Beware of shoddy hypnotherapy training

what to look for and questions to ask to make sure you are getting great training

I asked a student of mine who was trained elsewhere prior, and was unhappy with her training, If she would share what it was about her previous training that she didn’t like. Below are excerpts of the long email she wrote me. shocking!

“The course consisted of four days of 'in person' training in Toronto hotel, followed by 8 days of in-clinic observation witnessing the owner work one on one with clients. The cost was $2999.00 + tax at the time, plus travel and accommodation.

the 4 day in class training I was extremely disappointed and I was shocked by the out dated psychological concepts the course was based on. (The 1964 work of Virginia Satir)…They taught there are only 5 types of personalities that exist and every clients will fall into one of these categories.

The course manual consist of 8 induction scrips, that were poorly photocopied from a book and added to a 3 ring binder…The last day we received 5 additional photocopied pages on NLP Timeline therapy. Not the updated version, the original Thad James 1982 version.

The style of hypnosis they deliver in the clinic is this: The client sits in a chair with head phones on, the hypnotherapist reads an induction scripts then a pre recorded audio is played to the client (depending which one of the 5 Virginia Satir personalities types the hypnotherapist has categorized the client into)…

During the first day of clinic observation I witness the owner have a verbal altercation with not one but 2 Clients. One of the clients was told by the owner, her fibroid myalgia diagnosis was all in her head, and she wasn't really sick at all. The enter approach felt high judgmental, accusatory and unsafe. ..”

————————- I am shocked by this shoddy training. And the problem is that the general public does not know what training should involve.

But here are some things to look for and some things to avoid

- approaches to working with a client should be personalized for each client. The student being taught to play a pre recorded session is NOT being taught to do hypnotherapy!

- the focus of the training should be on identifying and addressing the cause of the clients symptoms— not just playing a recording depending upon a preconceived notion of what the client needs to hear

- the methods being taught should be current and the instructor should be on top of keeping the training materials current and relevant.

- a four day training is NOT enough time for a student to learn the techniques, practice them, develop competency with them and to be prepared to use them effectively with a paying client. And observing the instructor working on people, although important, does not replace the student practicing themselves.

By the way, legitimate governing bodies will not certify a student who has taken a short duration training for exactly this reason

- in my opinion, the instructor should take the following stance towards clients: the clients symptoms are real, the therapist must accept and work within the reality of the client, the therapist and client are working together cooperatively, the client is always to be treated with respect, acceptance and compassion, the clients symptoms always make sense when we explore the clients history and figure out what is responsible for the symptoms

- the client should always be safe and supported when working with the therapist

There is just so much wrong with the training my student received prior.

I highly recommend that if you are looking into training that you ask a lot of questions including:

-ask to see learning outcomes

-Ask how frequently the material is updated - ask about the instructors philosophy of hypnosis and what their approach is.

- ask to receive a session from the instructor so you can see what their style is like and what it feels like to work with them. If they won’t give you a free session, purchase one. The investment is worth it if it saves you thousands of dollars on the purchase of a shoddy training

- ask to talk to students they have trained so you can get their impressions of the training