There are certainly many diverse courses in hypnotherapy available for those seeking certification. Here are some things to consider in order to discover the best training model that fits your professional and personal goals.

1.) Are you currently practicing or employed in a related field of treatment? Do you have a Masters degree or a professional license in any of these fields?

• Social Work
• Psychology
• Professional Counseling
• Drug and Alcohol Counseling
• Mental Health
• Nurse, Nurse Practitioner
• Private Practice Alternative Therapy

If so, you should be looking for a professional hypnotherapy training and certification program (not just hypnosis training: see our previous blog on the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy) that has been training professionals for at least 10-30 years. The highest quality hypnotherapy training should focus on training you to do psychotherapy with your client in a trance state. The best programs will teach you the skills of hypnosis while blending your current knowledge of psychotherapy, your clinical background and treatment skills with:  

• Learning age regression techniques and how to implement them during therapy
• Assessing how to use hypnotherapy with different Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnostic categories such as personality disorders, addictions, anxiety disorders, PTSD and depression
• Using hypnotherapy within different states of dissociation, shock and trauma
• Understanding which diagnostic categories would not be appropriate for hypnotherapy
• Working with developmental stages and healing the inner child
• Combining humanistic psychology, Gestalt and Transactional Analysis

This type of course work serves to provide an integrative approach to hypnotherapy techniques that will ultimately result in better client outcomes and patient success stories.

2.) Do you value a blend of clinical learning and hands-on experiential training? What percentage of the course time is focused on:

• Practicing new skills
• Watching live demonstrations and videos of the techniques presented
• Learning to do the techniques presented
• Learning cognitive clinical material

Advanced hypnotherapy training must provide you with an experiential, hands-on learning environment that serves to develop a comprehensive clinical and demonstrative approach to hypnotherapy treatment. Ask these types of questions to get a clear handle on just how experiential the course will be and how much that will contribute to your learning and overall ability to perform hypnotherapy techniques in your own practice.  

3.) Would you like to expand your ability to work efficiently with a wider variety of clients with conditions such as:

• Eating disorders
• Stress reduction
• Anxiety disorders
• PTSD, for example, veterans returning from the battlefield
• Trauma resolution
• Addictive behavior, relationship addictions, love addictions, sexual addictions

4.) Would you like to learn to combine your profession with healing and energy work? If so, here are some things to look for in a hypnotherapy training program:  

• A trained professional with at least a Master’s degree is leading the course
• A high value is placed on trainers staying current with their own personal work in the field of hypnotherapy
• The energy work can be combined with the hypnotherapy training in a step-by-step process

5.) Does this training have continued professional support in the form of follow-up supervision groups, advanced trainings and a client referral program?

Use these questions as your starting point for determining which hypnotherapy certification program makes sense for your professional and personal goals. Many hypnotherapy students find the most success in hypnotherapy programs that apply advanced techniques with experiential training. When looking for the correct hypnotherapy certification program for yourself, be sure you are investing your time, money, and energy in one that will meet your professional needs as well as provide ongoing community support and interaction in order to facilitate your growth as a hypnotherapist.