More Hype and Less Substance in Hypnotherapy
I know that there will be more than a few of you out there who will see today’s title and sigh “Oh no, what’s he complaining about now”. In truth, there is a part of me that agrees with you. It can be rather depressing when one looks at a profession that one has devoted his entire adult life to and see when members of it simply say anything to get business through their door. I don’t like complaining about this, but frankly, as the hypnotherapy professional bodies seem impotent or simply unwilling to tackle these issues, I will continue to raise them in order to make the great profession aware of them and hopefully lead to some change.
I came across a press release today talking about “unprecedented results” in all manner of aid when you mix NLP, CBT and hypnotherapy together. This is by no means the first time that this has been suggested and that the results of doing so have been hyped up to heaven. My question is, “Where is the proof”. When people make claims like unprecedented, most of us want to see proof of what is meant by this. It is not enough for a practitioner to claim this, they have to back it up. Testimonials are not a valid way of doing this, unfortunately for measurable results, trials and research are required, which of course is beyond the means of most if not all private practitioners. If you are getting good results with your clients, great that’s as it should be. But don’t over egg the pudding by making is sound like you have the Holy Grail of therapy is you cannot back it up with good scientific method.
