Is Hypnosis Safe?

A lot of people wonder “is hypnosis safe?”

And if they look to Google for an answer, they’ll probably read that hypnosis is very safe, so long as it’s done by a competent and ethical practitioner.

This is a misleading answer.

Now it might surprise you that I’d say this.

After all, I’ve been a hypnotherapist for over 30 years, so wouldn’t I want to reassure the public about hypnotherapy?

Of course I would, but effective reassurance must be based on truth.

Telling someone “this won’t hurt” before jabbing a needle into them isn’t good psychology, and only loses their trust in the long run.

In any case, how would you know if a hypnotherapist is “competent and ethical?”

Does hypnotherapy registration guarantee safety?

One common is “by checking that they’re on a professional register.”

Sure, if a therapist is on a register, you could raise a complaint against them if they broke the code of conduct of that register.

But there are numerous registers that hypnotherapists can join.

And there’s no legal obligation for a hypnotherapist to be on any register at all.

Suppose your complaint is upheld and the hypnotherapist is struck off their register.

In most cases they’ll just carry on regardless.

The public generally doesn’t care if someone’s “registered” or not, and doesn’t know one register from another, so the bad therapist won’t lose much business.

So checking a register is a good idea, but it doesn’t answer the question of “is hypnosis safe?”

Should only health professionals do hypnotherapy?

More “official” sources like the NHS website advise you to get hypnotherapy from someone who’s already registered with a legally-recognised health profession, such as medicine, psychology or nursing.

Medical and nursing registration has more clout, because it’s a criminal offence to claim to be a registered nurse or doctor if you’re not one, so being struck off these registers would seriously damage anyone’s career.

But we know that incompetent or unethical doctors and nurses often do a lot of harm before they are found out.

I was a registered nurse for 30 years myself, so I’m well aware that there is good and bad in any health profession.

Educate yourself: the only key to safety.

When I volunteered at an advice centre, we had many clients who had been overcharged by garages.

They were always people who knew little or nothing about cars, and barely looked under the bonnet of their own vehicle.

Whether it’s motor mechanics or hypnotherapists, the best way to guard yourself from bad practice is to educate yourself.

So what should you look out for when you see a hypnotherapist, or talk with them on the phone before making an appointment?

What are the dangers of hypnotherapy?

The most common danger is to your bank balance.

I’ve known a client who spent over a thousand pounds on over 20 sessions of hypnotherapy, with no result.

In fact this person hadn’t even been hypnotised, as she realised when she came to me and experienced the real thing!

For the vast majority of problems you should expect to see some improvement after three sessions, and usually sooner.

A competent hypnotherapist should give you a rough idea of how much you’ll be spending and how many sessions you will need.

They should also explain very clearly what you’ll need to do to help yourself, because hypnotherapy is never just a passive process.

They should also be able to explain exactly how they propose to help you, in language you can understand.

It’s not actually a good sign if the hypnotherapist agrees to see you straightaway without knowing much about you.

If a hypnotherapist takes on everyone who calls them, this is often an inexperienced person who is desperate for business.

Personally I would never see any practitioner who didn’t quote their prices upfront on their website.

Of course, some hypnotherapy is worth a lot of money.

Which is more valuable- a new car, a foreign holiday, or freedom from a phobia which has limited your life every single day for many years?

I don’t criticise anyone for charging a high fee, if they really think they’re worth it.

But if someone charges ten times the going rate, you might want some evidence that they’re really ten times better than the competition!

False claims about hypnosis.

Before even contacting a hypnotherapist, check their website for misinformation.

Do they claim that hypnotherapy has an “80% success rate for stopping smoking?”

Dozens of hypnotherapists repeat this claim which they simply copy from other websites.

In fact this claim is based on a single piece of research published in Turkey in the 1960s.

No other scientific researcher has ever claimed this success rate.

Do they assure you that “you cannot be made to do anything against your will?”

This is nonsense, because people are persuaded every day to do things they didn’t want to do, without even being hypnotised!

There is a whole science of persuasion, used in marketing, politics, religion, and personal relationships.

It is true that most people could resist hypnosis- but only if they know they’re being hypnotised!

See my post HERE for further discussion of this controversial topic.

Listening to your “sixth sense.”

Once you actually meet a hypnotherapist, your intuition, “sixth sense” or “gut feeling” can be your guide. Rather than asking “is hypnosis safe?” ask “Is hypnosis safe with this particular hypnotherapist?”

The same goes for any relationship.

Women who end up in controlling relationships often tell me that they had a bad “gut feeling” on their first encounter with the man, but were later persuaded to ignore this instinct.

If a therapist just feels “creepy” to you then they’re best avoided.

Hypnotherapy does not involve much physical contact.

I might raise and lower a client’s arm when using some methods of inducing trance, but that’s as far as it goes.

There is never any need to touch more intimate areas of the body during hypnosis and you should absolutely get up and leave immediately if this is attempted.

Fortunately this is very rare.

Beware of the emotionally needy therapist.

A much more common problem, in counselling and psychotherapy generally, is when the therapist becomes the client’s friend or even takes over the role of the client.

The therapy relationship is very different from a friendship, because you’re paying the therapist to help you.

This is different to a friendship where you’d help and listen to each other.

So it’s a very bad sign when the client gets to know all about the therapist’s own problems.

The danger here is firstly that the therapist gets to rely upon the client, and will tend to prolong the therapy for longer than the client needs.

Secondly, the client may avoid telling the therapist how they’re really feeling for fear of upsetting them.

It can be very helpful for a therapist to share with a client how they personally overcame a similar problem to what the client is experiencing.

Even then, the therapist must remember that the client’s situation and resources may not be the same as theirs.

But when your “stop smoking specialist” stinks of cigarettes, or your “weight loss specialist” is morbidly obese, or your “phobia specialist” becomes visibly shaky at the mention of spiders, then you might want to look elsewhere!