Will Hypnosis Tempt Water and Oil to Mix with PACFA?

HypnosisAustralia, October 2004

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

One of the major problems for the integrity and reputation of hypnosis in Australia is its diverse use. At the moment anyone and their dog can hang a sign outside their door and call themselves a hypnotherapist and the unsuspecting public are sadly unable to tell well-qualified professions form charlatans. You could be a medical doctor, psychologist, dentist, psychotherapist or counsellor who is well qualified and trained in hypnosis associating with like-minded professionals or a quack. The telephone book, alongside well qualified professionals, also contains people who have done a few weeks correspondence course and are then let loose on an suspecting public, even without insurance or supervision. Such ill-trained individuals can create psychological carnage with desperate people who find them through everyday advertising.

By far the most prolific professionals practicing hypnosis and putting themselves out to the public as hypnotherapists are what used to be called lay hypnotherapists in that they did not have a medical training. Nowadays, howeve,r hypnotherapists often have first degrees in psychology, counselling, nursing or related undergraduate studies. They also train at postgraduate levels which generally include psychotherapeutic methodology, understanding psychopathology and psychopharmacology, and working with professionals from other healthcare professions. Again the problem is that the public cannot tell them apart and it seems neither can the government which does not want to get into the expense or politics of regulating therapists of any kind.

In the winter of 2004, PACFA (Psychotherapists And Counselling Federation of Australia) sanctioned the division of its professional member organisations into sections, so there is now a hypnotherapy section. There are only two hypnotherapy member organisations that make up that section at the moment and a need for more to join. This would help focus that reconviction of well-qualified hypnotherapists that the public and other professionals could easily identify. It would further give health funds less of a headache in paying out claims from their subscribers for hypnotherapy services.

The drawback that is in the way of this happening is that different schools of hypnotherapy have traditionally been like oil and water and never mixed well. Furthermore, many professional associations are alumni organisations that are attached to schools who may see their joining with larger organisations as a threat to their income. The standards between many of the schools and organisations are also very different.

The journal did some investigation over the past year about what it took to become a member of various Australian professional hypnotherapy organisations. We found several things of note.

Some organisations only allowed members that had trained with the attached school.

Some organisations would let virtually anyone join who could produce a certificate of any kind.

Some organisations were unsure what their official policy guidelines for joining were but nevertheless advertise their members s as being well qualified.

With some organisations it was rather like trying to join a secret society where decisions were made behind closed door. These organisations stated that they were not obliged to explain their decisions to potential members and there was no transparency of processes.

Some organisations had no credibility and were simply a cover for those doing courses from aboard.

Some organisations seem unable to understand the relevance and mechanism of getting their members onto the PACFA register.

Some organisations had no requirements for their members to have professional insurance.

The majority of organisations had differing requirements for supervision and some had no requirements for supervision.

All organisations had wildly differing codes of ethics.

The conclusion of our findings was that hypnotherapy regulation in Australia is currently a mess. This was not because hypnosis was unproven, because there is sufficient academic evidence for its efficacy, but because many of its practitioners are overwhelmingly preoccupied with protection of market share above professional associations and standards.

At this moment in time arises an opportunity through PACFA for professional hypnotherapy associations to apply for membership and join. For some, this will mean changing their standards and codes of ethics and separating their organisations from any profit-making schools. They will also need to be transparent in the way they run those organisations and open themselves up to public scrutiny, as does the Australian Medical Association.

On speaking to leaders from some hypnotherapy organisations it became clear however that there were afraid that PACFA would not be transparent in its processes, referring to situations in similar organisations abroad, where other, sometimes smaller organisations were refused entry into the main body.

So the question remains how will hypnosis get oil and water to mix? The only way can be if both PACFA and hypnotherapy organisations meet in the middle. Certainly PACFA needs to solicit those organisations to join its greater umbrella of therapeutic organisations as part of the greater federal therapeutic organisation of professional therapists in Australia.

The organisations themselves also have to change and understand that long-term profit is through accreditation on a national scale and not just present-day niche markets. It will mean great change in some of those organisations and the stepping aside of some of their current officers. It will mean the loss of profits from some of the schools and a gain of profits for some of the members of those organisations as they become more widely recognised nationally.

While hypnotherapy is far older than psychology, the public has left it behind in its recognition and that is for one reason only. Psychologists associate centrally and that works. If hypnotherapists could only learn the lessons they teach to their clients, the future for the profession in Australia could be much brighter.

©HypnosisAustralia, October 2004