Hypnosis for teenagers-a powerful tool

Hypnosis is a powerful tool.  I’ve used it successfully for more than 30 years and credit it with career success, learning new languages and keeping stress under control.  Its effectiveness in helping with a whole host of conditions is widely accepted by the mainstream medical community.

Teenagers, especially those in high school, live in a pressure cooked world these days.  Temptations are endless.  Not so long ago going outside to hang out with friends was their main form of entertainment. Now they have a zillion TV channels, the Internet, computer and video games, chat rooms, cell phones, social networking sites, texting, MP3 player and on and on. It’s amazing any of them can think straight.  

Distractions are ubiquitous. And with so many single parents and dual working parents out there, normal discipline and monitoring is a luxury now rather than the norm. Life is just so different now and we seem to see more and more behavior problems these days.

Meds and expensive counseling are routinely prescribed for problems once solved with a stern lecture and loss of privileges.  There are other ways to help teenagers than  medicating them, expelling them from school or shipping them off to endless counseling. sessions.  Don’t get me wrong here,  if you have a teenager with a medical or psychological condition, seek qualified help. But for many problems there are other options that have been shown to be extremely effective. 

Hypnosis is one those options for your teenager. The list of things for which is hypnosis is effective is impressive. If they need help with test taking, addictions, sports improvement, anxiety, public speaking, self esteem, weight loss and many others areas,  I urge you to consider hypnotherapy.

I use hypnotherapy with our own high school teenager. He is a gifted student, musician and athlete-and he’s just a good kid too. While much of his success is due to hard work, a great mother and perhaps genes, we’ve seen amazing results with hypnotherapy in his exam results, music and sports. In the course of working with him in these areas, I’ve developed  specialized scripts that specifically address teenagers. 

Let me share a personal example of how hypnosis helped him with dramatic results.  Several years ago a well known coach in our local little league benched my son for most of the season.  He came to me for help.  He wanted to prove to himself, and to this coach,  that he was a good baseball player and deserved to play. I love sports, but try not to get involved in little league politics. Some of you know what I am talking about.  Instead of complaining about how unfair this coach was, my son decided to make himself so good no one could bench him again. As long as this goal did not interfere with school or his chores, we let him go for it.

I wrote a set of  hypnotherapy scripts for hitting, pitching , fielding and confidence.  In addition to hypnosis we practiced together and I taught him visualization techniques.  The result was that the next year he was selected to be on the Little League Majors All Star team after completely dominating the league with his pitching and hitting.  His team also beat that other coach’s  to win the league championship. He’s now considered one of the top athletes and baseball players in the area.  He’s a talented pitcher, hitter and center fielder and just made the High School team. But back to the All Stars.  The story gets better. It’s almost Hollywood movie better.

The All Star team advanced to the district play offs.  These teams had some of the best young baseball players in Los Angeles. After a good start, they lost a game and were now playing an elimination game. It was night game under the lights in a beautiful field in Manhattan Beach, California. And they were losing 6-2 with 2 outs and 2 strikes on our weakest hitter. One more strike and the game and tournament were over. 

 Most of  the parents, coaches and players were packing up to leave. The opposing team and our boys “knew” the game was lost. All except one person.  And that was our son.  All of us in the stands overheard him in the dugout encouraging his team mates, that the game wasn’t over yet and that all they needed was one hit to start a rally. He was also shouting encouragement to the boy at the plate. My wife and I were very proud of him. Even if they had lost, I was moved by his spirit. Wouldn’t you know it, the next thing we heard was the crack of an aluminum bat for a hit. Our number 9 hitter with 2 strikes and no hits in the tournament  so far, belted a double. But it was barely a double. He missed being thrown out by inches. Drama!

My son was up next as the lead off  hitter and blasted a 2 run home run. The score is now 6-4.  The next player, with 2 strikes on him,  hit a monster  home run to make it 6-5.  And the next boy, again with 2 strikes, hit a bomb into the street and we were tied, 6-6. Then, ironically,  our best hitter came up to the plate and grounded out. The game went into extra innings. None of us;  the league officials, coaches, parents or the press had seen anything like this before!  Needless to say, we had a new ballgame.

My son went into to pitch  for the first time during the game against the top of their order. The team he was pitching to were the favorites to win the tournament. He stuck out all three batters on 11 pitches!  Then our first batter came up and hit a walk off homer to win the game.

Everyone was estatic or stunned, depending on which team you were on.  My son later told me he just knew they would win and that he would make it happen.  One writer commented you could watch baseball for 50 years and never see another game like this. And he was right. They had just come back from a 4 run deficit with 2 outs and 2 strikes on them to tie it with 3 straight  home runs and then to win with a walk off homerun in extra innings!

Our boys went on to win the district championship for the first time in the  fifty year history of our league. Later that year, the team was invited to be part of a parade. Some of the boys were interviewed by the press and local cable channels. Even though our league does not have MVP’s, my son was universally accorded that unofficial honor for leading our league to it’s first championship. And he’s still modest and down to earth.

Yes, there was some luck and talent involved and those other boys came through with magnificent hits, but without the confidence and belief my son instilled in his team mates,  everyone agreed we probably would  have been eliminated.  That game  has become part of family lore for us lucky enough to have been part of  it. Many of those kids will be telling their grandchildren one day about it. It was a miracle and I know that the  hypnosis and positive reinforcement I used with our son played a huge role in his attitude and performance that day. It was about much more than a baseball game. For any baseball fans reading this, you know what I am talking about.

The point is this: the mind can do seemingly amazing and even miraculous things. Hypnosis taps into this power. I hope this inspires you to explore this incredible tool. It’s been around so long that maybe we just overlook it.

I should mention that that coach who benched my son the previous season, later courted him to play for his highly ranked club team. My son politely declined.  Ironically, his own son who was also on the All Star team, missed that miracle game because his father took him to the MLB All Star game in San Francisco.   What a shame, because the boy is a talented ball player and missed something far more special.  The boy later told my son he would have rather been with his team. The reason the dad boycotted that game is a story for another time.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. A lot of life long friendships and memories were forged on that day-including that coach.  Since then I am also frequently asked to help other young athletes.

If you need help locating a reputable and trained hypnotherapist in your area contact me. If you’re in LA, I am here to help.

Kind regards

Butch

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