How To Choose A Good Hypnotherapist

When you start to search for a hypnotherapist, you might open the Yellow Pages or start looking online, and you’ll probably see a wealth of adverts, so how do you choose the right one? At Hypnotherapist Info, we aren’t affiliated to any one particular organisation, but here are our top tips to help you choose:

Organisations
In the UK, there is no governing body for hypnotherapists. The industry is getting there slowly but in the meantime, there’s a lot of confusing organisations out there. There are two top groups competing for the government’s approval, so we would recommend that you start by checking that the hypnotherapist is on one of those two major registers. If they are on one of these, then they are registered with at least one of the organisations and these organisations have met certain criterion.

The Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation – the register opens in a pdf document. Once open, hold down CTRL, press F and then type in a surname, first name or town name to search through the document.

The UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations (UKCHO) – type either surname or registration number in the box onscreen to search.

Personally, I would stick with the Working Group’s register. I don’t say this out of any particular loyalty or because I’m against the UKCHO, but because when you search the UKCHO, at the time of writing all it confirms is registration number and name. I can’t help feeling that some names are quite common and there could be two people with the same name. I could search for a name and use it under false pretences, after all, you can’t tell from the register where that person should live or what their telephone number should be. I could even make up a fake certificate with the registration number on. Would you know what a UKCHO registration certificate looks like? I can tell you now that at the time of writing the hypnotherapists on the UKCHO register don’t even have one.

Training
Ring the hypnotherapist and ask about their training, how long they trained for, with which company, and how many classroom hours they have completed. The classroom part is important, because you don’t want someone who trained on a correspondence course. Usually, the organisation they have registered with requires a minimum number of classroom hours before registering the hypnotherapist anyway but it’s still worth checking. If it was a while ago, then it’s also worth asking if they complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD) too. This keeps their skills up to date

Length of Service / Price
Find out how long they’ve been in practice. Obviously, everyone has to start somewhere but they shouldn’t be asking top price if they’re still in their first year. Use a little common sense here as well. Is your case unusual? Phobias, stop smoking and weight loss are the basics of Hypnotherapy so you might want to choose a cheaper and probably less experienced hypnotherapist for this type of thing. Ask them if they’ve dealt with similar cases before. Sometimes, if a hypnotherapist is less experienced and hasn’t dealt with something before, then they will offer to do an initial consultation (usually free) and will then research the case and consult with their peers before seeing you. You will need to decide between experience and price.

Letters After Their Name
All those letters after their name look pretty impressive, right? Some of the letters will represent the hypnosis qualifications, such as a diploma, a masters or a certificate in a particular specialist subject. Other letters will indicate to which organisations they belong.

Some letters are probably worth their salt, but sadly, many aren’t. We say that because anyone can start up a Hypnotherapy training company and give out a diploma at the end of the course, so we recommend ignoring most of the letters and concentrate on their experience and training instead. Similarly, anyone can set up a Hypnotherapy membership and allow members to put letters after their name. Stick with hypnotherapists on one of the registers.

If you follow these guidelines, you should find a good hypnotherapist. The majority of hypnotherapists work in Hypnotherapy because they care and they want to help people. Most of them are properly qualified and keep up to date with their skills, but it’s the odd few that damage the reputation of the industry.

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