Does your child suffer from nightmares" Javier Orti?s simple technique has his young clients asleep in minutes ? with not a scary monster in sight
Nightmares are a huge worry for children: they come in the middle of the night, when parents are least prepared to help. They can go on to haunt children for weeks on end and make even the best of us cranky and sleep-deprived.
As the father of two young girls, I am used to hearing the nightmare panic cry. And in my work as a life coach and child therapist, many young clients are referred to me with problems caused by nightmares.
How Common Are Nightmares"
Nightmares are common in young children. According to research*, nearly 75% of school-age children experience nightmares, and 15% are frequent. They peak at age seven to nine. Common themes are family safety or intruders (56%), inside or outside noises (48%), nightmares (39%) and imaginary creatures (22%). Nightmares have a clear link to anxiety. But we do not know which comes first.
Children learn coping strategies to manage ? they include ignoring or distracting (50%) or hugging a soft toy (9.3%). To me, it is significant that only 27.9% of children talk to their parents about nightmares.
Life coaching focuses on solutions, so I start by helping a child discover how to stop nightmares, and leave the ?why? for later. I use a technique called ?Neverland?, based on NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). It prepares the child for sleep and helps them relax. For my...