Anyone try hypnosis on difficult child?

C

Carolyn9595

Guest
My difficult child went to about five sessions with the new counselor. She was the first person who could describe him back to me just like I would describe him. I mean she really had him pegged and was certain she could help him. I was so hopeful. I warned her not to bring up any hard issues too soon but she did not listen to me. She confronted him on something and he left out of there saying, "well, I'll never go back there again." And he hasn't. How do you get an(6'2) ODD kid to get in the car for counseling? (I can't even get him to pick up the towel from the floor)
So now I am racking my brain trying to think of something else.
Hypnosis works with the subconscious and the therapist teaches the person how to send messages to themselves to overcome desires and how to calm themselves.
It does not focus on talk therapy.
It is not covered by insurance. It is expensive and requires many sessions.
But does it work? My difficult child is 15 and may go out of curiosity.
I'd have to find just the right person.
someone who could hypnotize him to keep repeating, "sure, no problem" over and over!
I'd hire a witch doctor if I thought it would magically cure him and allow us to get our lives back in order!
 

susiestar

Roll With It
The big problem with that is the difficult child has to want to resist the impulses and calm himself. My son learned all sorts of tools to do this stuff but nothing helped until HE wanted to change. We can give them every tool in the world but we cannot make them use the tools.

I would not waste time or money on something like hypnosis until you see some real signs that difficult child both wants to change and is willing to do the work involved to change. Use the money for massages or ways to help you and the rest of the family cope instead. Just in my humble opinion, of course.

I tried hypnosis to lose weight a few years ago. I really WANTED to use the tools in addition to other things I was doing to help change my lifestyle. It was supposed to help deal with cravings. I saw a very well qualified, reputable hypnotherapist and the results were very unimpressive. I think hypnosis can be useful for things like dental visits (if you don't have so much anxiety that it gets in the way - my husband has had teeth pulled with-no medications for numbing and just hypnosis but they cannot even get started with me because I just freak out at the dentist. I need anxiety medications to take my kids in for cleanings - no joke.) and for managing anxiety etc... in those who are motivated to use it appropriately.

Have you read Parenting with Love and Logic and Parenting Your Teen with Love and Logic? They are incredibly helpful with kids, even difficult children. You can learn more about Love and Logic at www.loveandlogic.com. They have a variety of books and are very useful because they stress using natural, logical consequences while strengthening the loving bond between parent and child. It is the ONLY parenting advice that my husband ever got on board with and many parents I know have had excellent results. Even parents of difficult children.

I wish I could be more positive about the hypnosis. It truly isn't something you can make someone use. The way hypnosis is shown on tv and in film is simply NOT the way it works. Unless you are highly motivated there is little that hypnosis can do.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I DO know what you mean about trying absolutely anything if you thought it would work. At one point we were so desperate that my husband talked about having our son exorcised by one of the priests that he knows. No way would I even discuss it, though I fully understood the appeal. For Wiz it would have been exactly the most wrong thing we could do. Wiz was obsessed with magic and witchcraft, etc.... to the point that he even posted online that when we had him baptised it burned his skin and left scars. At the time he actually believed this even though we have photos of his baptism and many witnesses who all told him he laughed and cooed and didn't even cry at all, much less have any kind of mark left on his skin!

Not every kid has that type or degree of obsession with magic and devils etc.... but our son did.
 
C

Carolyn9595

Guest
Thank you for your replies. They were very helpful and smart. And thank you for the link. I marked it and wil look at it. Maybe someone should hypnotize me instead!
 

mog

Member
In my experience NO it does not work. We took difficult child many times. He was about 11 and thought that it was a cool thing to tell his classmates but when we would take him, he basically napped and we got charged.
 
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