Seriously, what are we?
Some organizations use the letters CHt to designate Certified Hypnotherapist. Others use the letters CH interchangeably for Certified Hypnotherapist/Hypnotist or Clinical Hypnotherapist.
With the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association (IMDHA) I am a CHt. My certificate reads “Certified Hypnotherapist.” When I joined the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) I became a Certified Hypnotist.
Fair enough. Basic certification hadn’t qualify me to do ‘therapy,’ anyway - hypno or otherwise.
A few years ago the NGH announced their decision to change the meaning of the letters “CH.” According to the NGH, I am now a Consulting Hypnotist.
I’m not sure exactly what this is supposed to mean and I certainly don’t recall signing up to become a consultant. A consultant, by definition, is someone who offers advice. And none of my training to date has qualified me to do that!
I know the NGH have their reasons and I trust they serve the greater good. My boggle is that, according to my diplomas, I am a “Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist.” Frankly, I would be quite content to be called a Certified Hypnosis Practitioner.
But then, CHP already belongs to the Certified Health Physicists….
I won’t belabor the point. Bigger brains have worked on this problem, I know.
We also have Certified Instructors (CI) and Certified Professional Hypnosis Instructors (CPHI) … which seems to suggest that the CI’s are somehow not professional …
Sadly, this is sometimes true. As a result, too many newly certified hypnotists leave hypnosis school with stars in their eyes only to give up. Or worse, quit before completing their training.
Many hypnovices never go beyond relaxation hypnosis ‘scriptnotism’. Not that there’s anything wrong with relaxation hypnosis, but there is a significant difference between relaxation hypnosis and Hypnotherapy.
The problem is that many hypnovices are unaware of this!
And the public has no way of making a distinction because our credentials don’t make a distinction. As far as the public is concerned all hypnotists are the same. Whether a hypnotist has 50 hours or 1500 hours of training, 2 years or 20 years in practice, as far as the general public is concerned we all wear the same overalls.
Let’s play a little game of ‘what if?’ …
What if the various guilds found a way to amalgamate and pool their resources for the betterment of the profession?
What if the onus of responsibility was taken off the shoulders of the Hypnovice and put squarely onto the shoulders of the profession to educate the public?
What if we didn’t have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps? What if we pulled each other up?
In defense of the various hypnosis certifying bodies, they have done much to bring hypnotism out of the dark ages by providing structured training, educational journals, conventions, board certification, union, insurance, forums, etc.
And pioneering leaders like Tom Nicoli, Scott Sandland, and Melanie Roth (to name but a few) have stepped up to further the profession by initiating movements like World Hypnotism Day and Hypno-Thoughts.
Whether you are new to the profession or a seasoned hypnotherapist, take your craft seriously and, as Ghandi suggested, "Be the CHANGE" you want to see in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment