Product reviews for Scripts and Strategies in Hypnotherapy with Children

This is a thorough, creatively composed and eminently practical book. Ms. Hudson has taken the principles of solution-focused therapy, oriented them skillfully towards the problems of children and adolescents and thereby produced myriad scripts and strategies that both illustrate and instruct. The scripts that form the heart of the book are appropriately nuanced and written flexibly allowing the clinician to adapt them to the individual child across a wide spectrum of clinical presentations. Hudson's enthusiastic, compassionate and affirming voice comes through the text of the scripts. I particularly appreciate the author's persistent emphasis on ego-strengthening and the modeling of permissive and responsive language which is central to hypnosis, particularly with young people. The framing of each set of scripts with an overview of the clinical problems for which they can be used, helpful strategies for engaging the child and parents, as well as extracts of the salient points of each chapter provide a unique depth to this text. Practical points for the parents of children with separation anxiety, the list of dissociation strategies, ego-strengthening guidelines and a host of other useful tips add to the book's value as a desk-side reference. Taken as a whole, this rich volume captures the confident, positive, warm and imaginative spirit that embodies creative hypnosis with young people then distills it into an enjoyable and practical solution. I will use it a lot.