The Second & Third National Hypnotherapy Forums in Brisbane and Melbourne, 2007

HypnosisAustralia, November 2007

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

The third meeting of hypnotherapy minds took place in Melbourne, in October, with over 20 attendees from various schools and associations of hypnotherapy, along with individual industry-interested parties. It can be said that it was the most productive meeting of the year as far as the hypnotherapy industry is concerned and it may turn out to be a pivotal point for the industry.

The second meeting, in Brisbane in July, was attended by over 30 industry leaders interested in forming a national Australian industry peak body for hypnotherapy. No such body exists at this time but simply a number of schools and varied associations claiming to represent hypnotherapists and professional bodies monitoring and keeping registers on hypnotherapists individually.

General conclusions arrived at the second meeting by mass consensus:

1. That hypnotherapy desperately needs a national co-ordinated peak body in Australia to solely represent hypnotherapists, separate from other professions.
2. Such a body needed to be formed reasonably quickly to represent the interest of the industry to government regulators.
3. Such a body needs to be formed in order to find a general consensus for minimum training standards for hypnotherapists.
4. Any such body needs to be incorporated as a legal entity.
5. The body also needed affiliated or member associations to ensure that their practitioners practise according to ethical standards and that they have professional liability insurance.
6. The convening attendees committed to explore further the formation of such a body to which associations could belong, by which schools could be accredited and the possible holding of a large national register made up from all the members from member organisations.
7. The ways of raising funds for such a peak body were discussed and are still further to be explored.
8. The attendees decided to explore the possibilities of using the Council of Clinical Hypnotherapists (CCH) as an incorporated body because it already existed. The officers present from this organisation committed to saying that many of their present board members were prepared to resign and step down in order to make room for industry leaders to be part of the board, giving an egalitarian representation of the industry. Those officers agreed to go to their AGM, within the next two months and try to make the necessary changes to their constitution to enable that to happen.
9. A further meeting was arranged in Melbourne for the 27th & 28th October where the project could be workshopped with a hope that formation of such a body would take place.
10. All present at the meeting believed it had been fruitful and were prepared to explore and work with the concept of a national peak body further.

With good intentions all delegates left the second meeting intending to utilise the CCH, but in the time between the second and third meeting it became obvious the constitution of CCH could not accommodate a national body. CCH withdrew their offer just before the third meeting.

It has to be said at this juncture that the third meeting, which took place in Melbourne, was the most constructive so far. The attendees debated endlessly about what kind of structure a national association would need to bring the different interested schools and associations and parties together. One of the major obstacles was that some hypnotherapists were organised into associations that represented their particular type of hypnotherapy, and others were gathered together by region. In the end a hybrid model was agreed upon where all would be considered collective veritable bodies and would be able to be members of the national body, but no individual person could be a member of the national body. The votes for this hybrid model were virtually unanimous.

It was also felt that the schools teaching hypnotherapy were needed to play a vital role in the national body in that they were, after all, setting the standards by what they taught. At the moment many schools are teaching many different minimum standards, some are government-registered training organisations (RTOs), and other are not. For the industry to gain greater respect and for governments to take the industry seriously there will have to be minimum standards set by the national body.

The different levels of training at which hypnotherapists presently practise are from those who do not have any qualifications all the way to doctorate levels. If the standards are set for minimum training there is little doubt that the therapists at the bottom end of the educational ladder will need to have a reality check and train up to an acceptable standard. They may also be able to undergo assessment processes to determine competency. Let's be honest, a national body that does not require that will be nothing more than a national joke with non-standards. Well-qualified therapists, who are investing in this process and have spent years in education, need to be guaranteed that standards will be one of the major issues on the table.

Governments and health insurance companies are now judging different therapies' competencies according to the Australian national training standards within the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce. And governments have indicated that they are not interested in talking to professions unless they are complying with these standards.

Health insurance companies in the future will also legally need practitioners to comply to AQF or equivalent before giving rebates to clients of practitioners. Psychologists are operating at Master's level; massage therapists are finding that insurance companies are generally no longer accepting Certificate IV but now requiring Diploma level; and naturopaths are requiring Advanced Diploma Level and may even be looking at Degree level in the future. An organisation representing hypnotherapists with little more than a bus ticket of a qualification would be instantly dismissed as amateurs. Doctors, psychiatists and psychologists would be in breach of ethical codes and their insurance policies if they recommended patients to them.

The forming of this national peak body for hypnotherapy will have major implications for the industry as a standalone industry separate from counselling or psychotherapy in the future. Those that are present at the formation of this body will be able to have major influence on the direction of the industry in the future.

After the third meeting a committee was set up to register a body as a new incorporated body, organising the very fundamentals of setting up the national body and to look at question like standards, a code of ethics, etc. Once this is all in place it is proposed to have the first general meeting to legally vote on a constitution and all the issues concerned with running such a body.

It cannot be said that all associations and schools are presently taking part although many are and others are showing great interest. There is a certain resistance from some schools that do not want to be government regulated or RTOs as standard; but at the end of the day the industry needs to take stock of itself and have a large reality check. The health industry in Australia is changing and unless the hypnotherapy industry changes it will then it be left far behind other health industries.

Many associations are heavily invested in other bodies like Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA), Australian Counselling Association (ACA), Australian Traditional Medicine Society (ATMS), etc. At the end of the day, however, if hypnotherapy is to be recognised as a standalone discipline there needs to be one national body representing the whole industry or at least the majority of the profession. There is also nothing stopping associations and schools being invested across the board and belonging to more than one peak body.

©HypnosisAustralia, November 2007