subject: How Can You Learn Hypnotherapy [print this page] The potential student of hypnotherapy can learn in a classroom setting. Learning online, followed by an internship, is another option. Since it is by nature an interactive experience, you cannot learn hypnotherapy without that person-to-person experience taking place at some time during training.
At a time in the past, hypnotism was considered some kind of hocus-pocus to be performed as part of a stage show. A hypnotist would enlist the help of an audience member to join him on stage. He would (allegedly) hypnotize him and cause him to cluck like a chicken when he heard a certain word.
When brought the trance was ended, he would quack his way across the stage to the audience's amusement. The hypnotist would eventually erase the effect the suggested word had upon him and that part of the show would be over. It was a well-received stage show but unlikely to have been authentic hypnotism.
A qualified hypnotist is currently a therapist. She is most likely educated to the masters or doctorate level and licensed to practice. She will likely add hypnotherapy to her list of qualifications and use it to relax patients during sessions. She places a patient under hypnosis to uncover troubling memories or root out core feelings that are causing maladjustment.
Hypnosis is currently understood better and taught in accredited schools. Those who are without a degree in some other field can take the classes to become certified. The courses are also taken by therapists, nurses and other health care professionals to add to their abilities to help those they work with.
There is one school teaching hypnotism that has been licensed since 1978. They employ only skilled teachers who have great concern for their students. It is an integral part of the learning process for the students to practice by hypnotizing each other. This is always done under careful supervision. By experiencing the hypnotic state, they can better understand its power to help others.
The education also includes business and marketing strategies. The trained hypnotherapist can begin with no prerequisites and end with a lucrative practice in hypnotherapy. The intent is to provide hypnotherapy as one of the helping professions.
The student will see practice and live demonstrations in the safe and effective forms of hypnotherapy. Many other tried and proven therapies are employed as part of the training, Gestalt for example. These skills can be added to the methods already being used by nurses, counselors and other health care professionals who have graduated and been licensed in their respective fields.
This is not to be viewed as a non-traditional educational endeavor. Homework is assigned and handouts passed out for study purposes outside of the class sessions. An additional benefit to students is that during their practice sessions with other students, they gain an understanding of themselves. This opportunity to learn hypnotherapy is a major advantage in dealing with their own personal lives.
