The Society, as a long-established authoritative body, receives many requests for information from prospective hypnotherapy students and members of the public regarding certain advertising statements and claims made by some organisations offering hypnotherapy training.

The following general comments and information are offered in response to such requests and to assist enquirers in their research before making their decisions.

Various hypnosis training courses are regularly advertised by individuals with entrepreneurial skills but with little or no personal history of successful hypnotherapy practice or any proven attainments in the field. “Accreditation” or “Certification” programmes are sometimes advertised promising therapeutic competence after as little as 50 or 60 hours hands-on training or longer courses teaching several systems in which hypnotherapy is only a part of the training.  Hypnotherapy is a profession that is not statutorily regulated and terms such as “accredited” or “recognised” may be used misleadingly to indicate or imply a meaningful external recognition or give official status to a particular course which may not be the case. There is no legislation from the UK government that regulates the standard of hypnotherapy training courses. Courses may be offered by graduates of brief training programmes who begin teaching others within a very short time after completing their own training, thereby omitting the extensive period of successful clinical practice necessary for the development of a skilled hypnotherapy trainer.  This is a very common practice in many countries where hypnotherapy is not statutorily regulated.  Claims, promotional statements and testimonials should not be accepted necessarily as facts.  Many marketing and promotional strategies may be employed to attract prospective students to a course.  Questionable academic “qualifications”, misleading claims about therapeutic experience or other attainments, and misinformation of various kinds may also be used to persuade prospective students to commit themselves financially to a course.  Graduates of brief and superficial training courses, especially superficial online and home-study courses, often report feeling inadequately trained once engaged in clinical practice followed by a severe failure to establish a successful therapy practice. Sometimes trainees will undertake several short courses providing them with a series of letters after their names but no solid foundation for therapeutic practice.  Development of a long-term successful and ethical hypnotherapy practice is heavily dependent on an expanding referral base mainly built on positive results with clients.  

Prospective students are highly advised to investigate thoroughly the qualifications, awards, individual training and clinical experience of the principal instructors of the training organisations under consideration.