Children’s Hypnotherapy: A Complete Guide to Using Hypnosis With Children

Children’s hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis and therapeutic techniques adapted specifically to the needs of children and young people. While many of the underlying principles are the same as those used in adult hypnotherapy, working with children requires us to think differently about language, attention, imagination, communication and what hypnosis itself might look like.

Children can be wonderfully responsive to hypnotherapy. They tend to have active imaginations, can move easily into states of absorption and often engage naturally with stories, metaphor, games and creative exercises.

But this doesn’t mean that working with children is simply a case of taking an adult hypnotherapy script and making the words a little simpler.

In fact, when I first started working with children, I made exactly that mistake.

As a mum of two, I thought I understood children pretty well, and I had already been working as a hypnotherapist for some time. I assumed I could simply adapt what I was already doing with adults. I quickly realised that it didn’t quite work like that.

Children bring something very different into the therapy room. Learning to work with that difference rather than trying to fit them into an adult model of therapy completely changed the way I worked.

What Is Children’s Hypnotherapy?

Children’s hypnotherapy uses hypnosis alongside therapeutic approaches to help children make changes in thoughts, feelings, behaviours and responses.

Depending on the child and the reason they have come to therapy, this might involve hypnosis alongside metaphor and storytelling, solution-focused techniques, mindfulness, elements of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), NLP, drawing, games and other creative approaches.

The important point is that the approach is adapted to the individual child.

There isn't one particular way that a child is supposed to experience hypnosis. Some children will happily sit back, close their eyes and listen to a hypnotic story. Others might want to talk, move, draw or interact throughout much of the session.

As therapists, we need to be flexible enough to work with what the child naturally brings us.

Children’s Hypnotherapy: Working Differently With Children

One of the biggest lessons in working therapeutically with children is that they don't necessarily experience – or display – hypnosis in the way we have come to expect from adults.

I was reminded of this repeatedly by my own son when he was younger.

We would be reaching the end of a car journey and start talking to him, only to be firmly told off because he had been “dreaming.”

His eyes were wide open. He wasn't sitting still with his eyes closed looking remotely like someone in a conventional hypnotic trance. But he had been completely absorbed in his own internal experience, to the point where our talking had interrupted it.

It was a lovely reminder of something that's particularly important when working with children: hypnosis doesn't always look the way we expect hypnosis to look.

Children regularly become deeply absorbed in stories, games, imaginary worlds, films and creative activities. Anyone who has tried to get the attention of a child who is completely engrossed in something will recognise just how powerful that absorption can be.

Rather than constantly trying to impose an adult model of hypnosis onto a child, we can learn to recognise and work with these natural imaginative and attentional abilities.

This is also one reason metaphor and storytelling can be so useful. A child doesn't always need to sit and analyse a problem directly in order to begin changing their relationship with it.

Sometimes approaching something indirectly can make it far easier for them to engage.

How Is Hypnotherapy With Children Different From Working With Adults?

Adults will often tolerate a fairly structured therapeutic process. Children may not.

Their attention can move quickly. Something we thought would engage them might not interest them at all, while an apparently insignificant comment, drawing or idea might provide us with a completely different route into the work.

This means being able to improvise.

It also means understanding that a session which looks very different from an adult hypnotherapy session can still contain a considerable amount of therapeutic work.

With children, I might use games, drawings, metaphor, stories, solution-focused questions, anchors and imagination alongside more recognisable hypnotic techniques.

The ability to work with this imaginative flow is one of the most important skills in children’s hypnotherapy.

Do children need a formal hypnosis induction?

Not necessarily.

Formal child-friendly inductions can be extremely useful, and some children really enjoy them. But they aren't the only way of using hypnosis with a child.

A child might become deeply absorbed while imagining a favourite place, listening to a story, focusing on a game or talking about something they love.

A good children's hypnotherapist therefore needs a range of approaches available rather than relying on one induction or script.

Age matters, but personality, interests, communication style and developmental differences matter too.

Can you use adult hypnotherapy scripts with children?

This is something I would be very cautious about.

Children aren't simply smaller adults.

Language needs to be developmentally appropriate, but the difference goes much further than replacing complicated words with simple ones.

Children may interpret language more literally. Their understanding of emotions and abstract concepts varies enormously. Their attention and interests can change quickly. And the things that make a hypnotic experience engaging to an adult may have very little appeal to a child.

Scripts can provide useful ideas and structure, but children's hypnotherapy requires the confidence to move away from a script and respond to the child in front of you.

Using Stories, Metaphor and Imagination

One of the things I particularly love about working with children is the opportunity to use metaphor.

Children don't always want to sit opposite an adult and talk directly about what is wrong.

In some situations, repeatedly asking a child to explain their anxiety, anger or other difficulties can keep attention firmly fixed on the problem.

Stories and metaphors give us another route.

A story about a completely different character or situation can introduce ideas about courage, change, coping, confidence or seeing something differently without repeatedly telling the child what they should think or feel.

The child's own ideas can become part of that process too.

This makes metaphor something we can create with a child rather than simply something we deliver to them.

What Can Children’s Hypnotherapy Help With?

Children and young people come to hypnotherapy for many of the same reasons that adults do, although those difficulties may present differently.

Areas in which hypnotherapists may work with children include:

• anxiety and excessive worry

• fears and phobias

• confidence and self-esteem

• exam nerves

• sleep difficulties

• habits such as thumb sucking

• bedwetting

• emotional regulation

• bullying and its emotional impact

• concentration difficulties

• some aspects of chronic pain

As with any therapeutic work, hypnotherapy should never be presented as a guaranteed treatment or as a substitute for appropriate medical or psychological care.

An important part of working professionally with children is recognising when something falls outside our scope of practice and when another professional needs to be involved.

Children’s hypnotherapy for anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most common reasons that children are brought for therapeutic support.

It can show up in many ways. A child may be able to tell us directly that they feel anxious, but anxiety can also present through avoidance, physical symptoms, sleep problems, reassurance seeking, irritability or fear around particular situations.

Hypnotherapy can provide children with practical ways of understanding and responding differently to anxious feelings.

Depending on the child, this might include learning self-hypnosis, using metaphor, developing calming strategies, identifying internal resources or combining hypnosis with simple CBT or solution-focused techniques.

But it is also important to understand what is driving the anxiety rather than automatically trying to remove the symptom.

Working With Neurodivergent Children

Autistic children, children with ADHD and other neurodivergent young people may communicate, process information, experience sensory input and engage with therapeutic techniques differently.

We shouldn't assume that a particular technique will or won't work simply because a child has a particular diagnosis.

Instead, the question becomes: What does this particular child need from me in order to engage with this process?

That might mean changing our language, adapting the environment, being more explicit, allowing movement, reducing sensory demands or approaching imagery and hypnosis differently.

Good children's hypnotherapy should already be individualised. Working with neurodivergent children makes that individualisation even more important.

Working With Parents and Carers

When you work with a child, you rarely work with the child in isolation.

Parents and carers are an important part of the picture. They usually bring the child to therapy, may have initiated the referral and have their own understanding of what the problem is and what they hope will change.

Sometimes the child's priorities and the parent's priorities are not quite the same.

Part of our role is therefore building a good working relationship with parents while making sure the child still has a meaningful therapeutic space of their own.

This can require careful boundaries around confidentiality, expectations and what gets shared after a session.

In some situations, it can also be useful to work collaboratively with schools or other professionals involved with the child.

Consent, Confidentiality and Safeguarding

Working therapeutically with children brings additional ethical and professional responsibilities.

Practitioners need to understand issues around parental consent and the child's own assent, confidentiality, safeguarding, record keeping, insurance and the laws and professional requirements relevant to where they practise.

Children should also understand, in language appropriate to them, what therapy involves and what they can expect.

Confidentiality needs particularly careful handling. A child needs to feel that therapy is a safe place to talk, while both the child and parent need to understand that confidentiality has limits where there are concerns about safety or wellbeing.

These aren't peripheral issues in children's hypnotherapy. They are a fundamental part of practising safely and ethically.

What Does a Children’s Hypnotherapy Session Look Like?

There is no single format.

A session may include some time with the parent or carer, time with the child individually, games or rapport-building activities, discussion, therapeutic exercises and hypnosis.

With some children, the hypnosis element may look quite conventional.

With others, the hypnotic and therapeutic work can become woven into stories, metaphor, imagination and conversation.

This flexibility is important.

The aim isn't to make a child behave like the adult clients we're accustomed to working with. It's to create a therapeutic experience that works for the child sitting in front of us.

Training in Children’s Hypnotherapy

Being qualified to work with adults doesn't automatically mean that someone has the knowledge and skills required to work confidently and ethically with children.

Practitioners need to understand not only how to adapt hypnosis, but also the wider context of children's therapeutic work. That includes safeguarding, consent, confidentiality, parental involvement, developmental differences, appropriate boundaries and knowing when to refer to another professional.

You also need a sufficiently broad therapeutic toolkit.

If a child doesn't engage with your usual induction or technique, you need somewhere else to go.

I developed KidsMatters® Children's Hypnotherapy Training after my own early experiences showed me just how different working with children could be. I've now been teaching the KidsMatters® approach to practitioners for over ten years.

The training explores how to tailor hypnotherapy to children, work with imaginative flow, use child-friendly inductions and hypnotic language, and incorporate metaphor, storytelling, games, CBT, NLP, solution-focused approaches, mindfulness and self-hypnosis.

It also covers the aspects of children's practice that are just as important as the techniques themselves: working with parents and schools, neurodivergence, safeguarding, confidentiality, consent, ethics and professional boundaries.

The next KidsMatters® Children's Hypnotherapy live workshop is coming up shortly. If you'd like to develop the confidence and practical skills to work with children as part of your hypnotherapy practice, you can find full details of the training on the AIM website.

Frequently Asked Questions About Children’s Hypnotherapy

What age can a child have hypnotherapy?

There isn't a single age at which every child suddenly becomes suitable for hypnotherapy. Age is only one consideration. A practitioner also needs to consider the child's developmental level, communication, ability and willingness to engage, the presenting issue and whether hypnotherapy is appropriate in the individual circumstances.

Is hypnotherapy safe for children?

Hypnotherapy should be practised by an appropriately trained practitioner who understands the additional ethical, safeguarding and professional considerations involved in working with children. Practitioners also need to work within their competence and refer to appropriate medical or mental health professionals where necessary.

Do children have to close their eyes during hypnosis?

No. Some children enjoy closing their eyes and listening to a hypnotic induction, but hypnosis with children can also be much more interactive and naturalistic. A child can be highly absorbed in an internal experience while appearing, from the outside, to be wide awake and engaged with their surroundings.

Are children easier to hypnotise than adults?

Children often have strong imaginative abilities and can become deeply absorbed in activities, stories and imaginary experiences. However, every child is different, and it is more useful to adapt to the individual child than to assume children as a group will necessarily be easier to hypnotise.

Can hypnotherapy help children with anxiety?

Hypnotherapy can be used as part of therapeutic work with childhood anxiety, including techniques aimed at emotional regulation, changing responses to anxious thoughts and situations, building confidence and developing internal resources.

Appropriate assessment and referral remain important, particularly where anxiety is severe or complex.

Can hypnotherapy help children with fears and phobias?

Hypnosis can be incorporated into therapeutic approaches for fears and phobias. The approach needs to be appropriate to the individual child, their age, their particular fear and the wider circumstances surrounding it.

Do parents stay in the room during children’s hypnotherapy?

There isn't one rule that applies to every child or every session. The child's age, preferences, needs and circumstances all matter.

Practitioners need to establish appropriate arrangements and boundaries with both the child and their parent or carer.

Do hypnotherapists need specialist training to work with children?

Working with children involves considerations that aren't present in exactly the same way when working with adults, including safeguarding, consent, confidentiality, developmental differences, parental involvement and adapting therapeutic techniques.

Specialist children's hypnotherapy training can help practitioners develop the knowledge and practical skills required to work appropriately with younger clients.

Children Aren’t Little Adults

If there is one thing I've learned from working with children, it's that some of the most effective sessions happen when we're willing to let go of what we think a hypnotherapy session should look like.

Children bring imagination, spontaneity and their own way of making sense of the world into therapy.

Our job isn't to squeeze that into an adult therapeutic model. It's to understand how children communicate and process their experiences, have enough techniques at our disposal to be flexible, and then meet each child where they are.

And when we do that, children's hypnotherapy can be an incredibly rewarding area of practice.

The next KidsMatters® Children's Hypnotherapy Training course is on 12th September 2026, 9.30am to 4.30pm. To find out more about children's hypnotherapy training and access course details, please click here.