Learn Hypnotherapy - Passing on Experience as well as Knowledge

In any field it can be difficult to relate theory to practice, and this is certainly true of hypnotherapy. Having learnt the relevant theoretical issues and approaches in depth, many new hypnotherapists feel thrown in at the deep end when it comes to running an actual practice. This is no doubt partly due to the understandable emphasis on theory in many textbooks and on many courses, however, it is also due to the wide array of real-world influences that are often ignored entirely by the theoretical side of the field.

Having spent seventeen years in full time practice as a hypnotherapist, I have certainly had my share of difficulties and have often wondered why there is not more to help new hypnotherapists in practical aspects of their practice. Issues which are not covered on syllabi are often left for the new hypnotherapist to fumble through on their own with little or no support or guidance. Why is more not said of the difficulty of dealing with some cases because of our own personal views and expectations? I remember, for instance, in one case, with a client with MS who wanted help to feel more balanced and to think more positively, how easy it was to fall unwittingly into the trap of getting swept along with the diagnosis and not what the client wanted. Why is more not said of issues such as this, which surely must be important to practicing hypnotherapists everywhere?

My frustration with the lack of support that there is in this respect perhaps stems from my current role as Director and Tutor at the Contemporary College of Therapeutic Studies. In this role I regularly see firsthand the lack of information there is for new hypnotherapists on what life in hypnotherapy is actually like. Questions that naturally arise in the back of the newcomer’s mind like ‘will every case be different?’ ‘How can I change my approach to match each client’s needs?’ ‘What if I find my approach is failing, what do I do then?’ and so on and so forth simply are not catered for by the milieu of literature available on the subject. Recently, along with a co-author, I published a book, ’Thinking Therapeutically’, that attempts to address these very questions. By offering detailed verbatim accounts of our cases, as well as critical discourse on what was successful and what was not, it is hoped that the gap in the literature for hypnotherapy might be filled. It will not, of course, be filled entirely only by this one book, but by raising the issues perhaps more experienced hypnotherapists might begin to consider how they can pass on the knowledge gained through their years of experience in hypnotherapy. Because, really, that is the issue; whilst courses in hypnotherapy might be excellent in terms of passing on the theories and approaches needed to practice in this field, they do not pass on the vast array of experience and innovation that we, as experienced professionals, have garnered over the years.