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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!

When looking for hypnotherapy or any other service, you’ll have noticed a new website which is prominently placed in Google search results. This website is called “Three Best Rated.” It claims to show the three best rated hypnotherapists, garages, plumbers, hairdressers, or whatever in each city. So you might be wondering why Phobia Help is not listed on the three best rated website?

The short answer is because I have not submitted details of my website to Three Best Rated. But you might be wondering why that is, especially as it costs nothing. So here’s the reason.

It’s because I respect my clients. My clients are intelligent people. They would not rely upon a computer to “rate” hypnotherapists or any other service, because a computer cannot understand the difference between good hypnotherapists and bad.

Why you should not take advice from a machine.

A computer is a machine. Machines cannot be hypnotised. Machines do not need phobia hypnotherapy, because machines do not have phobias. Machines do not get anxious, have panic attacks, relationship problems, or low mood. They do not lack confidence. They cannot be traumatised. All a computer can do is to detect information and pictures on a website.

What Three Best Rated looks for.

There’s a long list of items which Three Best Rated uses to pick the three “best” hypnotherapists, plumbers, physios, gardeners or whatever in your area. This includes whether the business offers online booking, whether it has a business logo, whether it has pictures, updates social media pages every day, has an online chat facility, and seasonal gift vouchers.

What I provide.

I don’t do online booking because it’s too impersonal. My clients prefer to discuss with me in person when would be the ideal time for their next appointment. Different clients have different needs.

I do not have a business logo, although being a skilled artist I could easily create one! Clients pay me for my skill and knowledge of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy, based on training and long experience, not for a fancy logo.

My website does have pictures, but that’s just to improve my ratings on Google- another computer! Three best rated just counts the number of pictures, because it can’t tell one picture from another.

However there are three pictures on my site which would interest potential clients. There’s a picture of me with a huge dog, to prove that I overcame fear of dogs. There’s also a picture of a much younger me in my white coat with blue shoulder flashes, from when I was a nurse, as evidence of my professional background. And a picture of my first hypnotherapy diploma, dated 1993, to show how long I’ve been doing hypnotherapy.

I’m about to create a Facebook page. But I certainly won’t be updating it every day! What’s the point of writing just for the sake of writing? I’ll write something on it when I have something interesting to say.

I don’t have an online chat facility because my clients prefer speaking to a human being, and obviously I can’t be available 24/7 to speak to people in person. I’d have to rely upon a chatbot. Most questions that my clients have could not be answered by a machine.

As for seasonal gift vouchers, starting hypnotherapy is an important decision. Sometimes the best time is the present, other times it might be better to wait a bit. And it’s not always a good idea for one person to decide that someone else needs therapy. Therefore, gift vouchers are not appropriate in hypnotherapy.

So that’s why you won’t find me on the Three Best Rated hypnotherapists results, even though the therapists who do feature on it are far less experienced than me.

As of 1st January 2024 I am increasing my price per session to £60. This brings my fees into line with the going rate in both Exeter and Plymouth- they were previously below the going rate. This price increase is necessary due to the big increase in the cost of advertising on Google. If I’m already seeing you as a client your session fee will not increase- you will remain at the previous rate.