Hypnotherapy and Counselling
It should be stressed that Hypnotherapy and Counselling are two distinct professions and approaches to the work of the talking therapist. Despite this, however, these two systems of therapy can be very complementary, and indeed, I would argue counselling skills are essential in good hypnotherapeutic work.
Many years ago, I wrote a major paper on the importance of counselling skills in the hypnotherapeutic profession. One of the imortant aspects of this paper was the discovery that many of the hypnotherapists who were interviewed seemed to have no idea that many of the skills they were employing were indeed counselling skills. Still further, those who did recognise this seemed to be more successful in their therapeutic interventions. Now of course, this is self reporting and therefore not totally reliable. If true, it does show that hypnotherapists would benefit in at least understanding counselling skills, if not taking some formalised training in counselling.
In my opinion, Roger’s Core Conditions are essential in any successful therapeutic relationship. These conditions I have written about in the past, but they are Empathy, Congruence, and Unconditional Positive Regard. Armed with this, a therapist, be they counsellor or hypnotherapist is well equipped to help their clients to actualise their goals and therapeutic desires.
