Hypnotherapy
Possible Self-Regulation
HypnosisAustralia,
May 2007
By
Dr Tracie O'Keefe DCH, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Psychotherapist &
Counsellor
Editorial Director of HypnosisAustralia Online.
The next
step forward for the counselling, psychotherapy and hypnotherapy professions
in Australia now clearly looks like self-regulation; but exactly how that
will come about is currently a matter of debate and controversy. The 2006
rejection of many allied health professions by the government for Medicare
rebates has shocked those professions into a considerable amount of self-examination.
The Coalition
of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2006 looked at carefully formulated
policies for a pan-Australian recognition of certain professions so that
professionals would not have to train again or separately register in
other states. The very ethos of the federal government could, one might
think, give rise to the opportunity for the hypnotherapy community to
formulate the separate profession of hypnotherapy. Many obstacles to that,
however, stand in its way and the question is: Can hypnotherapy as a separate
discipline emerge from counselling, psychotherapy, psychology or psychiatry?
Sure, eventually
in years to come, counselling and psychotherapy may be registered professions,
even if that is decades away, but will hypnotherapy be a subsection of
those disciplines or have to find a different home?
A further
question is: Will hypnotherapy be categorised as a section of the complementary
medicine sector?
There is
little doubt that the Medicare bid by the counselling, psychotherapy and
hypnotherapy associations failed in 2006 because standards of training
were not considered high enough. Those standards were not seen as being
in line with the mental heath competency standards. Also, the government
did not see the three professions as being sufficiently organised to deal
with in any coherent way.
In 2003 the
Australian Counselling Association (ACA) approached the Department of
Human Services (DHS), Victoria with regard to a research grant that had
been awarded to the Psychotherapy And Counselling Federation of Australia
(PACFA) to investigate the issue of self-regulation for counselling and
psychotherapy. From the outset of this project the ACA protested that
they had been excluded and to date, after the final report, ACA still
maintains that they were not properly consulted as a major industry stake
holder. (Armstrong, 2006).
It seems
the author of the research, Professor Margot Schofield, an officer of
PACFA concluded that counselling and psychotherapy (which would include
members of the hypnotherapy section of PACFA, ACA, very possibly ATMS
and other hypnotherapy organisations by default) should be regulated in
Australia under the overseeing direction of PACFA. As the reader can imagine,
this went down with the ACA like a lead balloon. While it is true that
PACFA probably does represent a greater diversity of counselling and psychotherapy
practitioners, in reality, numbers are the only thing that counts when
talking to governments about any kind of regulation, self or otherwise.
The current
territory war between PACFA and the ACA, both of whom represent some hypnotherapists,
is doing the professions no favours, and while Rome burns, insults prevail.
This is nothing new, but part of the political growing pains that all
professions seem to go through on a journey to unification. Eventually
both associations will need to amalgamate or learn to live with each other
and work together.
I spoke to
Simon Tatz of the Mental Health Council of Australia (NHMC) a non-government
body representing the Australian mental health sector. NHMC says its members
include and have representatives from mental health service consumers,
carers, special needs groups, clinical service providers, public and private
mental health service providers and state/territory mental health peak
bodies.
Tatz said,
"Recognising government-registered practitioners is easy because
they are on a government register but when it comes to practitioners that
aren't on a government register, that can be very difficult. I am sure
there are many non-government-registered practitioners who may be very
experienced but in reality, the NMHC has absolutely no way to determine
that.
"The
situation of the chicken and the egg and which one came first is surely
where counselling, psychotherapy and hypnotherapy training standards are
situated in Australia at the moment. The government does not know what
standard to set for recognition of such professions and does not seem
to want to be involved in setting a standard. However, the government
does not want to recognise those professions unless a standard is set
by the professions themselves and even then it would only do so at a push
of perceived imminent danger to the public from untrained practitioners."
One model
of self-regulation that hypnotherapists could usefully look at is the
one that is currently used by naturopaths. There are no laws governing
naturopaths in Australia at moment. They are, however, subject to two
kinds of regulation. The first is that some states are now putting in
place the ability for government departments to hear complaints against
unregistered healthcare practitioners made by members of the public. Any
naturopath who finds themselves in this position, and is not a member
of a major naturopathic organisation, will find themselves very vulnerable
during such investigations because they lack the peer review recognition.
Naturopathy
indirect regulation is also currently operating federally with a form
of self-regulation, namely GST exemption, and full private health fund
rebates. In general, naturopaths have to qualify to at least Advanced
Diploma level of training and many have degrees.
I spoke to
Raymond Khoury from the Australian Traditional Medicine Society that represents
a large number of naturopaths and he commented, "Even though a form
of self-regulation exists within Australia for naturopaths, self-regulation
has largely been only partly successful. In order to get GST relief and
other benefits a naturopath must be a member of a professional association
but unfortunately the associations are still a number of scattered collectives.
The cohesion we have been hoping for over the years has not happened.
"The
problem with national registration and even self-regulation is that all
the states have their own agendas. Victoria wants to regulate but NSW
absolutely does not and the other states have their own issues. It's the
old states versus federal situation and even though all the states have
Labor governments, they all have different policies.
"When the concept of GST purchase tax was being formed and implemented
in Australia the different naturopathy organisations made representations
for GST relief separately to the federal government. Even though there
was no cohesion, the different associations managed to establish at the
beginning of the introduction that naturopaths would be GST-exempt. The
law, however, is now established and for counselling, psychotherapy and
hypnotherapy to get GST relief at this stage in the game it will take
a considerable effort and the associations would have to work concertedly
together because the tax department is not going to give up that tax easily."
If hypnotherapy
is to become a separate discipline with its own governing body, many associations
will need to give up sovereignty and collaborate with a central body to
represent the whole of the profession. So this would mean some personalities
who have made their living from being prominent as association leaders
stepping down and allowing a more centralised approach to self-regulation
to take place. This process in itself may be like guiding a porcupine
around a balloon factory but it can be the only solution. Too many chiefs
and not enough Indians does not a well-run campaign make.
The ATMS
is the only organisation that represents hypnotherapists which has the
long-term history to understand the complexities of working with the different
state goverments. However, many hypnotherapists would not want to join
the ATMS because they have made great investments in joining and operating
out of other associations.
The ACA is
currently undergoing legal restructuring so its board will be elected
members but again as an organisation it is unlikely that it can represent
the needs of hypnotherapy as a separate profession. The needs of clinical
hypnotherapists are ultimately different from those of counsellors or
psychotherapists, even though those professions could work together for
greater recognition and many hypnotherapists may also be counsellors or
psychotherapists.
So getting
all the representatives of the hypnotherapy community around a table would
be the first order of the day. The recent formation of the Council of
Clinical Hypnotherapists has shown that immediate surrender of power by
those hypnotherapy community leaders will not happen easily. What could
be feasible is if they all join a national committee for the consolidation
of the hypnotherapy profession. This could include associations and schools
but what must be remembered is that schools are generally in the private
sector and are for-profit enterprises. Associations, on the other hand,
should always be a not-for-profit corporation and must always be separate
from the interests of schools and not just alumni organisations.
What that
committee would be called is at this stage irrelevant as the most important
elements are cooperation between all major hypnotherapy organisations.
The establishment of a national register is very important but that will
require some major figures in the industry to be very cooperative. Trust
among organisations will only happen if absolute, complete transparency
is the first order of the day with issues such as:
Minimum Standards
of Training
Open Elections
of Association Officers With Fixed Terms
Clinical
and Ongoing Supervision Requirements
Ongoing Education
Requirements
Complaints
Procedures
Ultimately
a National Register
The past
disputes between different organisations have to be left behind us as
hypnotherapy practitioners. Not only must all practitioners on a national
register have access to information about the way the register is run
but the public must also be able to access the information at the drop
of a hat on the web as can be done with the APS or the AMA. Respect, trust
and recognition will only ever be acquired by the Australian hypnotherapy
profession through complete transparency and public accountability, and
at this very moment in time no one single organisation fulfills those
criteria.
Bibilography
Armstrong,
Phillip, Self Regulation In Counselling, Counselling Australia. Australian
Counselling Journal, Volume 6 no 3, Spring 2006.
http://www.theaca.net.au/journals/journ_archive/ACA%20Mag%20Vol6%20No3%20Spring%2006.pdf
©HypnosisAustralia,
May 2007
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