What are the opinions about hypnotherapy training?
There’s a lot of debate and conflicting information about what hypnotherapy training should include or what criteria it should or shouldn’t meet floating around on the internet today. Most of this information is provided by trainers and schools (on social media) that are selling their own courses (many of which are formatted differently and contain drastically different content from school to school).
Unfortunately, this can ‘muddy the waters’ when it comes to actually deciding which hypnotherapy training course you want to attend or which hypnotherapy training company is best for you. Sometimes, training providers will use strong opinions about hypnotherapy training as a means of promoting their own course, yet rarely will they be happy to gather together and explore what are universal ‘desirables’ in training (thus collaboratively improving training standards), whilst leaving room for individual features that will differentiate their training from others.
This blog was inspired by a comment on the topic of hypnotherapy training made by another hypnosis trainer from the UK (who shall remain unnamed), who currently offers a very different style and format of training to our own. The post was this:
As our hypnotherapy diploma course meets (and exceeds) the UK core curriculum, this comment (indirectly) suggested that our training was poor (…whereas actually, it is among the best in the UK, as all of our past graduates agree). Anyway, the best way I can break down exactly why comments like the one above are unhelpful (especially to people that are not yet educated about hypnotherapy training, and who look to various hypnotherapy trainers for ‘facts’ in order to decide what information to believe) is by showing you an alternative reply to the comment. Here it is:
‘Saying that the profession suffers from having a recommended minimum level of training and that it’s all outdated is a bit ridiculous. It’d be the same as recommending that people who want to be doctors should probably just do a doctorate that focuses only on brand new information (ignoring well established medical information THAT WORKS) and that so long as after their course they feel ‘confident’ to go out there and BE a doctor, they’ll be fine… lol
‘Occupational proficiency’ doesn’t come from a course alone, it comes from deep theoretical understanding and working practical knowledge of your subject (developed on your initial course and from ongoing CPD), coupled with hundreds (ideally thousands) of hours of practical experience and ongoing support from peers and tutors… A single course alone won’t give you that, but ideally it WILL set you up to achieve it moving forwards.
The core curriculum for hypnotherapy IS a great starting point for learning how to do hypnotherapy. Meaning; what’s on the core curriculum isn’t the ONLY stuff that you need to learn, because there’s always more to learn… If the core curriculum was twice or three times as long, there’d still be more that you could learn, as hypnotherapy can draw from all other areas of psychotherapy, psychology, talking therapies and even other complementary and alternative therapies. This is what makes hypnotherapy training so diverse (and potentially tricky to navigate for the average Joe).
So, the core curriculum really is a great place to start, however, courses that ‘meet the core curriculum’ don’t always just ‘meet’ it, and easily exceed those requirements in order to teach their students to an even higher level.
Conversely, some courses that suggest they meet the core curriculum only ‘scrape by’ and do the bare minimum to ‘tick the boxes’, in which case, the training could potentially be limiting. Inadequate trainers do drag the profession down, generally though, they’ll sort themselves out by delivering a poor service and their reputation will grow to reflect that.
‘Out of date material’… not quite sure what that means, because good hypnotherapy techniques are timeless and human psychology, though debated frequently, pretty much remains as the classical psychologists have suggested. I guess some trainers use outmoded language and maybe haven’t updated their scripts and methods to factor in modern life, challenges and technology.. If so, that’s just plain laziness, and you’re right. That said, I’m not sure that’s what you meant by out of date material…?
The core curriculum itself is up to date and definitely isn’t outdated (it was reviewed in 2017), as such it covers things like online hypnotherapy/skype sessions, CURRENT methodologies (actual wording) and their underpinning theories, as well as use of a ‘variety of content’. It also covers masses on client safety, ethics and appropriate use of hypnotherapy, as well as homework (which all therapists should be engaging in as part of a course of study) and requires a minimum of 3 full client case studies as part of training.
As a client, working on potentially serious, life-limiting psychological issues, I’d feel much more confident if my hypnotherapist had to do a minimum of 120+ hours of face-to-face training, 350+ hours of homework, see actual clients as case studies as part of their training (and receive feedback upon them) and pass practical & theory exams BEFORE they could call themselves a hypnotherapist… Wouldn’t you?’
That’s just a snippet of the conversation. The other trainer went on to clarify (agreeing) that it’s more about ‘poor trainers’ being the problem, rather than ‘all trainers that follow the core curriculum’ and that quality is more important than quantity (which is true). But throwaway comments such as the one that sparked this debate can be easily misunderstood, especially for newbies who have little or no frame of reference.
Anyway, as you can probably see, there’s more than one opinion about hypnotherapy training out there. The problem is, many hypnotherapy trainers can believe their own opinions to be ‘the only way’ or that they’re right and everyone else is wrong. At the end of the day, if you’re looking to become a hypnotherapist there are many options out there. It’s up to you to decide exactly what it is that you want from your training…
Do you want a course that teaches you above and beyond the core curriculum over a long period of time with homework and exams (to embed your knowledge and practical skills), or would you rather go for a shorter course just to ‘get up and running quickly’, whilst potentially missing out on information and practical experience that a longer course might give you?
There is no global right or wrong choice, because we all learn differently and we all have different requirements and preferences, but it’s definitely worth putting serious thought into choosing the right hypnotherapy training company for you, before you sign up to a hypnotherapy diploma course…
For more (impartial) information on HOW to choose a course, why not take a look at this blog post: https://hypnotc.com/clinical-hypnotherapy-diploma-certificate/
We hope that this blog featuring a debate on the benefits of the hypnotherapy core curriculum has been helpful to you. If you have any more questions about this topic or anything else for that matter, do please get in touch, because we’re always happy to help!
– written by the HypnoTC team
