Anbar's writing is compelling, and it's rare to find a long medical book, complete with references to neural activity, that's actually a page turner. That's probably not just because he's an inspiring writer, but also highly due to what an inspired physician he is. His care and creativity shine through every patient story he shares.
-- "The Monkey Mashup"
Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center offers an entirely new perspective on what hypnosis is and what it has the potential to be. Dr. Ran Anbar is a champion for children's healthcare. With the guidance provided by this eminently qualified physician, hypnosis therapy becomes a powerful tool for healing. Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis is an innovative and outstanding resource for parents and professionals involved in children's healthcare.
--Gary Elkins, PhD, ABPP, ABPH, past president of Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, editor-in-chief for "International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis," professor at department of psychology and neuroscience, Baylor University
Dr. Anbar is a renowned leader in the field of mind-body medicine and medical hypnosis. This book will help open people's eyes to the power we each possess for self-regulation. Readers, especially parents, will appreciate learning how suggestions and mental imagery may be used to influence conditions as diverse as anxiety, pain, asthma, insomnia, low self-esteem, and bedwetting.
--D. Corydon Hammond, PhD, author of "Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestion and Metaphors," professor emeritus at University of Utah School of Medicine, past president of American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
Dr. Anbar's commitment to helping his pediatric patients is evident throughout his new book, Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center. You don't need to be a doctor to appreciate his winning ways; he explains his methods in an easy-to-understand format and the reader gets to observe the entire, fascinating process. Please read this book if you know a child who is suffering--you may be able to steer the family toward relief.
--Roberta Temes, PhD, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hypnosis", faculty (ret.) Downstate Medical School, Brooklyn, NY
Dr. Ran Anbar is a gifted teacher, compassionate healer, and consummate pediatric clinician. In Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center, he has used his years of experience incorporating hypnosis in the care of his patients to tell their stories. This compelling book will help parents and the clinicians who work with children to discover the healing power of hypnosis. This is a masterful addition to the pediatric health care literature and a must read for anyone who cares for and about children.
--Linda Thomson, PhD, APRN, ABMH, ABHN, past-president of American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, moderator of American Society of Clinical Hypnosis Board of Governors, author of "Harry Hypno-potamus, Metaphorical Tales for Children, Volumes I and II", and creator of "Harry Hypno-potamus Imagination Ca
From the first words of Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center, I was on the edge of my seat about Paul, a severely allergic teen. Paul and thousands of others have transformed their lives using self-hypnosis for healing and empowerment under Dr. Anbar's kind and innovative care. I have admired Dr. Anbar's professional research with hypnosis for years, and now in Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis he is sharing his brilliant gifts with parents as well as all of us who work with children and teens. Dr. Ran Anbar is a champion for children's healthcare!
--Charlotte Reznick, PhD, author of "The Power of Your Child's Imagination"
General-interest readers need not be versed in either hypnosis or medical terminology in order to find Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis accessible and enlightening; especially since it also includes tips and insights that family members, caregivers, and health professionals can use to support and understand the hypnosis treatment (even incorporating these techniques into their own everyday lives). While not intended to circumvent or replace the work of a seasoned medical provider trained in hypnosis, this book creates a supportive system and atmosphere that allows adults to be more proactive in supporting all children, including those who are in hypnosis therapy...Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis is highly recommended for those who would like to better understand how hypnosis approaches to therapy can both support traditional medicine and move beyond it to address psychological needs in children. It should be on the shelves of any medical library as well as many a general-interest collection strong in parenting and self-help.
-- "Midwest Book Review"
I believe that hypnosis is one of the more powerful tools available to medicine. Dr. Anbar's book is a great way to learn about this powerful tool. In formal hypnosis, we engage the patient to help him or her learn to utilize self-hypnosis. But words have incredible power, and our choice of words, augmented by tone of voice, body language, etc., can often have the same effect as they might in a formal session of "hypnosis." I highly recommend Dr. Anbar's book. The concepts he discusses are useful to medical practitioners and also to parents (and even grandparents...). Suggestion is powerful. It can be positive or negative, deliberate or inadvertent. This book will help the reader become more aware of the power of our words and lower the chances of our using inadvertent negative suggestion, with undesired consequences.
--Robert E. Wood, PhD, MD, emeritus professor, pediatrics and otolaryngology, division of pulmonary medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital
I have known Dr. Ran Anbar for over 25-years through his affiliation as a local and national medical advisor for Make-A-Wish. I witnessed a colleague's 4-year old daughter completely replace sedation with self-hypnosis for her MRIs as follow-up for brain tumor treatment. As a lay person, I have long-admired Dr. Anbar as a true champion for children's healthcare. His compassion and willingness to listen to and validate what his patients tell him is genuine and central to patient care. This, coupled with his out-of-the box approach on how best to serve his patients, has helped thousands of children live healthier, happier, more hopeful lives.
--Diane E. Kuppermann, Syracuse, NY
I was always a cynic when "hypnosis" was suggested as a medical alternative. But then, thirty years ago, I became the father of a profoundly physically challenged young boy--a quadriplegic child, dependent on a ventilator. He was "locked in" by his condition, and nothing was available to open the window to his heart and soul. Then along came Dr. Ran Anbar, a highly respected pediatric pulmonologist, who told me, "I think I can help!" There were no hollow pronouncements, just, "I think, through good medicine and the introduction of hypnosis, we can improve the quality of your son's life." And he did. This book is not an esoteric medical manuscript, but a book about life and for life. Dr. Anbar and his story exemplify wisdom, determination, passion, creativity, and willingness to "go the extra mile" for the children in his care.
--Rabbi Charles S. Sherman, MBIEE-Melrose B'nai Israel Emanu-El, author of "The Broken and the Whole"
In this powerful book, Dr. Anbar brings his deep and broad clinical experience to show us how he has helped young people with a variety of profound health challenges to use their imaginative capacity to enrich their lives. Through these very personal and even intimate windows, he gives us a vision of how using hypnosis to carefully empower people seeking healthcare can revolutionize health and care.
--Laurence Irwin Sugarman, MD, FAAP, ABMH, College of Health Sciences and Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology
In Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis, Dr. Ran Anbar has provided a book that is far more than the title suggests. The book is very personal, insightful, practical, and challenging. I believe that it would be difficult for the reader not to feel inspired and motivated to engage in the effort to promote the use of hypnosis in pediatric care. I strongly recommend this book not only for practitioners involved with pediatric patients, but also for anyone wanting a better grasp of the fundamentals of hypnotic possibilities and practice.
-- "American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis"
In Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center, Dr. Ran Anbar has taken the medical/clinical topic of hypnosis that has long been looked upon with confusion and skepticism, and woven it into relatable, readable, gripping, heart-warming--and occasionally heart-wrenching--stories that shine light on this underutilized field of medicine. Dr. Anbar was my first professor of clinical hypnosis fifteen years ago, transforming my pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine practice (and my life) completely through his extensive expertise and indefatigable mentorship. Learning from Dr. Anbar has always been awe-inspiring. Readers of Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis will soon know why.
--Lewis J. Kass, MD, FAAP, director of pediatric sleep medicine, Norwalk Hospital Westchester Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Westchester Center for Clinical Hypnosis
Mainstream medicine too often focuses on drugs and gadgets at the expense of health fundamentals. Dr. Anbar makes a compelling case for using hypnosis to leverage the mind-body connection and, in many cases, empower patients to heal themselves. Everyone should read this book to understand how hypnosis can be a powerfully effective instrument for diagnosis, treatment, and more, and why it should become as common a tool in health care as a stethoscope or prescription pad.
--Hy Bender, New York Times-bestselling author of over 20 books, including "Take Charge of Your Thyroid Disorder"
Over the past 20 years Dr. Anbar has embarked on an intense study of hypnosis through countless workshops, persistent inquiries, writing, and careful listening to colleagues, mentors, and most of all his young patients. Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis, with its stories that variably astound, challenge, and inspire, is an important and courageous undertaking. Through his clear commitment to the power of language and the human mind to create change, Dr. Anbar teaches young people, their families, and their clinicians to believe that positive change is both possible and doable.
--Daniel P. Kohen, MD, FAAP, ABMH Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Kohen Therapy Associates; director of developmental-behavioral pediatrics program and professor, departments of pediatrics & family medicine and community health, University of Minnesota (retired); cofounder and director of educati
Plato said that the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately. The compelling stories in this book are in that tradition and illustrate how self-hypnosis can be a tool to help children take control over disruptive symptoms.
--Drucy Borowitz, MD, emeritus clinical professor of pediatrics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY
The book is a timely collection of patients' healing experiences, the story of how these events changed one physician's approach to medicine, and the takeaway information parents and practitioners should consider as they deal with medical and psychological challenges in their children's and patients' lives.
-- "The Jewish Standard"
Whether you're a parent or someone who works with children, set aside everything you think you know about pediatric care and delve into this game-changing book. Changing Children's Lives with Hypnosis offers an original perspective and an entirely new set of tools to use in dealing with kids' physical and psychological challenges. "Hypnosis" holds so many connotations in society, but Dr. Anbar shows us in case after case how it's often the compassionate, innovative, empowering path to healing our children in need.
--Steven Eisenberg, MD, bestselling author of "Love is the Strongest Medicine" and cofounder of cCare: California Cancer Associates for Research and Excellence
