ABSTRACT
The greatest of teachers, when his work is all done, the people (children) all say, “We have done it ourselves.”
— Old Chinese proverb
In 1987, we were privileged to provide what we believe was one of the first introductory pediatric hypnosis workshops as part of the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Pediatrics, now the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP). The meeting was held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. Disneyland seemed an especially appropriate place to promote the value of imagination to the healthy lives of children, and the workshop received excellent evaluations. For the following 23 years, this training workshop became a regular feature of the annual meetings of the SDBP. In 1988, we were asked to provide intermediate-level workshop training for those who had participated in the previous year’s introductory course and wanted to learn more. These companion workshops continued, and at the 1994 annual meeting in Minneapolis we added an advanced-level workshop for the first time. Over 60 child health professionals participated in the 1994 training, and over 1100 attended these hypnosis workshops between 1987 and 2009. In 2010, the National Pediatric Hypnosis Training Institute (NPHTI) was founded by members of our teaching faculty to formalize our philosophical and educational commitment to advancing the role of child hypnosis and hypnotherapy in the care of children and adolescents in health and in illness. The commitment of NPHTI to offer at least annual skill development workshop training in child hypnosis and hypnotherapy led to the inaugural NPHTI-sponsored introductory, intermediate, and advanced (individual consultation) workshops held in Minneapolis in 2010. These were cosponsored by the Minnesota Society of Clinical Hypnosis, the University of Minnesota Department of Pediatrics, and the University of Minnesota Department of Continuing Medical Education. Ongoing visits to the NPHTI website (www.nphti.org) will keep the reader apprised of NPHTI’s efforts, significant research and publications in pediatric hypnosis, innovative regional and national learning opportunities, research endeavors, and ways of supporting the work of NPHTI to bring self-regulation skills to our youth.
