Hypnotherapy training in the UK

Are yuo thinking of seeing a hypnotherapist, or even training as a hypnotherapist yourself? Then there’s something you should know. The length courses for hypnotherapy training in the UK varies greatly, from as little as 40 hours to as much as 500 hours of classroom time!

Length of hypnotherapy training courses in the UK.

I did a quick survey of hypnotherapy training courses. The shortest course I found was just 5 days, totalling 40 hours of classroom time! Now to be fair, I’ve attended one of this man’s other courses and I thought his practical teaching of techniques was pretty good. But is five days really long enough to learn something as powerful as hypnotherapy and to use it safely? Why would someone choose so short a course? Is it because they’re impatient? Or keen to start earning money as quickly as possible? Or did they not consider how much there is to learn?

I also looked at the UK’s biggest hypnotherapy training school, which has branches all over the country. Their course totals 120 hours of classroom teaching. That’s three times as long as the previous course, so there’s more time for studying different conditions which you might be treating. This course also enables you to get the Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma. Anyone is allowed to be a hypnotherapist in the UK, but the HPD gets you onto the professional registers such as that of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) which is approved by the government’s Professional Standards Authority.

Learning from scripts: the pros and cons.

This school bases its teaching on hypnotic scripts. Some people find this reassuring because they have the script to fall back on. But the big disadvantage is that by working from a script, the hypnotherapist would be treating every client the same, whereas every client is actually different and unique.

The Adam Eason College of Hypnosis training takes longer. This offers 160 hours of classroom training, plus a great deal of videos and other extras. Adam is an excellent trainer and is highly respected by those doctors and academics who study hypnosis. On his course you will learn about the basic workings of hypnosis so you’ll be able to devise different methods for different clients, which is essential in my opinion.

Hypno-psychotherapy Training: A step up.

A hypno-psychotherapist is a psychotherapist who is trained to use hypnosis as their main therapeutic tool. Anyone can call themselves a psychotherapist in this country, but the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) requires lengthy training to join their register. Hypno-psychotherapy training at the National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (NCHP) involves 500 hours of classroom time over four years, plus hundreds more hours of private study and other activities. This is all good but much of what you need to be an effective therapist can’t be learned from a book. So a more academic-minded therapist will surely know more in theory, but that doesn’t guarantee that you’ll really feel comfortable with them.

I trained with NCHP myself, beginning back in 1987, and was on the UKCP Register for about 20 years, until I decided I wasn’t really benefiting from the UKCP, because most of the public has never heard of it. However if a hypnotherapist is UKCP registered you know they’re on the same academic level as an NHS psychotherapist, and they’ll have hypnosis skills which the CBT therapist doesn’t have.

Conclusions.

So that’s a very brief overview. Never be afraid to ask a therapist or trainer about their qualifications and level of experience. However this is not the only thing you should consider. I shall discuss the other considerations in future posts, so bookmark this blog before you go!