason for incarnating, and help you to overcome the fear of death. After a Past Life Regression session, many clients report feeling a greater sense of inner peace and love. You feel refreshed, relieved and accept yourself when you understand that you have chosen your life-circumstances and the lessons that you need to learn. Past Life Regression Therapy supersedes other therapies as one gains a more profound perspective on the meaning of life. It transcends religious dogma and is beneficial regardless of one’s religious or spiritual beliefs.

Past Life Regression is a theory, a philosophy, a belief system that alleviates and removes sufferings, giving insights into our individual differences. It helps us recognize and comprehend that we are masters of our own destiny. PLR breaks the patterns of the traumas from our past lives that the subconscious mind brings into the present so that we can be free from the sufferings that we face life after life. PLR helps us to go into our individual circumstances, see the patterns that play out life after life, and using guided intervention, equips us to an improved life.

We all carry memories from past lives into this life – unconscious memories that carry an energetic charge and continue to affect us. They can be things left undone, vows made, accomplishments, failures, mistakes, success, emotional debts, guilt, gratitude, traumatic and sudden deaths, wisdom, and love. These charges from the past set up patterns, which are continually triggered and repeated in our present life. These patterns can be positive or negative. They can affect our relationships, behaviour, motivations, and even our physical bodies and health. Positive patterns can feed talents, bestow wisdom, influence tastes, and energize life purpose. Negative patterns fuel destructive, compulsive behavior, cloud judgment, cause injury, and block your way. By making these memories conscious, we can release the patterns that no longer serve us, freeing us to live more fully in the present. Beneficial patterns are reinforced and negative patterns are neutralized.

We unconsciously carry forward experiences, attitudes, patterns and relationships from our past lives into our current life. Most often, past-life memories and experiences are beneficial in living our day-to-day life. Sometimes certain current events trigger unwanted feelings and emotions, which we may find difficult to explain. Past-life traumatic experiences – like a violent death or loss of a loved one – that have been left unresolved, can at times be detrimental to our current life. This is where Past Life Regression Therapy intervenes; it offers a fresh perspective and insight to resolve those residual traumas or other issues that may be blocking your progress and happiness in the present.

The memories of all of your experiences and learning are believed to be stored in your unconscious mind ever since you became a soul with the awareness of your individuality. Past Life Regression reaches into those memory banks to recapture the events of past lifetimes. It is not very different from trying to remember events that took place during your early childhood. At first, the past life memories may be dim and few, but each event remembered sparks another memory and another, until it becomes easy to recount the event.

With the help of hypnosis, guided imagery and relaxation methods, a client is gently regressed to a time and place in their previous life where the specific event occurred. By bringing these memories into conscious awareness, we can release blocked energy. By re-experiencing the key events of a past life and reprogramming the impact, we can help to bring closure to the events of that lifetime. This releases blocked energy, and enables us to experience the freedom and move forward more freely in the present. Even if one believes these “memories” are not true ‘past-life’ experiences, they function as symbolic stories and are effective in resolving current life issues.

Of course, not all problems and issues are rooted in experiences from past lives. It is important to distinguish when we have a current life issue, if it needs to be addressed through Past Life Regression or another appropriate method. PLR’s primary objective is one of enabling personal, emotional and spiritual growth. Some of the lessons that we may choose to bring back with us after such journeys into regression are increased forgiveness, love, generosity, patience, social skills and emotional intelligence. These strengths help us grow as human and spiritual beings, and help us improve our current lives.

Past Life Regression is the process of healing the soul by healing the past and it is gaining recognition as a legitimate form of spiritual healing. No matter what religion you profess—or even if you don’t follow any religion—experiencing yourself as a soul in other lifetimes gives you a profound awareness that you are more than a physical body. You encounter your soul’s essence, connected and aligned to a greater universal energy, perhaps for the first time in your life you can truly feel at peace.

Everything you’ve seen, felt and experienced in this life, as well as all the memories of your previous existences are housed in your subconscious and then brought to light in your current consciousness during this process. Even though you may have forgotten, your body remembers.

One of my past life therapy clients was a 40 year old lady suffering with chronic pain in her abdomen This pain had been troubling her for years. In our work together, she visited a past life in which she was an innocent bystander in a communal struggle. The bullet in the crossfire hit her abdomen she died shortly afterward in excruciating pain. That experience imprinted itself on her unconscious and manifested itself as a troubling pain in her abdomen in her current life. There was no organic origin for the pain in this lifetime. That abdomen pain began mysteriously in her late 20’s. During her regression session, she realized she was about the same age when injured in her past life. This often happens. An issue carried forward from a past life may not surface until the age of impact in the past life. Needless to say her chronic pain disappeared completely.

With a past life memory in your consciousness, you are able to recognize that the pain and the event were in the past and have nothing to do with your current life. Almost miraculously, the pain that had bothered you in most of adult life is gone.

Most people are able to experience an alpha brain wave state of wakeful relaxation that is necessary to recall past lives. Many clients succeed in the first session; others may need more than one session to fully relax and experience past-life recall. Some relax more deeply than others and have a more vivid and detailed recall. Others may greatly benefit just from the relaxation process at first as they gain trust in themselves and their ability to recall past lives. Your body, mind, and spirit will guide you to proceed at your own pace. I am present to support and assist you but you are in charge of your own healing journey.

The re-enactment of the death moment is where the real healing happens. Facing a death experience — and the peace that accompanies it — has great therapeutic value. It is enlightening and comforting to feel the release of the soul from the body and experience the peacefulness of the state between lives. You no longer need to fear death when you realize that your soul is immortal and that you will live again and be re-united with loved ones. Clients who have experienced a past-life death exude a special radiance and inner peace after a session.

Almost every type of therapy assumes that traumas and important events from an individual’s past influence the present. PLR therapy assumes that as well; the only difference is that the unconscious mind goes beyond this lifetime. It carries forth the events and repercussions from events that go beyond early childhood, prenatal and birth periods right into past existences. PLR therapy finds the root causes and therefore heals more deeply and quickly than traditional therapies. The release of old energy blocks generates a flow of wonderful mental and emotional clarity, revealing the life-lessons needed to achieve happiness in this lifetime, while also advancing the course of future lifetimes.

Some of the more significant areas in which past-life therapy have commonly been used are:

• To allay dominant attitudes, emotions or beliefs that seem to persist throughout your life – ingrained attitudes such as: “Leave me alone”, “No one understands me”, “Life isn’t fair”, “I have to do it alone”.
• To enhance one’s life by allowing individuals to ‘own,’ reclaim or rediscover gifts, abilities and talents from past lives and to carry forward positive emotions for both healing and growth.
• To access strengths and accomplishments from prior lifetimes and bring these forward to increase confidence and effectiveness in the present.
• To help re-experience a happy, successful lifetime, which can bring a sense of balance and peace when undergoing difficult times.
• To clarify direction and life-purpose by viewing one’s ‘blueprint’ for this lifetime.
• Finding prior lifetimes shared with current loved ones, bringing a great sense of reassurance that we are indeed never parted from those we love.
• Accessing the wisdom, peace and guidance that is available from the spiritual realms between lifetimes, which helps in giving growth and direction for our current lifetime.
• Strengthening the clarity of the spiritual nature of our existence. Past Life Regression can bring you peace as it shines a light on the complicated tapestry of your total existence and your purpose as an evolving soul.

Discovering your past lives is a fascinating way to understand that you are an immortal soul living a human life. It enables you to heal the present through the past and can bring great inner peace.

Life Between Lives Regression Therapy

An extension of past life therapy is Life Between Lives Regression Therapy. This enables you to connect with your soul-self and discover your immortal life in the soul world between incarnations. You are able to see your karmic growth patterns through many lifetimes, why you have chosen certain bodies and lifetimes, connect with your spirit guides, and understand your soul’s lessons on a profound level. For this you should be able to be regressed into a deep trance state.

After slipping from your body, you travel in the spiritual state between lives and feel the energy of “heaven.” You get a glimpse of who you truly are — a soul learning and growing through different incarnations. Some meet guides and make plans; some are left with a profound sense of having made genuine contact with their loved ones.

Experiencing the life-between-life state is a natural part of most past life regressions. Michael Newton, author of Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls, has pioneered methods for exploring the life-between-life state in more depth.

For further reading on past life regression therapy, read Roger Woolger, Hans Tan Dan, Andy Tomlinson. They are pioneers in their field and give some of the best descriptions I have seen of the deep healing process, having learnt and worked with them over the years.

The greatest healing and transformation occurs when people commit to a few sessions. This enables you to experience a variety of past lives and gain great insight and healing over time. PLR therapy is very helpful regardless of whether one believes this real or imagined. Most importantly, PLR heals, and gives us lessons of love, forgiveness, wisdom and insight that can greatly help improve our current life. We know for certain it produces a profound positive change and outcome.

INDIVIDUAL TREATMENT

Individual treatment is often termed psychotherapy and is meant to help people with their emotional issues. The main aim of this form of therapy is to change the quality of life by defining the path of life clearly, and bringing in more clarity. Whether it is the problem of repressed childhood that you are facing, or an emotional breakdown due to divorce, failure or loss of a loved one, a professional psychologist can help you revive your mental health through systematic psychotherapeutic methods combined with hypnotherapy.

There are many emotional issues that find a corner in our hearts and refuse to die down. With time, these issues can transform into a sort of emotional tumor that negatively impacts on our daily lives – lack of concentration, lack of enthusiasm, lack of self respect, lack of will to change, discouragement, and so on. These issues can spiral into our lives in various ways and gets channeled into other zones, which can create problems in relationships, professional lives, and physical health. It is important to address the root cause of the problem after carefully listening to the client.

DEPRESSION

Depression is a mental illness. It is not be confused with temporary emotional distress, anxiety attacks or feeling low even though these may be constituents of depression. Anyone can feel low for a brief period of time or have the occasional anxiety attack. That does not mean they are suffering from depression.

When you have depression, it interferes with daily life and causes pain for both you and for those around you. Depression is a persistent feeling of sadness, loneliness, grief, uselessness, and emotional pain. Depression is a serious illness. If not treated at the right time, it can lead to a person turning suicidal. Many people with a depressive illness never seek treatment. But the majority, even those with the most severe depression, can get better with treatment.

There are several forms of depressive disorders:

• Major depression: severe symptoms that interfere with one’s ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy life.
• Persistent depressive disorder: depressed mood that lasts for at least a few years; termed Psychotic depression, which occurs when a person has severe depression plus some form of psychosis, such as having disturbing false beliefs or a break with reality (delusions), or hearing or seeing upsetting things that others cannot hear or see (hallucinations).
• Postpartum depression: is much more serious than the "baby blues" that many women experience after giving birth. When hormonal and physical changes, and the new responsibility of caring for a newborn overwhelm the mother.
• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD): characterized by the onset of depression during the winter months, when there is less natural sunlight. The depression generally lifts during spring and summer. SAD is generally observed in countries located in the earth’s extreme latitudes.
• Bipolar disorder: also called manic-depressive illness, is not as common as major depression or persistent depressive disorder. Bipolar disorder is characterized by cycling mood changes—from extreme highs (mania) to extreme lows (depression).

Causes

Most likely, depression is caused by a combination of genetic, biological, environmental and psychological factors. Depressive illnesses are disorders of the brain. The parts of the brain involved in mood, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behaviour are different.

Depression can be genetic, or caused by trauma, loss of a loved one, a difficult relationship, or any stressful situation. Other depressive episodes may occur with or without an obvious trigger. People with depressive illnesses do not all experience the same symptoms. The severity, frequency, and duration of symptoms vary depending on the individual and his or her particular illness.

Signs and symptoms may include

• Persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" feelings.
• Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism.
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness.
• Irritability, restlessness.
• Loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable, including sex.
• Fatigue and decreased energy.
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions.
• Insomnia, early-morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping.
• Overeating, or appetite loss.
• Thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts.
• Aches, pains, headaches, cramp, or digestive problems.

My therapeutic approach to depression is to make the treatment effective, and help patients recover from their disruptive mental state. I listen to the client, understand, analyze and evaluate the problems, then categorize the depression level to define the treatment path to follow. Depression is treatable, and there are many effective treatments available.

CHILD HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnosis is a natural mental state and this state of hypnosis can be used for various positive outcomes. As people are open to suggestion while in a hypnotic state, they can learn to change their thoughts, feelings, behaviour, and attitudes. Actors, athletes, professionals ... anyone from any walk of life can use this state to improve performance, to change habits, to overcome fears and phobias – the possibilities are limitless.

Hypnosis of children was first described in 1779 by Mesmer, who reportedly used hypnotherapy to treat a child with visual problems. Historically, hypnotherapy was rarely practiced with children because people thought that children could not be hypnotised. In the 1970's, however, observations suggested that children were easier to hypnotise than adults, and that hypnosis could be used in the treatment of behavioural and physical problems in children.

As currently practiced, hypnotherapy most often involves teaching a child how to use mental images — similar to a daydream or fantasy — to enter an “altered mental state” (in other words, to induce hypnosis). Hypnosis is able to change thought patterns in the child and can make effective changes in the child’s behaviour.

Children are usually excellent hypnotic subjects as they are relatively untouched by prejudices and biases. They have wonderful imagination and are often in a state of self-hypnosis when they are playing imaginary games. The hypnotic state is easily induced in them by, for example, asking them to imagine that they are taking off in a space craft or that they are taking part in their favourite television program or movie.

Children experience a hypnotic state many times a day quite naturally; when they are waking from sleep or falling asleep, or just becoming absorbed in thought or in imaginative play. Generally, therapists who work with children make use of a light state of hypnosis. In this state, their minds are very creative and receptive to positive suggestions and can come up with solutions to problems.

Usually children from ten upwards - sometimes even younger - are quite happy to close their eyes, relax and enjoy a guided 'daydream' packed full of positive suggestions for them to ‘act out' in their imagination. (This sort of practice has existed in Indian tradition for centuries and some may know it as yoga nidra). My sessions usually include positive suggestions for confidence and self esteem whatever problem is being addressed.

Younger children just see/ feel /hear things in their imagination as guided by the therapist. The process is more like engaging in active imagination games and they do this with the greatest of ease. Ask them to see their problem as a shape or a colour and shrink it or change it, they just do it! Children spend half their lives in their imaginations and when I work with them I get them to use their imagination in a positive way in order to help overcome their problems. They may close their eyes or they may seem wide awake; whatever they do will be right for them and whatever is right for them is fine with me.

They are encouraged to relax and feel at ease. Hypnotherapy has been used to help control hundreds of behavioural disorders, chronic diseases, and pain and discomfort that children go through: Habit-disorders, Tourette's syndrome, nightmares and other sleep disturbances, swallowing problems, food aversions and choking (not related to anatomical problems or disease), nail biting, stuttering, various kinds of habitual spasms, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), pain-management, nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy, conduct at home, conduct at school, to improve grades, to improve reading and writing skills, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and ADHD (now, over-diagnosis of children as having ADD or ADHD has been to the detriment of many children).

Some common problems

The kinds of problems that I deal with on a regular basis are fears, examination anxieties and worries, bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), soiling, sleeping difficulties, coping with being bullied, trichotillomania (hair pulling), thumb sucking, nail biting, lack of confidence, lack of self esteem etc. Treatment varies according to the problem and the age of the child but will always include positive suggestions for confidence and guided imagery so that the children vividly imagine themselves overcoming their problems with ease. I encourage them to see, hear and feel themselves responding in a way that seems right for them.

Dyslexia

In a study on Dyslexia in 1975, Crasilneck and Hall showed that over 75% of dyslexic children can be helped with direct hypnosis. Following hypnotherapy that included suggestions for improving performance and pronunciation, recognition of words became automatic and faster.

Nocturnal Enuresis, or bed-wetting

Bed-wetting is particularly distressing to both child and parents. There are a number of possible physical causes that first need to be checked out by a physician. Equally, there are a number of psychogenic factors that may play a role such as loss of a parent, sibling rivalry, emotional immaturity due to over-protection etc. Very often the symptom is a form of passive rebellion by the child against the parent/s. The child discovers that bed-wetting is a weapon against the parent/s and often this pattern will continue long after the original cause for the (perceived) hostility is forgotten. To address bed-wetting, we have to help the child establish a motivation for bringing about a change in his/her life.

Asthma, wheezing or shortness of breath

Many children who suffer from bronchial asthma are anxiety-ridden, lack confidence and are dependent on one or both parents to an extreme degree. There may be physical factors that are directly implicated but often the parent is told that the child will “grow out of it”. More likely the child (and maybe even the parent) simply matures enough to resolve the emotional issues that triggered the problem in the first place.

Allergies

Allergies are another problem suffered by children, and allergic reactions are often associated with stress. There can be a whole host of stressful events in a child’s life such as relations with siblings, school, dependency on a parent, fear of interaction with peer groups, and aggression towards one or both parents sometimes arising from a past traumatic event. You may have heard about an experiment carried out on children whose allergen was flower pollen. In hypnosis they were asked to smell a rose in a sealed glass jar, whereupon they immediately had an asthmatic attack. Subsequently under therapy they were instructed in ways to control, and then altogether stop having asthmatic attacks, principally through the use of self-hypnosis.

Finally, there is the terror of the dentist’s chair. A professional hypnotherapist is able to use post-hypnotic suggestions with the child before the visit to the dentist. Here at Evolve with Hypnotherapy, everything is gentle, positive and is aimed at helping children overcome their present difficulty. The process is natural and safe. What is very important is that both you and your child are comfortable, confident and at ease with the therapist that you choose.

Like adults, children can be easily regressed in hypnosis and can then reveal the underlying cause of their problem. There is an effective therapy called the “Talking Puppet Therapy” where the child states to a puppet, in the hypnotic state, their fears and hang-ups about parents, teachers, siblings, school etc. The puppet is the grown up they normally will not speak to or about. The hypnotherapist is then able to reframe that which has been spoken about by the child to his or her great benefit. Hypnotherapy can be used in pill-swallowing, injections, and medical procedures for children. Also Hypnosis has been shown to be very effective in helping children through painful medical procedures like injections, dental work etc.

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