Australian Associations for Professionals Involved with Hypnosis and Their Validity

HypnosisAustralia, November 2002

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

One of the most important parts of practising hypnosis as an adjunct therapy or hypnotherapy is that the professional practising it is a member of a peer review group, which is a professional association. For someone to be considered a professional healthcarer it is necessary for them to be validated in some way by their peers. If they are not, they are not regarded as true professionals in their fields by other professionals, governments, health authorities, and by the clients/patients themselves. Insurance companies also require professionals to be monitored within their own profession. The general kinds of association that practitioners of hypnosis can belong to are covered by hypnotherapy, medicine, dentistry, psychology, social work, psychotherapy and counselling. For hypnosis to be used within education it is prudent that the practitioner has training in a psychological discipline as well.

Because hypnosis both as an adjunct tool and within the confines of hypnotherapy in Australia is not monitored, there are no recognised training standards laid down by the state and federal governing bodies, so at the moment, technically, it has the status of jam jar making or even basket weaving. Unregulated professions and disciplines, although they may produce good results, are often not taken seriously. Whilst there are many very highly trained professionals who use hypnosis in their field, many quacks, who have done little study stick signs outside their front doors claiming to be professionals in hypnosis with little more than a poultry training or even none at all.

The unsuspecting public not only has to contend with the concept of 'caveat emptor' but is also duped many times by people practising hypnosis who really ought not to be. There are of course many practitioners who are highly qualified professionals in their own disciplines who use hypnosis well as an adjunct and many well trained hypnotherapists who are both highly qualified and members of associations that practice good peer review procedures.

The problems in regulating hypnosis are extremely complex as it has always been and will always be. Hypnosis is itself only definable within the limits of the particular discipline in which it is applied. Since the word 'hypnosis' is a nominalisation it is conceptually difficult to define whether hypnosis is or is not really taking place.

The kind and length of training needed for particular hypnosis applications within those disciplines varies. For instance dentists simply needs to learn how to use hypnosis as a form of analgesia and anaesthesia so the training they under go can be as little as a few weekends. On the other hand, hypnotherapists trained up to doctorate level may have been studying several years in applying different hypnosis techniques.

One of the major problems is that some disciplines, such as medicine, dentistry and psychology often attempt to look down their noses at highly trained hypnotherapists because they do not consider them to have studied to a sufficiently high educational level in order to use hypnosis, which of course is ridiculous because those hypnotherapists are generally vastly more experienced in hypnosis.
So each discipline that uses hypnosis tends to barricade themselves within that discipline and form sub-associations and societies that practise their own forms of peer review. What this tends to do is form a sort of free-for-all amongst all the different professionals using hypnosis and no legitimate training can be recognised at state or federal levels.

Another major problem that occurs in professions where there is no governmental regulation is that corruption within those industries tends to be rife. Often major players offering training attempt to dominate the market and will scurrilously do their best to exclude lesser players and any perceived competition. Corruption and dishonesty within the caring professions is as prevalent as it is in the building or manufacturing sectors. The major players are in such powerful positions in the industry that they are able to get away with monopolisation.

So what is the way forward to both protecting well-trained practitioners of hypnosis and the public? Certainly each discipline that uses hypnosis as an adjunct skill needs also to police the use of hypnosis by its members.

In the field of hypnotherapy there is a need for it to fall in line with what are considered other major therapeutic professions, whether they be considered mainstream or complementary. Certainly it would be a disaster for hypnotherapy to be a referral-only discipline from the medical profession as can happen with complimentary therapies at times in counties like Germany. GPs often have investments in not referring people to hypnotherapists but instead offering them drugs, which are manufactured by companies in which the GP has shares. Hypnotherapy must remain a profession where practitioners can accept cross-referrals from other professionals and clients who refer themselves. Hypnotherapists constantly have to deal with clients who are suffering from over-medication by the allopathic medical profession.

It seems that the best option for hypnotherapists in Australia at the moment is to join an association that is also a member of Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA). This would provide the practitioner with a conduit corridor to apply to go on the national register produced by PACFA of recognised and well-trained therapists. Although hypnotherapy is not simply a psychotherapy that uses hypnosis but a psychobiological therapy that manipulates body and mind, we would be splitting hairs to sub-divide it from psychotherapy at this moment in time.

©HypnosisAustralia, November 2002