Should Hypnotherapists Work With Depression
I have noticed that things have changed a lot since I originally qualified in 1989. In my day, a hypnotherapist would not offer their services in the treatment of depression. Partly, until the early 1990’s, hypnotherapy was contraindicated for the treatment of depression. The other part was that hypnotherapists were not appropriately qualified to work with depression.
Here we are 30 years later, the view of hypnotherapy and depression has changed and hypnotherapists regularly advertise that they work with depression. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. For psychotherapists who utilise hypnosis as part of their treatment regime, hypnosis is a powerful aid in treating depression. For hypnotherapists who have only trained in hypnotherapy the answer is no.
Depression is a complicated issue and requires far more psychological and psychotherapeutic knowledge than can be gleaned from a hypnotherapy course. I know that there will be colleagues who are getting frustrated with my line on these issues. Frankly, I do not care. If hypnotherapy is to thrive a profession it is going to need to get a firm scope of practice agreed throughout the profession and stick to it. When practitioners think they can work with whomever they choose, that is a fast track to hypnotherapy being seen as quackery and it losing any influence it has in the treatment of mental health issues in the UK.
