The Importance of Continuing Professional Development
I have written several articles about what to look for when consulting a therapist. Today, I want to talk about the importance of continuing professional development. In the hypnotherapy world, the general length of training is 450 hours undertaken over one year. For psychotherapy it is 1800 hours over a minimum of four years. Many of these are excellent programmes which create excellent therapists. However comprehensive a person’s basic training, there is a need to be able to keep skills up to date.
Indeed, some years ago I was on a training course where the speaker said that if a practitioner has had no additional training after a few years of practice they are no longer a safe practitioner. The idea of safety should be the first concern of every therapist. As we are not statutorily controlled it is our responsibility to ensure to the best of our ability that our clients are kept safe.
Continuing professional development of CPD is not a luxury practitioners indulge in, but an essential for good practice. When consulting a therapist always ensure that the potential therapist is willing to discuss the CPD that they have undertaken. There is more than one way for this to be achieved, but it is essential to make sure that whom ever you see that they have done something and something regularly.
