‘Stressed’ children as young as two are sent to hypnotists
But experts warn parents of risks of turning to ‘unqualified quacks’
SOARING numbers of parents are sending their children to be hypnotised to cure stress.
Anxiety over school tests is blamed for fuelling the rise – although children as young as two are being treated for issues as diverse as tantrums, bedwetting and fussy eating.
Experts last night warned parents of the potential risks they were running by using the therapists, pointing out that anyone could become a hypnotist with little or no training – and that there was little evidence to support claims made about the effectiveness of their techniques.
Adverts for children’s hypnotherapy have started to appear on Netmums, the UK’s biggest parenting website, and the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) said its 1,600 members had reported a rise in the number of youngsters being treated over the past three years.
Richard Lepper, a spokesman for the NCH, said: ‘Word-of-mouth referrals from parent to parent has been the primary reason for the increase in the number of children that members treat. The majority are for anxiety.’
Lynda Hudson, founder of the First Way Forward clinic in Beckenham, South London, has been a hypnotherapist for 20 years. ‘When I started, I was hardly seeing any children at all, but now there is more pressure on even quite little children – for example, at school there is continual testing, which never used to start as early,’ she said.
Budding gymnast Sienna Rutherford, ten, was given hypnotherapy when she found she could no longer do backflips last year. Her mother, Anna McNair, said: ‘There was nothing that triggered it – one day, she just couldn’t do it and it became like a mental block. She was coming home in tears and it was taking its toll on the family.’
Mrs McNair, of Ascot, Berkshire, researched online and found Ailsa Frank, a self-help author and hypnotherapist. ‘We went to her house and did one session. I waited in the kitchen, but Sienna came out like a different child. We got home that night and she started doing backflips in the kitchen,’ she said.
A private session can cost anywhere between £50 and £90, but hypnotherapist and NHS psychotherapist Dr Sharie Coombes said: ‘Anybody can call themselves a hypnotherapist. I have seen several people set themselves up as children’s hypnotherapists who haven’t worked with children before.’
Dr Coombes runs a practice in Brighton called Foundations Therapy and has hypnotised children as young as two.
She urged parents: ‘Always ask about training, background, insurance, and enhanced disclosure – particularly if they are going to work with your child on their own. I can’t stress that enough.’
Professor David Colquhoun, a phar- macologist from University College London, said there was ‘no evidence’ hypnotherapy worked, adding: ‘There’s no restriction on the title of hypnotherapist, but – like nutritionists – many are just quacks.’