Pediatric Hypnosis

Warts may be the most common skin condition treated with hypnosis.

“Warts may be the most common skin condition treated with hypnosis. These harmless but embarrassing skin growths are caused by a common virus. Doctors frequently burn off warts or freeze them with chemicals, but almost as frequently the warts return. Under hypnosis, however, some patients can not only cure intractable warts but clear them on one side of the body, if that’s where the hypnotist directs them to concentrate… “Cancer physician and writer Lewis Thomas proposed a national effort to study the mental cure of warts. ‘Just think of what we would know, if we had anything like a clear understanding of what goes on when a wart is hypnotized away,’ Thomas said.” — The Heart of Healing, The Institute of Noetic Sciences with William Poole, 1993 Turner Publishing 

Another memorable client/learning experience for me that emerged from the New Age Health Spa/NYC connection involved one of my first opportunities to work with a case of warts, as well as with a pre-teen. 

One woman who contacted me said that she had heard my talk at The Spa, but hadn’t booked a session with me there. After returning to the city, she thought my skills might be helpful for her daughter, Jessica. She asked if I had worked with children, and I said “Yes”. She asked if I had ever worked with warts and I told her that I had not, but was very eager to, as there was a great deal of scientific and anecdotal evidence that hypnosis could be a great treatment for warts. 

The following week I had my first session with 11 year old Jessica. We all agreed that it would be good if her mother stayed in the same room. After the initial interview form was filled out, I followed a familiar pattern and talked to her a lot about what hypnosis was, and what it wasn’t… trying to dispel myths and common misconceptions about it. I was also establishing rapport, and doing a bit of covert “conversational hypnosis”. Then I asked Jessica to tell me about her warts. In typical dramatic pre-teen fashion, she described failed attempts to treat them, and unsuccessful, frustrating encounters with various doctors. 

I asked her if it was stressful for her and her family. She nodded, tearfully. I asked if her mother (both parents were mental health professionals - father a psychologist, mother a social worker) was stressed. She said, “Totally”. After talking to her a little bit more about some of the applications of hypnosis - for example, stress management - I asked if she thought her mom could benefit from some hypnosis for stress relief. At that point both she and mom, who had been watching and listening to everything, laughed. 

One of Dr. Milton Erickson’s favorite ways to teach patients how to experience hypnosis, was to have them watch while he demonstrated on someone else. So I offered to show Jessica what hypnosis looked like by hypnotizing her mom while she watched. This served a two-fold purpose - it took the pressure off of Jessica to have to respond to an unknown process, and I was hoping it would create curiosity and perhaps even a little jealousy to experience it herself. 

Fortunately, as I had been hoping, her mom was an excellent subject. Before we knew it, two hours had passed. I told them to go home and practice self-hypnosis together, with the mother helping to explain to Jessica from her experience of being in trance, what to expect. No further mention was made of warts. 

Two weeks later, when they returned for their next session, they were pretty psyched, as the warts had already begun to shrink and go away. I asked Jessica if she was ready to “be hypnotized”. As expected, she was quite eager. I asked her if she was a good students of science and biology, offering to explain a little bit about how cells are fed oxygen by blood flow. I outlined how amazing it was that the tiny capillaries of the body’s circulatory system knew just how to distribute oxygen-rich blood to all the parts of the body, even those most remote and furthest away from the heart (like the feet!) 

Jessica’s troublesome warts were plantar warts, on the bottoms of her feet. And I repeated how, if certain cells didn’t get adequate blood and oxygen, they couldn’t thrive or survive. I wanted to be a bit ambiguous and leave something to her imagination… We then had a lovely, initial formal hypnosis session. I honestly don’t remember what I said to her - probably a combination of relaxing imagery and self empowerment. 

We did one more follow up session two weeks later, but by then the warts had completely disappeared. One of my favorite testimonials is this letter from a very satisfied 11 year old hypnosis client: 

To Peter,

When I first came to see you, Peter, my feet were black and warty. They were a total mess!!! Me and my mom and wanted to get rid of them so badly, I have probably been to almost all of the feet doctors in Manhattan!! As you could probably guess that none of them worked. Out of all the doctors none of them worked one doctor kept lying and saying this will help that will help one more visit that will cost extra. Does it hurt if it does the pain will go away later. Well the pain did not go away and the medicine kept stinging!! So my parents brought me to see Pater, the hypnotist and we did some relaxation and my warts kept shrinking and shrinking until my warts were gone by the second session the were almost totally gone. When the third session came around the warts were totally gone!!

Thanks Peter!!!!!