Reviews Are Not Qualifications For Hypnotherapy
Today’s topic is a bit of a hot button issue for me. For the better part of twenty years, I have argued the case that the use of testimonials in clinical practice are, by their very nature, unethical and should not be used for practitioners. The reason for this is laid out on my website, but the principle reason is that they are open to be fabricated, and that testimonials are not a true gauge of the efficacy of a practitioner’s work.
Since then, the growth of online reviews have come into play. These differ from testimonials in that, they can have both positive and negative reviews. As well as the fact, that these reviews are outside of the therapist’s control. What I mean here is that they cannot be fabricated, nor edited by the practitioner.
However, these reviews are now being used more and more by practitioners as being equivalent to and in some cases superior to the individual’s qualifications and experience. This is not a good thing for the public, as even unsolicited reviews only give one person’s view of the competence of the practitioner and a subjective one at that. A person’s qualifications give the public a much more reasonable idea of the skill set that the practitioner has. This in addition to their experience gives a more rounded view of the skill of the practitioner. Use reviews by all means, but they should only form part of an overall view of the practitioner you are considering consulting.
