Hypnotherapy and Distance Learning
I am writing this today, as I have been disturbed by learning that one of the leading hypnotherapy professional societies in the UK has been considering a totally online, distance learning practitioner level qualification. I should say from the outset, I co-wrote the qualification in question, and it was never, ever intended to be a distance learning qualification.
I speak from a position of having been involved with hypnotherapy training since 1993, and holding an MA in Educational Studies and a CertEd in post compulsory education. Practitioner level qualifications need interaction, live interaction with other students and most important with their course tutor. In practitioner level training, it is essential that in addition to the didactic knowledge a student must have, the student must be assessed in clinical skills, which are impossible to do via a distance/online method of course delivery.
Distance/On-line learning is fine for adjunct skills that assist the practitioner, for example, there is little need for a face to face course in research methods in the social sciences, as this can most adequately be done via the distance/on-line delivery method.
How would you feel if the person treating you today, got their qualification without ever having to prove clinical competence? Scary, no? Please when consulting a hypnotherapist for the first time, please ensure that they have undertaken at least 450 hours of training with at least 120 of those hours being face to face classroom tuition.
