What Do The Letters Mean?

Open the Yellow Pages and search for hypnotherapists.  Does your mind boggle at all the letters after the hypnotist’s name?

It all looks very impressive, doesn’t it?  Although it looks impressive, it doesn’t mean they’re all good though.  Some letters represent qualifications and some represent the organisations they’re a member of, so technically, someone could do one qualification in hypnosis, join ten organisations and look much more impressive than someone who did a diploma and their masters and joined just one organisation.

There is such a vast range of letters available, it’s difficult to de-mystify them all but here is a short list of just a small selection:

Dip. Hyp / Dip Hypno – this is a diploma in hypnotherapy, but there is likely to be one or two letters with this indicating the training school.  It’s important to ask the hypnotherapist about their training – see our earlier article on How to Choose a Good Hypnotherapist

Masters Hyp / Ma Hypno – this is a masters in hypnotherapy, the highest qualification available.  Again, letters with this indicate the training school

MBIH – Member of the British Institute of Hypnotherapy

NRH – National Register of Hypnotherapists (with the Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation)

NRAH – National Register of Advanced Hypnotherapists

GHR Reg – registered with the General Hypnotherapy Register

GQHP – General Qualification in Hypnotherapy Practice (with the GHR)

SQHP – Senior Qualification in Hypnotherapy Practice (with the GHR)

We could go on but they are the main ones.  Some letters are worth their weight in gold, but many sadly there are also some that aren’t.  In the UK, anybody can create a training company and dish out a diploma, so we recommend asking the hypnotherapist about their experience and training instead.  Similarly, only use hypnotherapists on one of the two main registers, as detailed in our article on choosing a hypnotherapist.

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