This morning I saw a news piece about children and hypnosis. This is something I know nothing about.  I accept that hypnosis is helpful therapy for adults. As I imagine it, an individual identifies a problem or need, and can select a practitioner, a professional to do the hypnosis.

For children, it makes me uncomfortable.  My idea is that children are in a very fluid, growing state, especially their brains.  I’m not sure how hypnosis will impact the child long-term.  I believe strongly in teaching children through experiences.  How would the experience be colored by a filter of hypnotic suggestion?  If experience is action and reaction, and then reflection and memory, who’s to say what the hypnotic suggestion would do to the process?

Is it similar to medications? I think the effect of medicines has been streamlined and studied, and thusly predictable. Our society has tackled the debate over vaccinations, which are well documented. Can the same be said for hypnosis?

I am troubled by the over use of medication to treat all kinds of emotional issues, and other ailments that originate in the brain. ADD, anxiety, depression etc. are all real and treatments can be life- changing. But, I’m worried that medication is over- prescribed, and we as a society are developing an expectation that “there’s a pill for that.”  We hear from educators and other experts that we are raising a generation of incapable kids with no grit, no perseverance to overcome obstacles.  We are shielding them and solving problems for them instead of letting them compete or  pick themselves up after a defeat.  It’s that cycle of experience and reflection I was just talking about.  Perhaps hypnosis, like many pills, distract from the innate human process of growing up.  We are focusing on the symptoms instead of finding a cure for the cause of the problem.  I’m sure it dilutes the experience of being a parent. As much as our children need to go through the experiences, so do we as parents, we learn right along side our children.

I really don’t know. I also feel a need to think about the issue of consent.  At what point do we as the adults/ parents exceed the excepted norm of what we should consent to for our children?  I would welcome comments from anyone who has some experience in this area.  It certainly raises more questions in my mind than if offers answers.