Hypnotherapy for children & adolescents : the perspective of South African psychologists.

[摘要] Hypnotherapy has been utilised with children and adolescents for more than 200 years.Despite this fact, there has been no documented research on the use of hypnotherapy forchildren and adolescents in South Africa. This research focused on the perspectives ofqualified South African psychologists on the use of hypnosis as a therapeutic technique forchildren and adolescents. The aim of the research was to expand on current knowledge andunderstandings of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, to explore how the technique has been adaptedto a South African context and to identify drawbacks found in the use of this technique. Theresearch sample comprised eight qualified psychologists who utilise hypnotherapy withchildren and adolescents. The research design for this study adopted a qualitative approach inwhich semi-structured interviews were utilised. Although the technique largely relies onforeign practises that have not been adapted to the South African context, it still provedhighly valuable. While the psychologists opinions differed on the ages and conditions forwhich hypnotherapy could be applied, this seemed to be based on their personal experiencesand success rates rather than on inherent limitations of the technique. The educationalpsychologists who specialised in treating children and adolescents found that there were nolimitations on the use of the technique and they were confident in its application for all ages.There was also a prevailing belief, on the part of the psychologists, that black individualsappear to be more responsive to hypnotherapy than other races. The overall findings of thisresearch study suggest that hypnotherapy is a beneficial therapeutic technique for childrenand adolescents in a South African context. The research aimed to further educationalpsychologists’ knowledge on the applicability of this technique to children and adolescents.With an awareness of its benefits, training by these professionals may be undertaken or theopinions of specialists trained in this area may be sought.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand