Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center

by Ran D. Anbar

Overview

Offers examples of using hypnosis with children to address physical and mental challenges.

Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis is a timely collection of patients’ healing experiences, the story of how these events changed one physician’s approach to medicine, and the takeaway information parents and practitioners should consider as they deal with medical and psychological challenges in their children’s and patients’ lives.

Every year millions of pediatric patients could benefit from hypnosis therapy to deal with and alleviate physical and psychological symptoms big and small. The benefits of hypnosis-facilitated therapy range from complete cures to small improvements. They extend beyond the physical and into the psychological and spiritual, building confidence, positivity and resilience. They include the empowerment of children with chronic health issues to feel more in control of their own minds, bodies and circumstances. They sometimes lead to the reduction or even elimination of medications. Hypnosis is painless, non-invasive, and cost-effective. It doesn’t preclude any other treatment, and drawbacks are virtually nonexistent.

In a world where the doctor’s primary role has become more and more one of a technician—pinpoint a problem, prescribe a solution, and move to the next patient—hypnosis brings connection and art back into the process. It relies on a relationship between practitioner and patient, encourages creativity and expression, and allows patients to take ownership of their experience with the support and encouragement of their doctors. Children deserve the opportunity to receive gentle, thoughtful, empowering, and effective treatment in whatever form it’s available. Hypnosis therapy offers all of those things, and it’s time for patients, parents, and medical practitioners to embrace it—even to demand it.

Through meaningful stories and expert explanation, this book takes readers through the process of hypnosis for children and its myriad benefits for overall wellness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538153673
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/15/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	802 KB

About the Author

Ran D. Anbar, MD, FAAP, is board certified in both pediatric pulmonology and general pediatrics and offers hypnosis and counseling services at Center Point Medicine in La Jolla, California, and Syracuse, New York. Dr. Anbar is a fellow, approved consultant, and past president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. Dr. Anbar is a leader in the field of clinical hypnosis, and his over twenty years of experience have allowed him to successfully treat over 7,000 children. He also served as a professor of pediatrics and medicine and the director of pediatric pulmonology at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, for 21 years.

Dr. Anbar has been a guest editor and advisory editor for the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. His experience has offered him the opportunity to direct and co-direct more than 20 clinical workshops on the subject of pediatric hypnosis. He has trained more than a thousand healthcare providers in the use of hypnosis and lectured all over the world. In addition to his teaching and lecturing experiences, Dr. Anbar has been the principal investigator in 10 published case studies of pediatric hypnosis and has been involved in research trials of children with cystic fibrosis and other pulmonary disorders. He is a published author of more than 50 articles, abstracts, and book chapters on pediatric functional disorders and pediatric hypnosis.

Dr. Anbar founded Center Point Medicine in 2015, and CPM Franchise Group in 2017

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART ONE: THE POWER OF HYPNOSIS

Chapter 1: The Deep, Clear Lake

Chapter 2: The Mystery and History

Chapter 3: Teddy Goes to Mars

Chapter 4: Kayla’s Cross-Country Trek

PART TWO: THE POWER OF WORDS

Chapter 5: Faith Healing?

Chapter 6: Weak and Strong, Heavy and Light

Chapter 7: The Red Headache

Chapter 8: Bruce, the Boy with Seizures

Chapter 9: What Would the Coach Say?

Chapter 10: Emily’s Emergency Response

PART THREE: THE POWER OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS

Chapter 11: The Tip of the Iceberg

Chapter 12: A Cough Named Bob

Chapter 13: The Poet and Dave Matthews

Chapter 14: Dreams of Wolves, Dying, and a Protective Universe

Chapter 15: The Lies We Tell Ourselves

Chapter 16: The World According to John, Amy and Elise

PART FOUR: THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT

Chapter 17: This Life of Mine

Chapter 18: Peace with the Past

Chapter 19: The Grieving Child

Chapter 20: Finding Spirituality Within

Chapter 21: Ripples from the Center

PART FIVE: HYPNOSIS PRINCIPLES IN ACTION

Chapter 22: Putting It All Together

Chapter 23: Coping in Crisis

Epilogue

A Final Note about Hypnosis

Bibliography

Notes

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Dr. Anbar is a renowned leader in the field of mind-body medicine and medical hypnosis. This book will help open people’s eyes to the power we each possess for self-regulation. Readers, especially parents, will appreciate learning how suggestions and mental imagery may be used to influence conditions as diverse as anxiety, pain, asthma, insomnia, low self-esteem, and bedwetting.

D. Corydon Hammond

Dr. Anbar's commitment to helping his pediatric patients is evident throughout his new book, Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center. You don't need to be a doctor to appreciate his winning ways; he explains his methods in an easy-to-understand format and the reader gets to observe the entire, fascinating process. Please read this book if you know a child who is suffering—you may be able to steer the family toward relief.

Roberta Temes

Whether you’re a parent or someone who works with children, set aside everything you think you know about pediatric care and delve into this game-changing book. Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis offers an original perspective and an entirely new set of tools to use in dealing with kids’ physical and psychological challenges. “Hypnosis” holds so many connotations in society, but Dr. Anbar shows us in case after case how it’s often the compassionate, innovative, empowering path to healing our children in need.

Steven Eisenberg

In Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center, Dr. Ran Anbar has taken the medical/clinical topic of hypnosis that has long been looked upon with confusion and skepticism, and woven it into relatable, readable, gripping, heart-warming—and occasionally heart-wrenching—stories that shine light on this underutilized field of medicine. Dr. Anbar was my first professor of clinical hypnosis fifteen years ago, transforming my pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine practice (and my life) completely through his extensive expertise and indefatigable mentorship. Learning from Dr. Anbar has always been awe-inspiring. Readers of Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis will soon know why.

Lewis J. Kass

General-interest readers need not be versed in either hypnosis or medical terminology in order to find Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis accessible and enlightening; especially since it also includes tips and insights that family members, caregivers, and health professionals can use to support and understand the hypnosis treatment (even incorporating these techniques into their own everyday lives). While not intended to circumvent or replace the work of a seasoned medical provider trained in hypnosis, this book creates a supportive system and atmosphere that allows adults to be more proactive in supporting all children, including those who are in hypnosis therapy…Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis is highly recommended for those who would like to better understand how hypnosis approaches to therapy can both support traditional medicine and move beyond it to address psychological needs in children. It should be on the shelves of any medical library as well as many a general-interest collection strong in parenting and self-help.

Midwest Book Review

I was always a cynic when “hypnosis” was suggested as a medical alternative. But then, thirty years ago, I became the father of a profoundly physically challenged young boy—a quadriplegic child, dependent on a ventilator. He was “locked in” by his condition, and nothing was available to open the window to his heart and soul. Then along came Dr. Ran Anbar, a highly respected pediatric pulmonologist, who told me, “I think I can help!” There were no hollow pronouncements, just, “I think, through good medicine and the introduction of hypnosis, we can improve the quality of your son’s life.” And he did. This book is not an esoteric medical manuscript, but a book about life and for life. Dr. Anbar and his story exemplify wisdom, determination, passion, creativity, and willingness to “go the extra mile” for the children in his care.

Rabbi Charles S. Sherman

Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center offers an entirely new perspective on what hypnosis is and what it has the potential to be. Dr. Ran Anbar is a champion for children’s healthcare. With the guidance provided by this eminently qualified physician, hypnosis therapy becomes a powerful tool for healing. Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis is an innovative and outstanding resource for parents and professionals involved in children’s healthcare.

Gary Elkins

I believe that hypnosis is one of the more powerful tools available to medicine. Dr. Anbar’s book is a great way to learn about this powerful tool. In formal hypnosis, we engage the patient to help him or her learn to utilize self-hypnosis. But words have incredible power, and our choice of words, augmented by tone of voice, body language, etc., can often have the same effect as they might in a formal session of “hypnosis.” I highly recommend Dr. Anbar’s book. The concepts he discusses are useful to medical practitioners and also to parents (and even grandparents…). Suggestion is powerful. It can be positive or negative, deliberate or inadvertent. This book will help the reader become more aware of the power of our words and lower the chances of our using inadvertent negative suggestion, with undesired consequences.

Robert E. Wood

In Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis, Dr. Ran Anbar has provided a book that is far more than the title suggests. The book is very personal, insightful, practical, and challenging. I believe that it would be difficult for the reader not to feel inspired and motivated to engage in the effort to promote the use of hypnosis in pediatric care. I strongly recommend this book not only for practitioners involved with pediatric patients, but also for anyone wanting a better grasp of the fundamentals of hypnotic possibilities and practice.

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis

Dr. Ran Anbar is a gifted teacher, compassionate healer, and consummate pediatric clinician. In Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center, he has used his years of experience incorporating hypnosis in the care of his patients to tell their stories. This compelling book will help parents and the clinicians who work with children to discover the healing power of hypnosis. This is a masterful addition to the pediatric health care literature and a must read for anyone who cares for and about children.

Linda Thomson

In Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis, Dr. Ran Anbar dares to go where few other physicians would. His hypnotic approaches to his young patients, generously detailed in compelling successful case narratives, are at times surprising. They are also innovative and respectful in empowering the patient. If you like the idea of helping young people better manage and even transcend their health problems, then read this book!

Michael D. Yapko

Plato said that the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately. The compelling stories in this book are in that tradition and illustrate how self-hypnosis can be a tool to help children take control over disruptive symptoms.

Drucy Borowitz

Anbar's writing is compelling, and it's rare to find a long medical book, complete with references to neural activity, that's actually a page turner. That's probably not just because he's an inspiring writer, but also highly due to what an inspired physician he is. His care and creativity shine through every patient story he shares.

The Monkey Mashup

Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center is a wonderful new addition to the literature on clinical hypnosis with children. Dr. Anbar is a top expert in this field. His clinical experience in pediatric medicine and children’s mental health enables him to bring this valuable information and hypnotic approaches with children to other professionals in the field. Highly recommended!

William C. Wester

Over the past 20 years Dr. Anbar has embarked on an intense study of hypnosis through countless workshops, persistent inquiries, writing, and careful listening to colleagues, mentors, and most of all his young patients. Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis,with its stories that variably astound, challenge, and inspire, is an important and courageous undertaking. Through his clear commitment to the power of language and the human mind to create change, Dr. Anbar teaches young people, their families, and their clinicians to believe that positive change is both possible and doable.

Daniel P. Kohen

I have known Dr. Ran Anbar for over 25-years through his affiliation as a local and national medical advisor for Make-A-Wish. I witnessed a colleague’s 4-year old daughter completely replace sedation with self-hypnosis for her MRIs as follow-up for brain tumor treatment. As a lay person, I have long-admired Dr. Anbar as a true champion for children’s healthcare. His compassion and willingness to listen to and validate what his patients tell him is genuine and central to patient care. This, coupled with his out-of-the box approach on how best to serve his patients, has helped thousands of children live healthier, happier, more hopeful lives.

Diane E. Kuppermann

From the first words of Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center, I was on the edge of my seat about Paul, a severely allergic teen. Paul and thousands of others have transformed their lives using self-hypnosis for healing and empowerment under Dr. Anbar’s kind and innovative care. I have admired Dr. Anbar’s professional research with hypnosis for years, and now in Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis he is sharing his brilliant gifts with parents as well as all of us who work with children and teens. Dr. Ran Anbar is a champion for children’s healthcare!

Charlotte Reznick

In this powerful book, Dr. Anbar brings his deep and broad clinical experience to show us how he has helped young people with a variety of profound health challenges to use their imaginative capacity to enrich their lives. Through these very personal and even intimate windows, he gives us a vision of how using hypnosis to carefully empower people seeking healthcare can revolutionize health and care.

Laurence Irwin Sugarman

Mainstream medicine too often focuses on drugs and gadgets at the expense of health fundamentals. Dr. Anbar makes a compelling case for using hypnosis to leverage the mind-body connection and, in many cases, empower patients to heal themselves. Everyone should read this book to understand how hypnosis can be a powerfully effective instrument for diagnosis, treatment, and more, and why it should become as common a tool in health care as a stethoscope or prescription pad.

Hy Bender

The book is a timely collection of patients’ healing experiences, the story of how these events changed one physician’s approach to medicine, and the takeaway information parents and practitioners should consider as they deal with medical and psychological challenges in their children’s and patients’ lives.

The Jewish Standard