Nail and skin picking in a five year old

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Permalink Reply by Chris Witherspoon on January 17, 2008 at 5:24pm

I cfould use some advice on this subject also. My 5 yr old grand-daughter is a nail biter also. I've tried to hypnotize her but she just gets silly. She might just be too young at this time. I'll be interested to follow this discussion.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Craig on January 17, 2008 at 6:20pm

My first thought would be to use a kinaesthetic swish pattern.
To find the trigger you can ask him to show you what happens just before he begins this behaviour, and run it slowly, so you can elicit when it is the point of no return. i.e. how close do his hands have to come together?
Then just swish it for some other behaviour from there.

Of course there could be some emotional cause behind the behaviour, but without knowing any further details, the swish pattern is quick, easy, and playful enough for most youngsters to go along with.

Rich.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Witherspoon on January 17, 2008 at 6:29pm

For some of us newbies could you describe the swish pattren especially when using it with a young child.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Craig on January 17, 2008 at 7:17pm

Swish patterns create momentum toward an alternative choice. They do NOT remove the old habit, behaviour, or cause. There are a number of ways to run swish patterns, and this is an area where you can be creative. There are two basic techniques, one is visual, the other kinaesthetic.

VISUAL SWISH:
Get the picture that represents the habit, behaviour, or situation you would like to change. "when you think of ... do you have a picture?" (the client should be fully associated in this old pattern)
break state
Get a picture of what the client would like instead. (the client is usually disassociated at the start of this process)Change the intensity of this new picture. "now go ahead and step out of it so you can see yourself in the picture, and intensify it so it feels better. make it bigger and brighter."
break state
now take the old picture and have the client put it up on a screen in front of them, fully associated so they step into it and look through their own eyes.
now add the new picture of the desired state into the lower left hand corner, and have them see their body in the picture. (this should be smaller and darker for now)
simultaneously , have the picture of the undesired current state rapidly shrink to a distant point, fade to nothing, or shatter, while the new desired state or behaviour explodes into full view, bigger and brighter so it covers the old picture and becomes more compelling. (speed is the key to this technique, the quicker the better. the technique is called a swish pattern as many people say swish as they do this step while drawing their right hand from lower left to upper right as a cue for speed)
now clear the screen and repeat a minimum of 10 times or until the undesired picture, state, behaviour is no longer accessible. (it is important to clear the screen so as not to create a loop)
test and future pace

KINAESTHETIC SWISH
this technique is based on movement rather than pictures.
with the example of nail biting, have your grand daughter take her hand to where the temptation to bite her nails is at the point of no return (the trigger point) and from there as quickly as possible do some other action with her hand. i.e. as her hand comes up to her mouth instead of biting her nails she brushes her hair or drops her hand to her side. (pick whatever is comfortable for her).
repeat at least 10 times or until she no longer remembers the temptation to bite her nails.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Witherspoon on January 18, 2008 at 1:30pm

Thanks Richard. The visual method sounds OK for an adult but a bit involved for a young child, I will give it a try if I am ever able to hypnotize her. At this point she is still too silly. I am thinking about hypnotizig her while she is asleep. Has anyone tried this technique. I've read about it but haven't tried it.

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Richard Craig on January 18, 2008 at 3:21pm

Hi Chris,

I have used the visual method with children, the key is to do it quickly and make it fun. The kinaesthetic method will work just as well though.

Rich

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Permalink Reply by Woodrow on January 19, 2008 at 5:40am

there's lots of scripts at hypnosisdownloads.com for a small fee. I found one for free but I don't think it shows a lot of intuitiveness. It can be found here: http://www.choosehypnosis.com/nail_biting.htm

Hypnoanalysis may reveal the reason. I wonder if she has heard of her mother doing this as a child and seeks to be like her mother and mimick that behavior. The more anxious the mother is about it and the more her mother talks about her doing it as a child the more she may try to hold onto the habit. Just an idea.

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Permalink Reply by Woodrow on January 19, 2008 at 5:42am

Chris,

Elman used hypnosleep and details how to do it in his book, hypnotherapy. He and others used it effectively and even for children. Definitely worth a shot. If you don't have the book I can outline the steps for you.

Woody

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Permalink Reply by Glynes Mewton on July 2, 2008 at 11:06pm

Thanks for all the contributions on this subject my feedback is below!

I used a lot of waking suggestion on this young child through storytelling (magic carpet travelling and seeing himself from above in various situations....worked well) I have a globe that changes colour so I had him place his hands on it to heal the sore place (worked very well) I had him stare at this fingers to reduce the redness and soreness (which also worked! and he was please to be able to show his Dad how to do it when he got home) i did some basic RET (Rapid Eye Technology) I had a hypnotherapy session with Mum as this was a mimic situation Mum had bitten and chewed as a child and was the more axiouse of the two! I also used 'whenever his hand travelled to his mouth to start biting or chewing he would immediately recognise this and decide not to chew or bite..........

I saw this child twice and his mother once she also sat outside the room (the door was left open so she could hear and see what was happening and Mum reports the problem of chewing and biting his fingers and nails has stopped.

Regards

Glynes

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Permalink Reply by Seth-Deborah Roth on July 2, 2008 at 11:54pm

I agree!

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Permalink Reply by Seth-Deborah Roth on July 2, 2008 at 11:57pm

The key is too utilize the "sillyness". Even with adults who may laugh from nervous laughter as they go into trance, use it. Giving them permission to feel the " sillyness" .

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Permalink Reply by Susan French on July 3, 2008 at 10:14am

Hi Chris,
From what I've read and experienced, kids are already in "hypnosis" because they live in their imaginations. They don't have a lot of critical factor monitored ideas yet and critical faculty is very easily bypassed.

Try having her imagine the preferred behavior in her mind (not biting or picking) and smiling and feeling happy. You can ask her about how she feels just before she bites or picks. You can ask her to make a picture and describe it or how you can elicit some sense of the feeling she has right before she does it

Once you've got that, you can suggest to her that everytime she has that feeling, she can picture/imagine herself doing XYZ (preferable response) and feeling so good.

Do that until she gets bored or think of other ways to create the state shift (from wanting to bite/pick to feel calm and doing something else that's not destructive, like imagining her beautiful nails with pretty pink polish or something like that).

Kids don't have long attention spans. When she gets silly it probably means that you are no longer in rapport with her. You are focused on how you want her to change and you've lost the rapport (easy to do)..

Keep it simple. Get her to imagine the changes. Suggest that she's a princess with beautiful nails. You can have her see herself as Princess with bitten nails and then Princess with beautiful nails, for instance. It will be enough. When you see the least change, reinforce it.

Hope that helps

susan

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