The Foundations of All Professions
In addition to my clinical, teaching and supervisionary work I am also very much involved in the development and maintenance of professional standards. When a profession is not statutorily controlled it is essential that the professional bodies which represent them are beacons of good practice and standards. Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy are not statutorily controlled, but they are both regulated under the auspices of the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
The Professional Standards Authority is the regulator of regulators, so what they do is recognise and accredit professional bodies with registers which are exemplars of good professional practice. In my role as a hypnotherapist, my regulator is the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council and as a psychotherapist my regulator is the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. Both of these bodies are accredited by the PSA.
All too often, potential clients can be confused or even bamboozled by claims made by practitioners as to their professional ethics and practice. The easiest way to see if a practitioner is on the up and up is to see if he or she is a member of a PSA accredited professional body. Now the PSA does not accredit individual practitioners, however, it does at least show that the practitioner is following the rules and regulations of a professional body that is accredited.
