Home Articles Store Ask Del About Hypnosis About Del Testimonials For Therapists Links Contact
hypnotherapy books

Del Morrill, M.S. C.C.H

Transitions

A Center for Counseling & Hypnosis
Tacoma, Washington, USA
(253) 752-1506

Bed-wetting (Enuresis)

Question

What would you recommend to working with a client who is 12 and is still wetting the bed?


 

Answer

     I'm assuming you've checked with the parents as to whether the medical profession has ruled out any physical causes for the bedwetting.  I'm also assuming you've checked with them on the various ways they have had of dealing with this.  It's helpful to know just how much pressure they've put on the child, guilt, shame, etc.  If there is, then tell them to LAY OFF! That only makes it worse. The child already is embarrassed enough with this problem. 


      There are several scripts in my GREAT ESCAPES volumes 1, 4 and 7 concerned with this subject.  Here are suggestions if you don’t have those on hand. 


      When first with the child, alone, I would, before doing anything else, explain that there are many children of his/her age who wet the bed.  This can be caused by a small bladder that hasn't yet grown to its full size, or it can be caused from very deep sleeping in which it's hard to wake up when it' s time to go to the bathroom.  Explain that hypnosis is a wonderful way to help someone wake up soon enough to get to the bathroom so they can be dry in the morning.


       Ask the child why they want to quit wetting the bed--what's the advantage to them.  Use that information when giving suggestions while hypnotized - "You want to be dry in the morning, because.....", "It's important for you to have a dry bed, because...." , etc.


       First of all, I'd use the pendulum to have the child grasp how powerful their mind is, by being able to make the pendulum go back and forth, and then around.  I'd use that to take them into hypnosis, deepening with ideas about how heavy their arm is and that, as it lowers, they go deeper, etc.


       For the prescription itself, I would first use a script offered in my books - a problem-solution finding script, in which the mind is asked to seek out imprints causing the bedwetting and change those causal imprints related to bedwetting into something more helpful to the child now.


      It’s also helpful to find out who the child admires most, and whether they would like to be like that person; if so, does their “hero” or “heroine” wet the bed?  Then carry on with suggestions to help the habit cease.


      Then, I'd give suggestions, with repetition and variation, about being able to tell when the bladder is full, there is a need to go to the bathroom, and that the child would be able to awaken easily as soon as they felt that pressure. I would then implant the post-hypnotic suggestion that "I am now a dry-bed person, and it makes me very happy to be so."  The child should read a 3x5 card you make up for her/him, which says, "I wake up in the morning dry, my bed is dry, my clothes are dry.  And it makes me feel really good."   


      If the child were younger, I'd suggest that the parent putting the child to bed should be asked to tell the child, each night, as they tuck them in, "Goodnight, my dear dry-bed girl/boy."  But, since the child is a teenager, that might be resented.  The child needs to feel that they are the one who can control this. 


      I would ask the parents to be sure to leave them alone about the bedwetting, and let this clear up without any pressure from them.


      Good luck.  Let me know how it goes.  

 
 

Home

Articles

Store

Ask Del

About Hypnosis

About Del

Testimonials

For Therapists

Links

Contact