Research

I am a professional hypno-psychotherapist, meaning a psychotherapist who uses hypnosis as his main therapeutic tool. Psychotherapy is a research based profession, like the medical profession or the legal profession. Being a member of a profession requires three things.

What is a Profession?

Firstly, every profession has a professional code of conduct. This is publicly available, and which sets out what members of that profession should and should not do.

Secondly, every profession has a professional register kept by a professional organisation. This contains the names of all persons who practice that profession. Sometimes, as in the case of psychotherapy, there are several organisations for one profession. These organisations set the standards for what kind of training a person needs in order to practice that profession. They can remove people from the register if they have transgressed the rules of the code of conduct.

Thirdly, every member of a profession bases their work on the knowledge which their colleagues have researched. Not all professionals do research, but all professionals must educate themselves about the research which others have done.

The importance of continuing education and study.

It is not enough for a professional person to rely upon the knowledge they acquired during their basic training. This might be many years ago. They have to keep up to date with new research for as long as they continue working. In fact some of the greatest psychotherapists have worked into their nineties. Aaron Beck invented Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. He was still working when he was a hundred years old. He published his last book of research at the age of ninety nine!

Mindful of the need for research I have done a bit myself. I studied the numbers of hypnotherapists per 100,000 people in different counties of the United Kingdom. I also looked at how long hypnotherapists in the United Kingdom have been in practice.