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Hypnosis Berlin

Hypnosis for School Anxiety
Back to School with Joy

Happy childhood - just a dream for many? School anxiety is an anxiety disorder. It arises in the school context. Hypnosis can help to fight fears. Parents often feel sorry for their frightened children and so many affected children do not go to school knowing their parents. It's a vicious cycle - while parents want to do something good for their children by writing an excuse, they are also supporting avoidance behavior, which increases anxiety. Comforting, encouragement and loving acceptance and patience can boost a child's self-esteem. But what if that is not enough? Hypnosis can support the child's development by reducing anxiety and helping him or her become more self-aware.
School Anxiety - Back to School with Joy
Image: School Anxiety - Back to School with Joy

School Anxiety Symptoms

How to recognize if your child suffers from school phobia

Typical symptoms of school phobia include morning sickness and abdominal pain, diarrhea, headaches, sweating, urination and nighttime wetting or insomnia and poor concentration.
The following are signs and symptoms that may indicate school anxiety. Observe your child, because school anxiety can show up quite covered by symptoms and also quite obvious. Unrecognized school anxiety can increase to panic attacks without children seeing an immediate connection.

School anxiety shows itself in children through different symptoms and reactions on a physical and psychological level:

Physical Symptoms
Typical symptoms of school phobia include morning sickness and school tummy ache, at times associated with nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, sweating, urination and nighttime bedwetting or insomnia, fatigue and exhaustion, sleep disorders, sleep problems, Insomnia, including anxiety and nightmares, tremors and sweating, nail biting, nocturnal leakage of urine, repeated bedwetting up to defecation, stuttering or stammering in school lessons, problems reading aloud in front of others, withdrawn in class, little connection and social contact, "outsider role", children withdraw, reduce or avoid contact with other children, drop in school performance.
Psychological Symptoms
In addition to physical symptoms, school anxiety can also manifest itself emotionally and psychologically in children and adolescents: In the form of emotional withdrawal, silence but also increased clinging. Negative thoughts and fears can often be observed, which are also expressed: Fears of not being good enough, fears of embarrassing oneself, fears of separating from parents, fears of not being able to leave the classroom when the child wants to. Fears can also increase in children to the point of death anxiety and panic attacks with strong, inner turmoil and crying. Avoidance strategies and staying away from school can be fatal for further development. In summary, the psychological symptoms of school anxiety can be summarized as follows: inner restlessness and nervousness, anxiety about presentations / papers at school, speaking in front of the class, concentration difficulties, listlessness, insecurity and anxiety, panic attacks, diffuse fears and worries, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of making a fool of oneself or being embarrassed, hypersensitivity, irritability up to aggressiveness.

Hypnosis against school fear

School anxiety, like most fears, can expand and become entrenched if left untreated, and can persist into adulthood. Mostly, people who were affected by school anxiety in childhood show anxiety at work: fear of failing, of not being good enough, fear of saying something wrong.

School Anxiety Self Test

Does my child suffer from school phobia?

The following questions can be initial clues as to whether your child suffers from school anxiety and school phobia:
  • 1

    Does your child experience episodes of intense anxiety that begin suddenly?
  • 2

    Can you observe the following symptoms in your child: Tension, feelings of restlessness, aggression, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or headaches?
  • 3

    Are you afraid that your child will cling or be afraid to separate from you?
  • 4

    Do you observe intense feelings of anxiety, crying, or aggressive behavior in your child when it comes to school performance?
  • 5

    Do you feel your child's academic performance is declining or trying to avoid school?
If you can answer yes to one or more of these questions and your child feels limited in school, you should seek medical or therapeutic advice. Your child may have school anxiety. Please note that questions are always asked broadly, so it is possible that children and adolescents who are not affected by school anxiety may also receive a positive result. Not everyone who has a stomach ache in the morning before a school test suffers from a mental illness.

School Anxiety Facts

Where and when does school anxiety occur?

School anxiety causes a lot of distress to affected children and their families. Boys are slightly more common than girls, and the fears relate to different areas: Fear of failing, flunking or getting bad grades, fear of attacks from fellow students and bullying. Great feelings of anxiety and stress and enormous pressure are the result.
37.5 %
of chronic mental illnesses among children and adolescents in Germany in 2017 (cases per 1,000) are school anxiety and school phobia.
11 %
of respondents between 6-14 years old indicate school anxiety when asked "What are you afraid of".
30 %
of respondents between 6-14 years of age indicate fear for others, fear of loss when asked "What are you afraid of?"

Fear of school causes

School anxiety and school phobia can have different causes

Often hides something else behind school anxiety!

While the symptoms of school anxiety are usually very similar, the causes are very different. Hypnosis helps to get to the bottom of the different causes.

Causes of school anxiety and school phobia:
  • Excessive demands
  • Performance anxiety, fear of failure
  • Social anxiety
  • Violence or bullying at school (see here also bullying at school in children and adults)
  • Separation from caregiver, fear of abandonment, fear of loss
  • Traumatic separation experience beforehand
  • Overprotection by parents
  • Fear of being ridiculed, embarrassed or ostracized
  • Fear of not being good enough

Anxiety about school can be caused by performance anxiety

We live in a meritocracy, and even the youngest children experience this. Almost all elementary school children know that they have to "graduate from high school" in order to learn a "good profession", in order to earn "a lot of money" one day. Just as with separation anxiety, it is often enough the environment that scares the children so much with thoughtless statements. Thus it happens that even elementary school students suffer from performance anxiety. The largest group of students with performance anxiety, however, are high school students. Here there are classes in which every second student suffers from performance anxiety and fear of failure. Once again, a cycle develops. The student suffers from insomnia, has trouble concentrating, and his performance gets worse and worse. The school anxiety increases. Hypnosis starts here, especially with concentration. First of all, the student learns to relax. The night sleep returns, the student finds again the leisure to study concentrated. In the further course, the hypnosis treatment strengthens the self-awareness.

School anxiety intensifies with social phobia and social anxiety

Children who suffer from social phobia or social anxiety are often afraid of being laughed at and often have a strong sense of shame. Children tend to have low self-esteem and fear of criticism, which makes them less able to defend themselves against bullying, teasing, or physical violence from classmates or teachers.
Children with social anxiety feel watched, relate a lot to themselves, are very shy, and withdraw more and more from their classmates. Through hypnosis, these children learn to trust themselves more. They get in touch with their inner helpers, learn to know their fears and to articulate them.
Once again, it is self-confidence that is strengthened through hypnotherapy. Social phobia and separation anxiety very often occur together.
Here you can read more about social phobia in adulthood. This is because it is not uncommon for a pronounced school phobia and school phobia to develop into social phobia in adulthood: Read more about phobias and specific fears and social phobia.

Separation anxiety may lie behind school anxiety

A common cause of school anxiety, especially in young children, is separation anxiety. Children cling to their parents, don't want to leave the house, don't know what is happening while they are at school. Sometimes the causes of separation anxiety are very simple. The "big school kid" may be afraid that he or she will soon have to live alone, just like the other "big children." Another fears being separated from a parent because he or she has experienced divorces in the immediate environment. However, some reasons for a pronounced separation anxiety lie much deeper and cannot be found out by simply asking questions and listening. This is where hypnosis for school phobia helps to uncover the hidden fears and gently overcome them with hypnosis. It shows the child ways to relax and thus gives him new security and confidence.

School anxiety consequences

Anxiety about school can lead to fear of failure and achievement

For many people, childhood is the happiest time of their lives. Unfortunately, however, there are almost as many people who remember their childhood only with horror. School is often to blame. Every fifth child in Germany suffers from school anxiety. Physical and emotional pain weighs heavily on the children. They become ill, separate themselves more and more from their classmates, and as a result are ostracized more and more. This is a cycle that must be broken. Because school phobia by no means affects only childhood. The school and separation anxiety of the early years is unfortunately far too often carried over into adult life.
The fear of failing and not being good enough paralyzes:
Failure and performance anxiety are the consequences. Depending on the cause of school phobia, social phobias and separation anxiety are added to the mix, as well as an almost endless series of the most diverse psychosomatic complaints. School anxiety is neither harmless nor without consequences. With hypnosis you can help your children with school and separation anxiety.

School anxiety can have these consequences on adulthood

School anxiety has a tendency to expand as long as this cycle is not broken and continue into adulthood. School anxiety, like most fears, has a tendency to expand and become more, so it is all the more important to break this cycle and discover new possibilities.
If you suffered from school anxiety or separation anxiety as a child, it is very likely that you still suffer from the effects of anxiety today. With the help of hypnosis, learn what effects your former school anxiety has on your life today and finally chase away the ghosts of the past. Especially for adults, former school anxiety can show up in a fear of lectures or meetings. Learn more about how hypnosis can help with speech anxiety, fear of lectures and stage fright.

Summarize the consequences of a school fear as follows:
  • Decreasing self-confidence
  • Increased feelings of helplessness and insecurity at school
  • Oral performance at school drops
  • Fear of saying the wrong thing, making a fool of oneself, or being embarrassed increases and has a negative impact on academic (and career) progress
  • Performance and concentration decrease
  • Affected children withdraw, reduce or avoid contact with other children. They often take on the "outsider role" more and more due to little connection and social contacts.
  • Expansion of school anxiety, which can develop into social phobia
  • Avoidance of school or certain school subjects that are filled with anxiety
  • Depressive moods and exhaustion, restlessness and sleep problems

School Anxiety and Consequential Illnesses

Great feelings of anxiety and stress and enormous pressure can be the result of school anxiety. Affected children and adolescents often also show depressive moods and signs of great insecurity and hopelessness. Avoidance of school or certain anxiety-ridden subjects, withdrawal from social contacts, can be the result. Not infrequently, the anxiety increases to panic attacks and a social phobia, which can persist into adulthood.

School Anxiety Hypnosis Treatment

What brings parents and their children with school anxiety and school phobia to hypnosis

A large part of our clients are parents and their children who have school anxiety and sometimes refuse to go to school altogether. Another part has had to struggle for years with the consequences of their own school phobia in everyday life, which has sometimes developed into social anxiety. Thus, many come to our hypnosis practice with the desire to combat and dissolve fears. Testimonials show that hypnosis sets something in motion that is deeper. Positive changes in the next days, weeks will grow more and more and the previously anxiety-ridden appointment again more and more easily approached.

Hypnosis helps with school anxiety and school phobia

Especially with children and teenagers hypnotherapy is very effective. Since children usually have a greater connection to the inner imagination of images, an inner dream world, which simplifies the work with hypnosis. They usually get into hypnosis faster and easier and are much more natural in the trance than adults. The imagery that plays an important role in hypnosis is also more accessible to children. So it is easy for them to communicate in pictures. They enjoy developing imaginative "stop scenarios" with which they can control their anxiety attacks and have an easier time activating inner helpers and resources. Hypnosis is suitable for school children and teenagers. In our hypnosis practice we work with school children from the age of 9, in exceptional cases also with younger children.

More Information

Hypnosis Appointment Booking

  • The first hypnosis session usually lasts 120 minutes and includes getting to know each other, a detailed anamnesis and your first hypnosis.
    After booking an appointment in the online calendar, you will receive detailed information about your hypnosis session by email and will receive the hypnosis e-book free of charge when you book the first session. Follow-up appointments usually last 90 - 120 minutes, depending on the current situation and the resulting needs.
    You can find detailed information about the prices under Hypnosis Prices.
  • Smaller topics and issues can sometimes be solved in one session. In particular, hypnosis for smoking cessation takes place in one intensive session. More complex issues that accompany people longer are treated in four sessions on average. Hypnotherapy is to be understood as a short therapy. There are also exceptions where I support clients over several years at their express request.
  • Usually clients come for a follow-up appointment at an interval of 1 to 4 weeks. I have had very good experiences with a session interval of 1 to 2 weeks. I would like to emphasize here that in my experience this depends on the topic and the client.
  • Under the following link you can select and book your appointment yourself in the online calendar: Make an Appointment.
  • You will receive an invoice for each session. This does NOT show any fee codes of the GebüH and does not contain any diagnoses. The session is to be paid privately at the end of the session in cash or with EC card. The practice does NOT bill public and private insurances.
  • You can find more questions and answers in the Hypnosis FAQ section - frequently asked questions about hypnosis.

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