Hypnotherapists As Mental Health Professionals

HypnosisAustralia, November 2008

By Dr Tracie O'Keefe DCH, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Psychotherapist & Counsellor
Editorial Director of HypnosisAustralia Online.

There has often been debate in the health professions as to whether hypnotherapists should be regulated and treated as mental health professionals. The opinions have been frequently split. On the one side those who are extremely well qualified and have other disciplines such as psychology, medicine, psychotherapy, counselling, social workers and naturopaths who often believe that the work they do is so life-changing to people that they should be considered as mental health professionals when they do that work. Many of these professions work at a post-graduate level of education and training and want their services to be remunerated by health funds and Medicare as well as being GST-zero rated.

On the other hand there are the hypnotherapists who have qualified to practise specifically hypnotherapy at certificate IV, diploma or advanced diploma levels in an undergraduate structure of education but may never go on to achieve graduate education. This group do not want to be considered mental health professionals because that would mean they would have to achieve a much higher level of training in which they do not want to invest. They also may not be driven by the Medicare, health fund and GST issue.

With the new Australian Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (ARCAP) coming into being there will be hypnotherapists on that register who could go onto the mental health register being created by that association. The semantic conundrum for them is that officially they would be treated as counsellors or psychotherapists and not as hypnotherapists which is what the bulk of their training may be. It is also for many the selling of their soul in order to enter into the gate of acceptance as they could advertise as mental health professionals who are hypnotherapists but they would not be considered officially as hypnotherapists.

A similar situation arose a few years ago in the UK when counsellors and psychotherapists in a rush to be recognised by the government chose not to include hypnotherapy as a separate title within the discipline recognition. This led some schools that taught hypnotherapy in the UK to no longer offer education routes to major counselling and psychotherapy national bodies. Ultimately the level to which a practitioner chooses to train is determined by many personal as well as professional circumstances, the kind of work they wish to undertake, and the level of professional recognition they wish to achieve.

©HypnosisAustralia, November 2008