Choosing A Qualified Hypnosis Professional

Is there a certification or credentialing process for the practice of hypnosis?

There are many, many schools of hypnotherapy throughout the world, and in most places, in fact in most states in this country, it is not a regulated profession. You can get trained as a "certified" clinical hypnotherapist in three days or, in fact, in the state of California you can have no training at all and say you're a hypnotherapist, and that's perfectly legal. Now, can you really do it? I could teach you how to hypnotise somebody in ten minutes, but then what do you do? Learning how to induce hypnosis is one thing and learning hypnotherapy is another. The certification that one gets is really only as good as the training. If you go to a school for three days, you can be called "certified" because almost every hypnotherapy school has a "board" with which they certify their graduates, and so it's important if you're looking or thinking about seeing a hypnotherapist to ask questions, such as "What was your training like?" "How long have you been doing this?" "Do you work with physicians and other medical health professionals?" For instance, the training I went through, which I think is one of the best programmes in the country, was a full year of course work, a six month clinical internship and hours and hours of independent study, and it was all conducted by licensed medical health professionals. That's a big difference to a three day online or weekend course in some hotel ballroom. I got the same exact designation; I am as certified a hypnotherapist as that other person, and we're both completely allowed to practice our craft, if you will.

What is the best way to find a good hypnotherapist?

The very best way to find a good hypnotherapist is to shop. If you go online, which is the preferred method these days for shopping, you will find literally thousands of people. You can call them up and ask them questions. You have an issue and you are going to get a resolution. First of all, you're going to ask about training. You want to ask about experience in the particular area you're interested in working on. You want to find out if that person is able at treating and working with your issue. Do they have a network of psychotherapists, psychiatrists, dentists and physicians that they work with? You can find several certifying bodies out there. The American Society of Clinical Hypnotherapy for instance is a body that only allows licensed professionals to join. So if you find a hypnotherapist there, you are probably going to get someone who at least has training and is a licensed psychotherapist.

How many sessions can I expect hypnotherapy to require?

There is no answer. Every mind responds differently and every condition responds differently. As a rule, hypnotherapy is considered a short-term therapy as opposed to more conventional talk therapy. So, if we get results, we tend to get them fairly quickly and sometimes extremely quickly. If we do hypnotherapy right and correctly and the person's committed to making a change, those changes will stick. So it could be two sessions, it could be twelve. There is no definitive answer to how much hypnosis people need.

Is hypnotherapy expensive?

As a rule, like most professions the people who tend to be more expensive, are more expensive because they are good. They've taken the time to get the training and the expertise and they've worked with people who've been in the profession for a number of years.And so they charge more money, because their time is more valuable. And if you go to someone more expensive, chances are you're going to get your results faster than if you go to someone who is may be less expensive. I don't know too many people who really dedicate themselves and develop the expertise and knowledge, know how and artistry to be really good at this who don't charge a lot of money. So what I would say when you do considerable shopping is that you tend to get what you pay for .That doesn't mean you're going to find someone less expensive, that wouldn't be better. But as a rule, if someone charges only a little bit of money, they're either new or inexperienced, or maybe not very good. Someone who charges a lot of money could be a charlton, but the chances are probably very slim.If you can get done in four sessions ,what it may take 8 to 10 sessions to do, with someone who is cheaper, you're going to save money in the long run and you're going to be happy faster.

What should I do if I have a bad experience with a hypnosis professional?

So a bad experience could be: “I've done a number of sessions and I'm not seeing any results,” to something inappropriate or unethical. If it's “I've done a number of sessions and I'm not seeing any results,” you have to really understand before you start the process what it's probably going to take. For instance, I tend to try to tell prospective clients what I think an average number of sessions ought to be. And on average, if after say three, four sessions there's been no movement, no change, then probably this is not going to work. Probably, but not definitely. So that could be a bad experience. If you go to a hypnotherapist and you don't enjoy the experience and you don't feel you got anything or you think they're asking you to do something that's completely unrelated or weird, don't go. If they do something unethical—and that opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms—then, of course, depending on the nature of what they do, you would report them to the appropriate authorities. If, for instance, someone tried to take advantage of someone sexually, which does happen, that's a crime. That's a felony, and that should be reported to the police. If someone makes some sort of weird suggestion, there may not be anybody to report it to, but I certainly wouldn't go back. So the concept of “bad experience” has a huge spectrum of meaning. If you don't get results after a reasonable amount of time, you stop going. And you're going to know. I believe that a client knows after one or two sessions whether it feels good, it's a fit. And if it doesn't feel good, then the chances are it's not going to.