We tend to take sleep for granted until problems arise
Some children can find it as difficult to get to sleep as adults. It’s easy to forget how stressful childhood can be. It’s true that children don’t have mortgages to pay or an economic downturn / cost of living crisis to navigate but they have a whole world to come to grips with and they can also be affected by the same things which bother their parents. At the time of writing this we’re still in the middle of the aftermath of the covid crisis. There are huge concerns regarding the cost of living and a war in Ukraine to boot. This has had an enormous effect upon children across the country. Stress levels are quite simply through the roof.
Children are hyper-sensitive to their parents’ moods. If you’re stressed out then this can rub off on your children too. A vet told me, yesterday, how he has seen pet animals more stressed than ever. If pets can pick up on the stress of their owners then imagine the effect of it all upon your children.
Zoom and whatsapp sessions are available for older children and adolescents. Please contact me for more details.
Furthermore, children don’t have control over their own lives. Whatever stresses you’re experiencing will stress them even more because they can’t fully understand the complexities, the shades of grey and because they rarely get to have any say in those situations which lead them to be stressed. Furthermore, they don;t have the tools with which to understand that these crises come and go. We’ve all lived through crises before and have seen them pass. They haven’t yet had time to do the same.
Here’s the good news…
The good news is that I am not only a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist for adults. I am also a qualified counsellor for children and adolescents. At the time of writing this I have almost finished studying for my Masters degree in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Combining these skills leaves almost uniquely placed (within the areas of Oxford and Reading) to offer hypnotherapy for insomnia to children in those locations.
If you’d like to read more of how I work with the younger children then feel free to visit my website on child psychotherapy.
There’s more good news in that children make excellent hypnotic subjects. If you’ve ever marvelled at how your children become so absorbed in their make-believe worlds then you have witnessed their own self-hypnosis.
A child’s imagination makes them superb at drifting into that deliciously focused state of hypnosis. Hypnosis is, after all, little more than ‘believed in imaginings’ and who could ever be better at that than a child.
A child’s imagination can often be behind their insomnia. There are monsters under the bed, catastrophes about to befall the world. There are vampires, werewolves and plenty more things to fear.
I can work to harness your son or daughter’s imagination in order to undo its negative work. Scary monsters can become best friends. Fearsome shadows can become whole new worlds of adventure. Imagination can be a terrible enemy, it can also be the cure.
I offer warm, professional and effective hypnotherapy in Reading, London, Wallingford, Thame and Oxford. If your child needs some help then read on and see if I might be the right person to give that help.
As well as being an adult psychotherapist and hypnotherapist I am also a qualified Child and Adolescent Counsellor. You can read more about my work with the under 18s here. I am, therefore, able to combine a variety of approaches which will suit the age and stage of your particular child.
I also offer hypnotherapy for child insomnia online, using vsee, whatsapp or zoom. Please get in touch for details.
I can still remember my own inability to fall asleep
Are nightmares or bad dreams causing your child’s insomnia? If so, click here
I recall how I used to visit my grandparents in Cornwall as a child. I can still picture the Barnaby Bear cup which sat on top of the wardrobe in their spare room.
I can still picture how I would stare in horror at this each night, in dread at the spooky shadow it would throw upon the wall.
It kept me awake all night.
I never told my parents about my fear of this cup or its shadow and so it tormented me, night after night, and made sleep impossible until sheer exhaustion overtook me.
I remember how, one night, I lay awake fretting at how I had no savings in a bank account. I had no bank account. A friend had told me how she had £84 in hers. I was eight years old and yet spent the night fretting that I would be homeless as an adult because I had no money.
I just wish I’d known then what I know now. I could have helped myself to fall asleep, just as I could help your child to do so too.
I can give your child the benefit of my experience and knowledge. A good night’s sleep might not be as impossible as you or they have come to fear. There are plenty of children who have already come to see me for their problems with sleep. Yours could be the next.
Hypnotherapy could free your child from their fears, worries and concerns, leaving them sleeping more peacefully during the night and living a happier life in the daytime.
Perhaps your child is a little bit ashamed to tell you of what keeps them awake.
I’ve used hypnotherapy for child insomnia in Reading, Thame, London, Oxford and Wallingford and have been pleased with the results. My clients have been pleased too. If your child is suffering from insomnia then you needn’t think they have to simply ‘grow out of it’. Help is at hand.
It can be so simple!
One of my first child clients suffered from insomnia. It turned out that he or she was simply scared of something in his or her bedroom. Removing the object went part-way to removing the problem. It had been turned, through the power of the imagination, into a monster.
The rest of it disappeared when I had my client imagine this monster as a friendly kind of monster, I took the client through the adventures they’d have liked to have with their very own pet cartoon monster. The problem was solved in one straightforward session! Hypnotherapy is awesome!
You’d be surprised at how common this is and how rarely children tell their parents about their fears. I’ve seen plenty of clients who would fit the above vignette. (details have been changed so as to preserve confidentiality).
It’s such a pity how completely we tend to forget such things when dealing with our own children. It’s hard to understand how difficult childhood can be and how this can have an impact upon their sleeping patterns.
If you’d like your child to enjoy a better night’s sleep then contact me and let’s get to work on putting an end to those nights of frustration, tears and terror.
I have plenty of experience in working with children and insomnia
I’ve seen plenty of children facing problems with sleep. Some children have asperger’s syndrome and simply find themselves in a spiral of poor sleep and stress, feeding back into poor sleep and still more stress. Sleep is often difficult for people on the spectrum.
Other children simply find that their imaginations create nightmarish images in their heads which become associated with their bedrooms and which then leave them unable to sleep in their own beds.
It generally takes no more than two sessions and a range of practical interventions for them to find that they can once again sleep easy.
Hypnotherapy can help children can overcome such fears quite quickly (so long as these aren’t based upon any real trauma). This makes it a quick and often a cheap intervention. Isn’t your little one’s peace of mind worth it?
Imagination frequently lies behind the stress which causes insomnia. That’s quite easily remedied.
Sometimes it’s something a little deeper. Perhaps a divorce has deeply unsettled your child. Perhaps there’s a problem at school. Some children find it easier to discuss these things with a therapist than they would with their own parents. That’s no reflection on you. It simply means that they value their privacy, a healthy aspect of child development, or wish to save you from worry. If this is the case, however, the insomnia can take longer to ease off, as the underlying issue will need to be addressed/
I’m DBS checked and have twenty years of teaching experience under my belt. Perhaps I’m the right person to help your child to enjoy bedtime once more.
If you live in or around London, Oxford, Reading, Wallingford or Thame then give me a call when you’re ready to make a booking or if you’d like to find out more. You could call me on 07786 123736 / 01865 600970 / 01183 280284, email me at paul@resolvedhypnotherapy.co.uk or use the contact form below
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I wish I had known about your service when my son was young. It would have been life changing!