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Finding the best hypnotherapy training in London: 10 tips
At HypnoTC we often hear the question, “There are so many hypnotherapy training courses, how do I pick the right one for me?” It is a great question. It is also a question that you may not know the answer to until you have completed your hypnotherapy training. You can then best evaluate whether it was the right course for you. However, there is a lot you can do now to make your choice of hypnotherapy training a well-informed and relevant choice.
This concise blog gives you 10 tips that you can use either to generate a shortlist of possible hypnotherapy training providers, or, if you are already at the shortlist stage, evaluate your list. To illustrate the key points of this blog, and give useful examples, there are links to HypnoTC information and additional information where relevant.
Before you read further, if you want to become a professional hypnotherapist or upskill, we recommend you check our award-winning HypnoTC Hypnotherapy Diploma course.
Find out more about our Hypnotherapy Diploma course
Tip #1 – Understand your needs
Before you even start to look for what different hypnotherapy training providers are offering, we suggest that the first thing you do is to think about what you actually want to learn. Questions you could ask yourself include:
- Can I envisage using hypnotherapy? If so, when, how, with whom and where?
- Do I want to focus on a particular topic, such as weight management, or work with a broader range of client issues?
- Can I commit to the work of a good practitioner course?
Tip #2 – Accessible location
If you are looking for training in a particular location, such as London, then it is worth checking where the actual hypnotherapy training venue is located. London is a huge city and a light industrial unit on a commercial estate on the outskirts of London might not be easy to get to via public transport. Although, there might be more parking if you need to drive.
A hypnotherapy training venue in the centre of London is likely to have more underground (tube), mainline trains and buses. This can give you alternative travel options, which is handy if one particular route has issues on a training day.
The HypnoTC Diploma course is located in Whitehall, just a couple of minutes walk from Embankment underground station. It is a served by numerous bus routes and is close to Charing Cross, Waterloo, Kings Cross and Victoria mainline stations, together with Victoria coach station. In addition, it is easily accessible from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airports.
Tip #3 – Relevant content
A good hypnotherapy training provider’s website will give you a clear and detailed syllabus of what is included in the course. When you look through the content of what is taught, you may look both at whether the content is suitable for what you want to learn, and whether it is actually relevant to hypnotherapy practitioner training.
Each hypnotherapy training provider will have their own preferences, and may focus more on one particular hypnotherapy model, technique, or approach, over another. If you only want to learn Ericksonian hypnotherapy, and perhaps just use conversational hypnosis informally, then it makes sense to look for a course which focuses on that.
If you want to be a well-trained professional hypnotherapist, working successfully with a wide range of clients, issues and goals, then it can help to choose a hypnotherapy practitioner course which gives you a broad range of hypnotherapy skills and knowledge. This means that you can then adapt your work to suit the client, rather than making the client fit a more narrow field of expertise.
Generally, for hypnotherapy training at practitioner level, it can be helpful to find a course which covers habit change (behavioural hypnotherapy), belief and mindset change (cognitive hypnotherapy), insight gathering (analytical hypnotherapy) and working with the past (regression hypnotherapy).
Some courses also offer supportive approaches that can enhance the hypnotherapy work, such as mindfulness. However, do check how relevant that additional training is. A lightweight course may be padded out with a range of other approaches to make it seem a substantial course. Whilst learning about crystals might seem interesting at the time, you may not want that learning to be at the expense of something essential, such as how to set up and run a successful hypnotherapy business.
If you would find it helpful, you could use our syllabus as a benchmark for content during your search.
Tip #4 – Accredited training
Many of the leading hypnotherapy professional associations offer ‘accreditation’ in the form of recognition of hypnotherapy training courses that meet their training quality standards. Each organisation has their own route to accreditation. It often involves the hypnotherapy training provider providing comprehensive information to them, including,
- The course content
- What and how that content is taught (e.g., lesson plans)
- How much of the course is practical, how much theory
- The qualifications (hypnotherapy and teaching) and experience of the tutors
- The venue (its suitability)
- What support is provided to students
The accreditation providers will often list those hypnotherapy courses that pass their assessment on their website and, in turn, the hypnotherapy training company will indicate on their website who has accredited their training. Delving deeper can be helpful here. Some weaker or less relevant training can be presented as ‘accredited’, yet, upon investigation, it is the training provider who has set up their own accrediting body. If that accrediting body only recognises one or a few training providers, you might like to explore more. Some of the leading professional associations in the UK include:
- British Society of Clinical Hypnosis (BSCH)
- Federation of Holistic Therapists (FHT)
- General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR) / General Hypnotherapy Standards Council (GHSC)
- National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH)
You may also notice that some hypnotherapy training providers are accredited by international professional bodies. This can be helpful if you wish to work beyond the UK once qualified. For example, hypnotherapy training recognised by the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) is recognised in most countries around the world.
HypnoTC has a number of accreditations, both UK and international. In addition, our hypnotherapy course meets the requirements of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), the voluntary regulator.
Tip #5 – Named tutor
Who will be teaching you? Ideally your hypnotherapy training course provider will be able to say who will teach you. Even better if it is the same person throughout the course, which leads to consistency. You might like to explore any information provided about the tutor such as,
- Hypnotherapy qualifications and hypnotherapy experience
- Any hypnotherapy specialisms (e.g., pain management)
- Training / teaching qualifications and experience
- Scope of teaching experience e.g., foundation, practitioner, advanced levels
- Breadth of teaching experience, such as national/international, corporate, healthcare (e.g., NHS)
If your hypnotherapy trainer is active within the profession you will generally be able to ‘Google’ them to get an overview of what they are engaged in. For example, they may have written hypnotherapy books, or created shorter courses (either online or in-person), or teach at UK conferences (e.g., UK Hypnosis Convention) or internationally (e.g., Hypnothoughts Live).
Finally, a great way of exploring how well you will find learning from the trainer is to find some of their videos on YouTube, or the hypnotherapy training company website. You can then get an idea of their style, their voice and even how well they stay on track!
If you would like to find out more about HypnoTC’s lead tutor, Dr Kate, our Director of Studies, have a read of her profile and watch our video on our website.
Tip #6 – Recognised qualifications
A good return on your investment of time, energy and money, is a course which is recognised by your potential clients. Hypnotherapy clients are becoming ever increasingly better informed about hypnotherapy, including how to find a well-qualified hypnotherapist. In addition, many of the leading professional associations will only admit suitably qualified therapists.
Commonly, hypnotherapy training providers will offer their own certification. They may even add the logos of the organisations who have accredited their training (take a peek at our certificate photo below to see an example of this). It can be an added bonus if they also offer externally provided certification. For example, the Hypnotherapy in Practice (HPD) Diploma is a level-four qualification. Students’ work is externally assessed by the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) and the NCFE. Thus providing an indication of independent assessment.
Some accrediting bodies also have their own certification. For example, training that meets the requirements of the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) leads to the ‘Certified Hypnotherapist’ certification. This can be very helpful for prospective clients, as wherever they are in world, they can simply go to the NGH website and see what their training requirements are.
Tip #7 – Reviews and testimonials
Anonymous testimonials on a hypnotherapy training provider’s website may not carry much credibility. However, named testimonials, perhaps with supporting photos, can then be verified.
In addition, some training companies use external review facilities, such as Trustpilot.
Tip #8 – Ongoing support
A good hypnotherapy training course will enable you to develop the knowledge and skills, the competence and the confidence necessary to work as an effective professional hypnotherapy practitioner. But, just as you truly learn to drive after you have passed your driving test, so you will develop as a practitioner once you start working more with clients.
Because of this, you are likely to benefit from ongoing support from those who have taught you. They will have the best depth of understanding of what you know, and how you can apply that to most effectively suit the client’s presenting needs. Some hypnotherapy course providers also run supervision groups. This is a great way of getting both peer and experienced facilitator support.
Tip # 9 Good learning environment
Where and how do you learn best? What do you need? Many of our students and graduates say that a spacious room, with comfortable chair, good heating/ventilation and plenty of natural light is helpful. It may be that a cramped and dingy room, with plastic chairs, in a basement with strip lights, makes the course a little cheaper for students, but will you be comfortable? Perhaps over time you might find that the lack of comfort is distracting. A pleasant learning environment, with plenty of facilities, both in the venue and nearby, can even make the training days something to look forward to. Have a look at our video to get a great idea of what the HypnoTC venue offers.
Tip #10 – Practice and theory blend
For many trainers, it is easy to spend most of the day talking theory. However, hypnotherapy can be thought of as both as art and skill. As such, anyone learning hypnotherapy really does benefit from practice. Even better, supervised practice. Even better than that, informed practice!
You may like to check whether any practical task is talked through, then demonstrated before students are asked to repeat the process. Beyond that, are there videos of the key techniques so that students can look at an example at a later date (great for revision and practice development).
You will need the right amount of theory too. Rather than just reading a script or conducting a technique word-for-word how you were taught, it is much more helpful to be able to adapt your approach as needed, knowing both what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Our hypnotherapy course…
Finally, if you would like to find out more about the awesome Professional Hypnotherapy Diploma that HypnoTC , do please visit our Diploma page and have a browse through the information about our world-class, award-winning training.
Contact Dr Kate for a chat about becoming a professional Hypnotherapist
– written by Dr Kate Beaven-Marks
(HypnoTC Director)
