detox your mind

Hypnotherapy manipulates and alters an individual’s subconscious mind and therefore requires the therapist to have vast knowledge and skill in order to practice safely and effectively. Trusting your mind to a hypnotherapist is not something that you should take lightly and great consideration should go in to selecting a hypnotherapist to treat you.

Hypnotherapy is not a regulated practice in the UK – which means that anyone (yes anyone) can call themselves a hypnotherapist and practice on the public. There are many hypnotherapists practicing with very little training in hypnosis, and with no medical or clinical knowledge and experience. There are individuals who call themselves hypnotherapists with as little as 3 weeks training in NLP or hypnosis.

There are many professional bodies where membership and registration are voluntary and some have been set up soley by the training providers just to represent their students. There are very few independent professional bodies representing hypnotherapists. It is up to the therapist to register and fulfil the requirements of registration to these organisations. Many of these organisations set minimum standards and levels of training for therapists to register and become members. Some of these require only a few days or weeks of training with no clinical or medical training or experience required. You may have heard about the BBC reporter who managed to register his cat ‘George’ as a hypnotherapist with some of these organisations.

The cost of seeing a therapist varies, many therapists will treat you for under a hundred pounds and hour. Typically, you get what you pay for. Successful treatment requires a safe, ethical, professional approach and therapeutic intervention. A hypnotherapist should work within a standard medical framework and offer patients all protection and respect that this affords. You pay low prices at the supermarket, not on allowing someone to manipulate and alter your subconscious mind.

Any therapist who offers or suggests guarantees, cures or success rates is in breach of the Advertising Standards Authority.

If you are considering hypnotherapy, it is important that you consider the knowledge, skills and experience of the therapist. As a minimum, you should require the therapist to have at least 2 or more years training in hypnotherapy through a course that is validated or accredited by a university.

The therapist should have some medical, psychological or clinical training and experience, along with membership of at least one nationally recognised independent professional body such as the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). And preferably a member of the Royal Society of Medicine. Also, you should demand that the therapist holds professional indemnity/liability insurance.