Hypnotherapy Accreditation Views
Well I am sure I will catch some flack for this post, but I am not bothered. Having spent the past 28+ years in this field there is little that irks me more than “hypnotherapy trainers” spouting off about how irrelevant hypnotherapy accreditation is. I was reading a piece today which illustrates my point completely. In this article, he claims that “there is NO Clinical, Legal or Medical governance in hypnotherapy and the accreditations are family run businesses”
What the hell does that even mean (forgive my language)? These phrases are completely alien to me (and I suspect would be to any practitioner). However, if I were to interpret them, Clinical Governance is training standards. Legal Governance is whether a body is a legally established entity. And Medical Governance could only mean a Code of Ethics. Simply put, I do not even know where to begin with this. The profession has training standards which are recognised by the majority of the training schools and practitioners in the UK. These are called the National Occupational Standards for Hypnotherapy, which were written with Skills for Health. I should know, I co-wrote two of the three incarnations of these standards. These standards are the entry point for the Professional Standards Authority recognised Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council. So I am afraid the author is is ill-informed on this point.
As for legally established governance, many of the professional bodies which verify hypnotherapy trainings and therapists are legally constituted as not for profit and even member co-operatives. Again, this shows that the author is again misinformed. Finally, to say that there is no medical governance in the profession, well all professional bodies have codes of ethics and practice which set out the limitations of a person’s practice and contra-indications. Whilst the professional bodies are not statutorily controlled and therefore, their codes are not either they ARE voluntary regulators which is a form of public protection, which is what it is all about.
As I looked at this individual’s blog, I noticed he does hypnotherapy training over 5 consecutive days. This now makes his post more logical, NO professional body in this country would recognise such a short training. Also, there does not appear to be any formal assessment of the students, in other words turn up, pay your fee, and get your diploma….Simples.
I remember when the profession was rife with such courses, it is a testament to the profession that we moved towards a more professionalised manner of teaching and regulation. So if you are looking to train, please take good care to ensure that the claims made by the trainer are verifiable and true. Rant over.
