Hypnotherapy is an unregulated industry. Anyone can set up a business and call themselves a ‘Hypnotherapist’.
In such a free-for-all climate more money can be made training hypnotherapists, than providing high-quality services for clients!
As a result a vast array of ‘Training Schools’ and ‘Professional Associations’ have sprung up offering hypnotherapy as a career. Such ‘Professional Registers’ approve hypnotherapy training and bestow ‘Certificates’ based on a promised ‘Code of Ethics’. However, ‘Schools’ often create their own ‘Professional Register’ to provide web-marketing for their trainees and it is certainly the case that levels of supervision and accountability differ vastly.
Estimates vary but there are probably over 30,000 people now offering hypnotherapy in the U.K.
Only a very few hypnotherapists, however, are qualified psychotherapists.
There are only 250 ‘hypno-psychotherapists’ registered with the U.K.C.P. – ‘The United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy.’ This is because U.K.C.P. maintain the most stringent training standards within the industry.
All U.K.C.P. practitioners have undergone a minimum four-year, postgraduate, in-depth, experiential training in how to work with a wide range of emotional distress, mental health issues and difficulties. Since 2009 they have also stipulated that all U.K.C.P. Registered therapists must complete a minimum of 250 hours continuous professional development over a five year period. 50 hours per year. 25 hours under supervision and 25 hours as new training.