Not All Hypnotherapists Are Psychotherapists
Some hypnotherapists ever since I have been in practice, and for me that is a very long time, have had an identity issue. For some the title hypnotherapist was not enough, they coveted the title psychotherapist. Now, I can understand why they would, the title hypnotherapist had been seen as a bit suspect in some quarters many years ago. This is no longer the case, the title hypnotherapist is an honourable title and accurately describes what most in the profession do.
However, the misuse, and I do say misuse of the title psychotherapist cannot be totally blamed on the practitioner. Trainers have a lot to answer for in this. We can assume that most people who come into the profession really do not know how it is structured. Trainers, on the other hand, should know better.
For a course to be considered a psychotherapy course, it should meet the standards for accreditation from at least one of these organisations: The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, The British Psychoanalytic Council or the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. These three bodies represent the vast majority of psychotherapeutic practitioners in this country. These organisations are all PSA Accredited and their schools all offer meaningful training and their schools have all met rigorous standards as to their ability to provide training in psychotherapy.
If a person has not undertaken training via a school accredited by at least one of these bodies in my view has no business referring to themselves as a psychotherapist. The UKCP is the only one of these bodies who recognise “Hypno-Psychotherapy” and there are only three schools which train to this standard in the UK. If you are looking for a psychotherapist who also practises hypnosis, please ensure that they can say they were trained by one of these schools.
