Session #264: Kelley T. Woods Goes Online

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This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, session number 264. Kelly T. Woods goes online. Welcome to the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast with Jason Lynette, your professional resource for hypnosis training and outstanding business success. Here’s your host, Jason Lynette. Okay. This is absolutely incredible.

Hey, it’s Jason Ette here, and I knew that as soon as I announced. That during the Whole Virus Pandemic, we were gonna be coming out with two episodes a week of the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, and I knew right away, Kelly T. Woods was at the top of my list, not just because she’s a phenomenal author, if you don’t yet have her books by them all, I endorse them.

They’re great. Not only the fact that she’s a phenomenal hypnotist, but also the unique insight as to how she works with children and with teenager. Remotely and, and here’s the thing that surprised me about this conversation, that you’re about to listen to that yes, as she’s a published author, that does give her a little bit of fame where a little bit more referral may come in a little bit more in terms of people finding her books may track her down.

But here’s the reality. That’s something that I had not yet thought of. A lot of the teenagers that I work. Are athletes, are these high performance, you know, children, these teenagers that have so many things going on, That scheduling is a night. And if only there was some little technical solution that completely eradicated that issue.

And my friends, the hypnosis online session through video conference is absolutely the solution here. And here’s what’s great about this. You know, I’m 37 years old at the time of this recording, if I’m doing the math right? Yes. I am 37 years old. So it was when I was like 13 or 14 that my parents brought a computer into our home.

When mean. My children at now, at the time of this recording, uh, being seven and nine years old, grew up with it. So the barriers that a lot of us people have in terms of being adults may have about this platform of being online. Kids today, they grew up with this stuff, so it’s a little bit more receptive to them.

That being said, you’ve got to listen to the. That Kelly involves about opening up the chat when you’re on Zoom with a kid, and the ways that you can involve the whiteboard feature and get a creative process going and everything you’re about to listen to is something you could easily replicate once we’re back in our offices back working as we always had been before.

So some amazing nuances here. Kelly was incredibly generous. If you head over to the work smart hypnosis.com website and specifically the show notes page for this episode, which again is number 264, there are two resources that she’s made available. We’re gonna put those up on the page. No opt-ins just that are gonna be up there for everybody to check out and really hop online, check out any of the resources she’s got.

I’ve learned a lot from her over the years and her outstanding books. And you’re gonna hear just a wealth of knowledge that, um, I didn’t talk so much during this one because I was, I was taking some notes. There’s some amazing insights in this episode. While you’re there online too, of course, check out work smart hypnosis.com/now online, no punctuation, no space in the middle.

Just, uh, bump those two words together. Now online. And on that page is the first episode I put out in response to the coronavirus, uh, threat, but also on that page. There are step by step tutorials about how to do sessions online. There are some additional resources such as some email templates. I’ll be adding more online, uh, training events as they pop up to really use this as a moment of innovation.

To use this as a moment to respond to the world, especially in a time, as Kelly highlights as well, when there’s a definite need for the work of professional hypnosis. So check that out. Work smart hypnosis.com/now online, all one word, no punctuation. That’s gonna give you some additional resources. But again, check out the show notes for this episode.

To grab those amazingly, uh, beneficial and free resources that Kelly has generously made available. This is one you’re gonna wanna listen to a couple of times. So with that, let’s jump right in. Here we go. Session number 264. Kelly T. Woods goes online. So Kelly, welcome back to the program. Good to have you here.

Thanks Jason. We need to keep meeting like this. I know, right? Well, we’re kind of changing up the model, coming out with two episodes a week, specifically highlighting those people who do a lot of client work online. And you were previously on the program, uh, twice actually. You get to be in that select group of people who I put in the first 30 episodes.

Before I figured out what the hell this thing was gonna turn into. So you’re welcome to go back and listen to episode 11, uh, but really go back to episode 1 74. We did it right, uh, on that one, and of course we’ll link to that in the show notes. For those that are new to you, can you give a bit of a brief introduction as to who you are and some of the work you do?

Sure. I have a private practice here in Washington State. I’ve been a hypnotist for about 18 years now, and I specialize in working with kids, so I’m, I’m really thrilled that you’re having to be on your show today because this is, An ideal time to be honing your skills online with working with kids and teens, and I’m gonna be sharing some tips that’ll make it, um, easier for you so you can still have fun and be effective.

Love it. Love it. And that, that word fun as I know a big aspect of the work that you do and having seen you, you know, lecture on some of this work before in terms of working with kids. I’m really curious to hear how you modify it when now we’re looking through the lens of a camera. And watching the screen on the other side.

So let, let’s rewind the story back a bit. When is it that you first began to work with kids and teens in an online format? Well, I’d say probably, oh, about the same time that I started working with adults, you know? Mm-hmm. kids present often with many of the same issues, and I realized early on that kids are already entrained to screens from a young age, and I think.

When I started having some kids who had some physical issues in particular, um, there were some kids that have some chronic, uh, health problems and they were really taxed and stressed going to nonstop, uh, clinical appointments with doctors or even mental health professionals. And so being able to be in their home environment and feel comfortable and safe was a great.

Yeah. So were they local to you in Washington State or were they then coming in international? A lot of them were local. Some of my colleagues here in the Seattle area were referring them to me because, uh, face it, a lot of hypnotists are still a little bit leery of working with young people. Mm-hmm. . And that’s, you know, one of my causes is to, to help them open their practices to.

The young folk. And then, you know, as I started to get a reputation and, um, wrote a couple books on the topic, I, I started getting, you know, from a, a broader expanse. Right? Yeah. And I love that aspect of. How so? You’re right. So often, I mean, I’m even thinking to some of the, uh, a lot of the athletes that I’ve worked with have been teenagers, and these are the ones that, it’s the biggest challenge to schedule with because it’s from this practice to that event.

I had a, a high school baseball, uh, player that was playing on the high school team, but also then on what’s considered, I think, what do they call it, the field team, which was a little bit more. I hesitate to use the word professional, but just that game, that on top of living an hour away and to open up this opportunity, and you’re exactly right, they’re more conditioned to working with a screen than most of, uh, the adults are out there.

they are. And so, you know, you just mentioned that idea that it’s more convenient for not just the kids, but for parents. Mm-hmm. to be able to work in this way. But I think that currently, if we’re, we’re looking at what’s going on in our world right now, There are some definitely some wonderful opportunities to be able to help this population and whenever working with a kid, we’re working in a systemic way because we’re, we’re effectively working with the entire family on some level, and this was a really important perspective to take.

So even though we’re having that one-on-one in a online session with a kid, we do need to consider. Everyone else in that household, especially now in this time of, you know, social distancing and even isolation. Yeah. So let’s kind of walk through that experience that I’d imagine it’s typically the parent who’s reaching out to you first.

Yes. The parents, the one that, uh, that are accessing our, our resources and you know, there, there might be, uh, a plethora of different reasons why the parent is reaching out Normally. I, I work a lot with, uh, teens who have anxiety, for example, online or they might have sleep problems. For smaller children, it’s often behavioral issues.

It could be phobias, fears, um, nightmares, for example, um, food issues. And then again, we could have some, you know, physical problems that they’re having. There’s a lot of, uh, digestive issues that kids are suffering from. We know the mind body connection, especially, you know, with stress levels. And so all of these things can now be heightened and I think there’s.

An added element that’s happening and will continue to happen by the time that your listeners are listening to the, to this, it’s certainly probably present and that is boredom. Yeah. Uh, how do you keep kids engaged, especially if you’re not normally a homeschooler or a stay at home parent. This can be really challenging for the whole family and so there’s this, um, opportunity for us to be educating, to be.

Leading kids in self discovery or doing some emotional intelligence training through the fun. Inter interplay of hypnosis. So I’m really excited about that. Yeah. Which I love that approach of using this towards a time of innovation, a time towards actually improving. I mean, we’re, we’re definitely going through that at home as it’s as of yesterday that the Governor of Virginia canceled the rest of the academic school year.

And then immediately at home it became, okay, so here’s our schedule at home. This way you don’t have to keep asking, When are we gonna do this? When are we gonna do that? You can go look at the calendar and see exactly what time we’re doing this. So outside of the situations that we’re in right now, you’ve done that first interaction in some way with the parent.

At what point in this conversation are you bringing the child into the dialog? Well, just backing up a little bit, I think it’s important to prime the parents for online sessions and, you know, really get clarity number one about whose problem it is. Mm-hmm. , because it may really be sourced in the parent and offering, you know, those, those sessions to the parent is, is usually a good, a, a good idea.

I’m laughing because it’s five years ago that, um, The parents were bringing their 14 year old for issues with procrastination and not getting things done. They all showed up together 45 minutes late without the office forms completed, and I just cracked the joke. It was meant to be silly that, Oh, okay, I guess maybe we should work with one of your parents first.

And the mom goes, . That’s a good idea. How about I take today like . All right, come on back. . And, you know, if we, if we have that, that perspective when we, when we meet with the family and just have an eye out for that, I think it will happen often. And also in conjunction with sessions with their kids. It’s, you know, it’s great to get the whole family on board with hypnotic principles and, and.

Language. So the other thing that’s very important to do in that initial contact with a parent is to make sure that their child is on board with what you’re going to do and is willing to engage. And that might be kind of difficult for a parent to judge and determine, but you can certainly, um, offer a quick.

10 or 15 minute online consult, which would also have the benefit of making sure that everyone gets a little bit of practice with, with, uh, Zoom or whatever platform they’re using. Yeah. So outside of the technology, which the, the great thing about Zoom, and here’s what I tend to recommend, is that when you’re sending over that link for the actual session, if you’re creating a, an event custom for the actual session, which is my preference, that way there’s no risk of overlap there.

Um, you can click the button that allows you to. Make it so someone can join the event before you show up, which the benefit of that becomes, I can tell them in advance, Go ahead and click the link. It’ll let you into the room. It’s customized and encrypted just for you, but if you can log in in advance, that makes it so when we connect, you know, Friday at 10:00 AM it’s done and taken care of.

So outside of the technology, what are you doing to have that sort of attitude, that environment that everybody’s on? Well certainly, you know, testing that out with the parent and help helping them frame what you’re going to do. And especially, you know, with younger kids, I’m, I’m asking the parent to make sure that they know this is gonna be, That the child knows that they’re gonna have fun.

This is gonna be something kind of different. Maybe they’re gonna be playing a game with me or learning something and that I’m kind of a coach for their mind. Because a lot of kids understand that coaching frame setting, setting things up ahead of time is so important. We know that is true in in hypnosis in general.

But what I wanna do is I wanna utilize the parent too, and I might even ask them to agree to do. during that session that I asked them to do, and, and this is wonderful. I’ve used it often where later on I’m going to be maybe demoing a, a, um, convincer or even induction or maybe an, an NLP technique with the parent, and this takes a spotlight off the child and what teenager, for example.

Doesn’t love seeing their parent go through something . This is, you know, and we also know that there’s such a thing as secondary hypnosis. Mm. and you know, I’ve found that often parents want to linger in the room, not because they don’t trust us with their child, but because they’re kind of thinking this might be a two for one.

Mm-hmm. , that they can, that they’re gonna learn something and they’re, they might even get to experience some hypnosis. So, you know, you can usually. Suss that out pretty quickly when you’re talking, when you’re seen once you’re online with them and, and you can kind of see the parents might even be kind of hesitant to leave the room even if their kid tells them to, because , they’re curious.

Well, I mean, just to get a little technical here for a moment, what is it that you’re, are, are you giving any specific instructions other than see that we can connect in terms of I, I’d guess like camera placement in terms of where they would put their devices. So this way you can see, uh, child or even child, and.

Yes. Um, this is something that I usually, you know, I might prior to the session just mention, I wanna make sure that distractions are removed. So if there are other, other siblings or, you know, annoying pets, I think that, you know, peaceful pets are welcome. We wanna utilize those, but we know the difference, Right?

I. I did have a kid with his iguana and that was awesome. Nice. I think we did some wonderful, um, hang on, I’m, I’m checking to see if I can buy a guana hypnosis.com. Uh, never mind. We’ll come back to that later. I, I may already have that one . So, but um, yeah, you know, having, having an angle where you. You know, get at least one parent and, and the child in there together, and that they’re, they’re seated comfortably.

You know, I don’t recommend that you have them laying down mm-hmm. on a bed or, or putting them into any kind of, Place where they feel that they have to relax. Kids are usually pretty active and if they’re sit sitting up in a chair, they’re gonna be engaging more. And I really like the majority of the session to be interactive because I’m empowering, I’m teaching skill sets to kids.

Yeah. And you know, later on in the session, if I’m doing more formal work, if, if they’re. Of an age that I can do that. They can certainly do that in a seated position. We, we know that kids are in TRAs all the time, , so you kind of have to decide. And you know, each case of course, just like with adults, um, they’re individuals.

And you’re gonna be calibrating the child’s comfort level. I remember one young teen girl, she was probably about 12, and she, she appeared on the screen, her mother was sitting next to her, and the kid had a hoodie on. Mm-hmm. and her whole face was covered by it. She was like a little mold inside of it, and she stayed in that little, you know, protective.

Garb for probably the first 20 minutes. Mm-hmm. . And then it was only in, only at the point where her mother stepped out of the room that she started to reveal herself. Yeah. So we have to let kids kind of evolve on their own that way too. Now, one thing that I found is really interesting is when parents go off camera, and they might even want to give you the impression that they’ve left the room, but they’re still there.

Mm-hmm. . And you’ll be, and you’ll be able to know that they’re there because , the kids know that they’re there. , I was like, okay, the elephant’s right over there in the corner. Yeah. And we all know when you see the eyes kind of wandering to one specific area, . That’s what, That’s awesome. And so, you know, with kids at about, you know, anywhere from eight to 10 and older, I always give them the option.

Let me know when you’re ready to have your parent leave the room. your parent. If you’re comfortable, you can have your parents stay too. Mm-hmm. , a lot of teenagers will excuse the parent, and that’s something that I, I say in that initial, um, contact with the parent too, and they wanna know, Do you want me to stay there?

Do you want me to leave? They, they wanna get the best out of the session for their child and. I think that often they can be a reassuring factor, but they can also be a distraction and a limiting one, so, mm-hmm. , you have to, you have to really be able to judge that kid and, and even going by ages doesn’t work, Jason, because I’ve had, I once had back to, back in the same day, two 12 year olds that were so emotionally different and even physically different in their development that they could have been 10 years apart.

So we have to. Deal with the person in front of us in that individual. Yeah. And that means that we want to really get to know some details about this kid. And you can certainly do that in, in advance with your intake form. You can have them list their personal interests and hobbies and pets, things like that.

But doing that in an interactive manner I think is, is also important. And, and watching, you know, how they’re. Uh, their nonverbals when they’re talking about their pet mm-hmm. or they’re sharing some of their interests and that’s gonna give you the fodder that you need for creating any kind of, um, change work.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, just like in an an in person session, discovering what the child already knows about hypnosis and what they expect it to feel like. and what they expect out of that experience, and of course what they want to change. That’s imperative that you’re asking them that from the get go.

But, uh, you know, I think that we hypnotists tend to overcomplicate things. and we start to make assumptions and we start to reassure even children that don’t worry about losing control or , you won’t get stuck. You won’t get stuck in this state. Well, kids come with ideals about hypnosis that come from Scooby do and Captain Underpants.

Yes. And. And, you know, they might, they might even be really impressed about the evil hypnotist, so we have to step into their frames. I love that you just said that cuz there’s the example of, you know, Captain Underpants, which is a very playful, very cartoonish way of doing it, but the bad guy with a bad woman in, uh, Incredibles too.

Uh, is also a hypnotist, and I think it was you and I sitting next to each other when this came up, that the voice of that character in Incredibles too is the actress Katherine Keener, who’s also the hypnotist mother and get out. That was very specific casting, but it’s amazing that we as the adult, and especially as the adults in our industry, Oh no, here’s the Incredibles too, with a negative slant on hypnosis.

No, the kids saw that. They recognized it as a cartoon. And it’s not either a good or a bad thing, it’s just a thing. And it’s like, well, today we’re gonna use that skill to help you to fill in the. . And it can even be a helpful thing, Jason, because really what we’re doing is exciting the imagination. Yeah.

And they’re, and if they’re fascinated by an evil hypnotist, their imagination is excited by that topic. And we can harness that and manipulate and maneuver it to a place where it’s really gonna be a helpful, uh, frame for them. So, you know, there are so many. So many ways to work with kids online, and one of the questions that a lot of people ask me is, well, what kinds of, um, convincers or inductions are appropriate for kids?

Well, many of the same ones that you would use with an adult will map across. Kids don’t always want to close their eyes, especially younger kids, they. Even be fearful of that. Mm-hmm. , or I think even more, more importantly, they don’t wanna miss out on anything. You know, That’s why kids don’t like to go to sleep at night.

Right. They might miss out on something exciting. Right. . So I give them, I give them that choice. If we get to that point where I would want to be. You know, going inward and reducing outside distractions. I give ’em a choice, but I also let even older kids, teens know that all they have to do is look down if they really wanna go inside.

And this is, this is an option that’s great for anybody if they’re in a. Public, um, atmosphere, and they don’t want people to think that they’re sleeping when they’re doing a little bit of self hypnosis. If they just look down at their feet or their lap, they can certainly accomplish that same filtering aspect.

That is, that is great. Especially, I mean, the simple conversational frame that, you know, those moments where you’re trying to find your words and you often look down to find them. We can use that same. . Perfect. I love, I love the way that you just phrased that too, and, you know, um, getting kids to talk mm-hmm.

is sometimes a challenge. They, they might be hesitant to share information, especially right off the bat we’re, here’s a stranger and we’re, we’re trying to get to know each other. And I’m, I think that a lot of. A lot of kids might hold back on information because they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing, and this is where patience is a virtue for us.

Allowing enough time not only for a child to process an idea or a question, but when we give that pause, when we give that space. It lets them find the, the right frame for themselves to be able to explore. Mm-hmm. , and, and this is, this is really important. We don’t have to be talking all the time. Give the kids some space there.

One of the ways to do this is to. Pull in a medium of, of art or drawing. And Zoom has a whiteboard option. Yep. Which is fantastic. So you can bring that up and you can have. Um, the kid drawing something, or you can have old school drawing devices, you know, on. I sometimes just have parents have a, you know, a tablet and some colored pens or, or crayons or whatever.

And when we’re, when the kids are occupied with this, and I might have them draw a picture of themselves as they want to. I always wanna start out with what they want, how they want to be, what they, what their outcome is, and then we circle around the problem that way because working in a solution focused approach.

Makes, distinguishes us from anyone else that they might have used before, and also even from their own family members, because everybody has heard ad nauseum. Mm-hmm. about their poor behavior or their inability to eat vegetables or whatever that the issue is. And so by just having them create an image of themselves as they want to be, this not only is occupying their conscious mind.

It activates what’s called floating attention. and we know that when the conscious mind is focusing, concentrating on something like this, the subconscious mind becomes available. Mm-hmm. , this is true of any, any creative endeavor. And so at that point we can use conversational hypnosis. We can, And, and if it is that whiteboard option, that’s awesome because you can see what the kid is, um, is drawing there and, and then.

You can draw too. Sometimes I will do pictures. I might be drawing a dragon, I might be drawing, you know, some anatomical, um, drawing of their bladder and the, the mechanism that we’re gonna get to, to make a century so that they no longer wet the bed. So when we’re engaged with this kind of a distraction, then it can also be inputting direct suggestions about that, the changes that they’ve told.

Told me that they want, I wanna highlight exactly what you just said there. Cause I think that’s brilliant. That engaging the child in something creative is bringing the mind to the right place. And in that time, whether it’s conversational hypnosis, whether it’s simple direct suggestion, but simply by engaging them in a creative way, and now here comes the work rather than, No, no, no.

You have delayed in my chair with your eyes closed for this to work. That realizing just how flexible this work can really. . It really is, and this is what we’re talking about. We’re talking about narrative therapy, and there are so many different ways to do it, and I, I really like using props like drawing or, or even some, uh, small toys or puppets.

Mm-hmm. using, using them as an indirect way to distance the child from. The struggle because all of a sudden the squirrel puppet, most people know about Mr. Nutty is the one who has the issue, and then I can, then I can engage the kid and have them actually be giving the treatment. Yeah. Which as you can imagine, is very empowering.

And I’ll even say, wow, you know, when they come up with some idea, I’ll say, That is genius. Do you mind if I use that with this kid I’m working with tomorrow? And again, that raises their esteem and it is cultivating their own problem solving skills in, in a deep way. Mm. You know, one of, one of the other novel ways that I’ve used, um, in an online session is to use the chat option if, uh, if a kid isn’t very verbal.

Wow, that can unlock communication like nothing before. And I’ve found that this works really well with kids who are on the autism spectrum. I’ve worked with a lot of kids who have Asperger’s and giving them that option. When if I, if I find that they’re really not expressing themselves freely with me, they jump into it.

They absolutely love it. And you know, some time ago, Richard non guard made a. Text hypnosis video. I, I think it’s on his, on his YouTube page and so that, that kind of inspired me pretty soon. I was working with that kid and within minutes we had a really great trance going mm-hmm. and it was a trans that he was part of.

Right. So, So that’s another idea for people who are delving into working online with kids, which I love. Again, all the flexible nature of this, and especially I can think of, You know, a younger generation, that it’s a different mode of communication in texting and all the various apps that are out there, and to engage that and use that as the bridge into the process too.

That’s that’s great. Yeah. Um, that reminds me also of, of one thing that you wanna watch out for is that these kids aren’t having other apps in devices running at the same time. Yeah, I’d imagine so. . Yeah. And they’ll, they’ll try to sneak that in, but pretty soon you can pick up, you know, that they’re, that they’re uh, you know, communicating on some other level with someone else.

And, and of course maybe, you know, you could take advantage of that if you chose to. But you know, I think that’s an issue really. Yeah. That could be an issue I think at any age nowadays, cuz we’re kind of used to. You know, the use of multitasking that it was kind of in the early days of like American Idol, the idea that now you were engaging with one screen while you were watching your television screen and how for a while this didn’t really take off, but the aspect of having something on your phone sync up with something on the television.

Where it used to be the, you know, the, the DVD commentary is now a thing that doesn’t quite exist as much as it used to. I’ve found that, and this was something I was running into years ago where I just found the phrasing, at least that works for me, is to say, because this is a change that you’re clearly ready to make.

The best advice I can say to you is to let this be an. . So to give it your full attention, turn off everything else. And even where for some issues that I see, they watch a video before we begin. And the same thing where now they’re not in my space watching the video here. I’m sending to them by email. And just to simply say, I really encourage, let this be an event just like you bought a ticket to a show and the moment you were there because you had waited for it, you’re there and that’s got your whole undivided attention.

I, I had someone yesterday that I had brought that up with and he goes, Oh, I love that he had seen, Who was it? Uh, comedian Ally Wong, that a lot of comedians are now doing this, that when you show up to the event, they actually give you a zipper pouch that locks and you can’t use your phone during the show.

Ah, yeah. And it’s not because they have this fear of it being bootlegged, it’s them just saying, No, we got tired of looking out and seeing the screens. If you’re here in the same. Watch the show already. Yeah. And that’s a great attitude towards it. But I found just requesting let it be an event. I love that.

And imagine using that to preframe something like, I’m using a metaphor of a spotlight for attention for a kid who has attention issues. Yeah. I have, I have a, and a process where I use that, where I have them, um, mentally turn off all the other spotlights that have been paying attention to all the other things around them.

And so we zone in on this one brilliant one. So, um, that’s a great metaphor right there. That you could lead into. And there are so many different processes that work beautifully for kids. You know, when we’re talking about inductions, certainly we can use anything to do with eye fixation. I’ll, I’ll have a staring contest with kids.

They always win , but. But you know, there’s something that happens when you just look at each other’s eyes. Yeah. It’s amazing. And sometimes I have been known to start a hypnotic pattern in the middle of that. Um, another technique that I’ve used with kids is mirroring. Mm-hmm. , having them mirror my gestures, even making faces with them.

This is fun. This is, you know, part of that play that they were promised that they would get to experience. Um, doing things like, um, hand sticks, icks, butt sticks in the chair, the , all of the, all of these are, these are, are great and entertaining and they give some of that hypnotic wow. That a lot of kids are expecting in a hypnosis experience.

You can. Again, use some of those props. You know, my Mr. Nutty squirrel is very realistic. Mm-hmm. , when I, when I pull ’em out, kids think I have a real squirrel, especially through this format. It’s, you know, they’re not quite there in person. They can’t reach out and, and feel it. And so that can be a wonderful demo for a teenager to talk about suspending disbelief.

I don’t think we talked, Mr. Nutty, the two times you were on before. Can you give a little bit more detail to that please? Mr. Nutty is my squirrel puppet, who looks very real when I’ve got him in operation, and I’ve, he’s just one of the hypnotic props that I use, uh, to, you know, move, distract that spotlight of attention off of the kid and come up with, you know, them to be able to use their own problem solving resources, uh, to build stories.

To be able to bond. Many kids will tell Mr. Nutty things that they wouldn’t tell a human being. Mm-hmm. . So there are lots of different applications and whether I’m using a prop on my end or they have something, I encourage smaller children, especially I tell their parents, have them have their favorite stuffed animal with them, I’m gonna utilize them.

Nice. Or if, if they have a cat or you know, a more. Relaxed dog. That’s fine too. The Ewan worked that time. That was great. I’m open to all that so we can use props. I’ve used my pocket watch on a chain to Hypnotize online. It’s fabulous. And we know that that’s really bilateral stimulation, so what a great technique to use to introduce that tool to, um, a kid who has anxiety.

Mm-hmm. , you can, you can do a video share of a hypnotic spiral. That’s a really fun, amazing one. So, you know, using any of these things. But when I, when I use any of these kind of convincers or even inductions with kids, they’re always instructional in some nature. Yeah. I want to be able to, for them to, to walk away having learned something about themselves, about their own mind, about the mind body connection through that and, and it’s usually a.

During a session to teach them some form of self hypnosis and it needs to be done in a very simple and easy way. Something that’s brief, that takes, you know, maybe one to three minutes, and then I’ll ask them once, you know, once they’ve experienced it and they’re showing that, that they’re, that they can do it effectively.

I’ll ask them when they think they would use. Yeah, e example of that. You sent over some resources, which on the show notes of this page, we’re gonna, uh, make these available to everybody as well. Uh, like you sent over the, the power word and the signal for kids. Could you chat a little bit about that? Yeah.

So, um, this, this Power Word template is really helping a child find a resource state in anchoring it with a specific word. And through the process you are just offering them a choice of words and then they get to pick one because a lot of kids, um, are struggling with a lack of. Control in their life.

Mm-hmm. , especially now, I mean, so much of their, of their life is, is limited where they can go, who they can hang out with. Even, you know, their foods are being chosen, their clothes are being chosen for them, and so giving them a sense of agency is. Is often giving them a sense of control. So I, I offer lots of choices in my work with kids and this power, power word process helps them choose a word that that represents, that elicits a certain state within them.

And so I’ve included that in the resources. It’s pretty self explanatory there. And you know, there are so many of these awesome processes that we can use with kids that we also do. With our adult clients, but I think it’s so important to be, um, setting that up properly for them. We’re not just going to have a kid sit in their chair on the other side of the screen and expect them to close their eyes and move into a receptive state.

We need to be exciting. Their imagination. We need to be guiding them and making them feel safe doing so. Mm-hmm. , and of course, making the case for them to do so and. You know, for me that the path to that is, We all learn better when there’s a sense of play going on. And you know, one of the things that I use a lot in my work is laughter therapy.

Mm-hmm. and Dave Berman and I wrote a book, Laughter for the Health of It, and we do address working with kids and families in there. And this is a way that you can have a whole family involved. You could have them at some point in your session, bring in the whole family and run them through a laughter.

Exercise, which is not conditional on jokes or humor, by the way. Mm-hmm. , it’s simply using laughter yoga techniques to, to elicit the, the feel good chemicals that laughter brings in. And, you know, for a family to incorporate that into their daily routine is marvelous. And, you know, in times of stress or times of, of no stress, it’s a, it’s a helpful tool to give.

What’s great about this dialogue is that really getting into just how much flexibility, how many options are out there, and really everything we’ve talked about can easily be translated over to practically any age. And eventually, as we’re all back in our offices and back in our spaces once again, you know that all of this easily translates over that, you know, to look at as, as people are kind of stuck right now, I think in the dialogue of, Yeah, but I can’t do this and I can’t do that.

This is one of those conversations of, look at the abundance of opportunities. Look at the way that we can actually meet with people in a format that they’re already in. I, I, I had only one session so far that was about to, uh, postpone or cancel, and it was a couple who was coming in from Delaware. And I’m in Virginia.

That’s about a two hour or so drive, if you’re lucky, uh, depending on traffic. And Delaware has a full, uh, stay at home order. Virginia doesn’t yet. I’d imagine it’s happening soon at the time of this recording, to which I’d said, it’s like, you ever do a video conference? And they actually responded, Oh yeah, we’ve not met with our accountant in person in three years.

Ah. Which I go, Well, I can promise you you’re gonna have more fun with me than you did with your accountant . Put the computer on a bar stool. The two of you sit on the sofa. We’re gonna do everything exactly the same. And the benefit is I’m not going to have to inoculate the stress of driving four hours round trip.

And they went Fantastic. So looking at using this as an advantage, as you’ve clearly illustrated here, that’s great. Do you wanna give it an intro or a bit of an explanation for this rainbow gift? For kids that will make available too. Yeah. You know, that’s based on, originally on a script from Don Gibbons.

He and I wrote a book, Virtual Reality Hypnosis Adventures in the Multiverse, , and we, we discovered that we are independently using the same metaphor of taking people to alternate and parallel universes as. An alternative to age regression. Yeah. And um, and especially for children, I, you know, I am very cautious in using age regression for kids who may not have the resources to deal with anything that their imagination comes up with.

And so taking them to the multiverse can be very interesting, very exciting. And this particular process moves them through each band of the rainbow, giving them a resource. And so it’s, uh, it’s, it’s fun and it’s also helpful to them, and I think it’s something that they can utilize on their own. I’ve had, I’ve had young people, even teenagers who have experienced it, say that they often just go and step into their rainbow when they’re feeling stressed and, you know, access some of the, some of that experience that they had.

Although looking at this, uh, over before we jumped on the recording, how so much of this could be used really again for anybody, especially even a client with some sort of creative slant to what they do. Well, you know, someone somewhere, I don’t know who to credit it to once said that the subconscious mind is much like a bright eight year.

And so we know that when we’re working with adults on some level, we’re really working with a big kid, aren’t we? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Beautiful. Kelly, this has been phenomenal in terms of giving people some really specific strategies and ways to think above and beyond what, uh, perhaps seemed as a bit of a limitation early on in all of this, but now is opening up many more possibilities, so thank you.

thank you for having me on. And I just wanna reiterate that if people, um, want to draw this particular audience, I think currently a frame of having it be as a form of education. Is is an excellent one because parents are looking for those resources, but they’re also looking for things that are gonna engage their kids in a new way.

And hypnosis certainly affords that. Absolutely. And, uh, as a proud owner of all of your books and resources that are out there too, how can, uh, people best, uh, get in contact with you and where can they go to track down, uh, more inform. Well, they can, My, um, regular website is woods hypnosis.com, but I also have one specifically for any training materials and, uh, resources, which is Kelly k e l l e y t woods.com.

And I’ll even, I even have some free, uh, videos there of interviews that, that I have done and, uh, lots of it’s. Available. Excellent. Well wonder for having you on. Any final thoughts before we wrap it up? Nope. I am seeing this period right now as a wonderful opportunity for transformation, personal and, and in a more global way.

So I’m riding the wave and I hope everyone else is too. Jason, let out here once again, and as always, thank you so much for interacting with this program, for using it as a resource and. Recommending it to others. This is a good time to hop online. Leave us a few reviews, helps us to reach an even bigger audience.

Be sure you check out the show notes for this specific episode number 264. Uh, fun fact, the work smart hypnosis.com website has a search function in the top left. So just go to that website. Top left type in 2 64 brings you directly to this episode. That’s where we can get the resources from. Kelly, while you’re there too, add on the extension to be work smart hypnosis.com/now online, all one word.

No punctuation on that page is the first Coronavirus Response podcast that I put out plus a step by step tutorial in terms of how to set up your sessions online. Some email marketing templates that are already made in yours for free to put into use, plus a listing of some recent online training events to use this as a time to continue to innovate and grow in the skills that you’ve got.

And, um, go by all of Kelly’s books there. Outstanding. I’m Jason Lyt. Thanks for listening. I look forward to seeing you once again live and in person very soon. And as we’re saying this month, really always. Go wash your hands. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.