USING HYPNOSIS TO HELP DEAF-CHILDREN HELP THEMSELVES - REPORT OF 2 CASES

This is a report of deaf children who demonstrated the ability to quic kly learn hypnotic skills and apply them effectively to the management of their problems. The children were taught hypnosis through American Sign Language, their preferred mode of communication. As with hypnosi s with hearing children, we focused upon induction with fantasy and im aginative involvement, creation in imagination of a metaphor for, or i magery of, the desired outcome, and associated sense of pride (ego-str engthening), positive expectation, and teaching self-hypnosis to empha size the importance of repeated, daily practice. Case examples present ed are an 11-year-old deaf girl who used hypnosis to eliminate multipl e warts, and a 9-year-old deaf boy with mild developmental disability whose self-hypnosis skills were applied to the management of myoclonus . In the former, the clinician is also the sign language communicator and in the latter, a professional sign language interpreter and parent are both intimately involved in the communication and hypnosis proces s.