Hypnotherapy in The United Kingdom - Examples

Examples

The General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR) is a non-affiliated commercial sector (for-profit) agency, operated under a legal partnership agreement (and therefore is not a Limited Company registered at Companies House). It is VAT registered with VAT No. 875802005. It describes itself as "the Administrating Agency for The General Hypnotherapy Standards Council (GHSC)". It claims to have 3000+ individual practitioners on its register (as well as an unspecified number of non-practitioners in "preliminary registration") and so claims to be the largest professional register for practising hypnotherapists in the UK. As a commercial operation under partnership status it is not required to publish its accounts. Annual Membership Fees are £70-£80 per annum for practitioners as well as a one time joining fee of £15 and an optional £15 for a printed display certificate. Student membership is offered free during training.

Note on relationship between GHSC & GHR: GHSC and GHR appear to be intrinsically linked to each other and do not appear to operate independently. GHSC is the advisory arm of the GHR providing an essential role assessing and validating the courses of training for external course providers. The validation of courses and training by GHSC is utilised exclusively by the GHR as part of the GHR's membership criteria. GHSC also issues awards exclusively to GHR members, which GHR promotes as one of the benefits of membership. GHSC makes no charges to colleges and training schools who have their courses and training validated by the GHSC - however GHSC states that:
“Although there is NO FEE payable for GHSC Training Course Assessment & Validation, participating organisations are expected to advise all graduate students to consider individual Registration with the GHR.It is anticipated that a minimum of five such graduates will take up Registration each year. Additionally, all participating organisations are expected to utilise the GHR/GHSC Logos within their printed material and to include an active link to the GHR/GHSC websitesfrom their own site.”

It is of note that the Registrar of both GHR and GHSC is the same individual, William Broom.

The National Council of Hypnotherapy (NCH) is a non-affiliated members association and a not-for-profit body with 1800 members. It is registered with Companies House as a private company limited by members' guarantee with no share capital, incorporated in 1996 (Company No. 03195906). It also claims to be the largest hypnotherapy association/society in the United Kingdom (this in contrast to privately owned bodies, which cannot use the term association or society). It is required to file accounts with Companies House and recently published accounts in its quarterly journal. Annual Membership fees are £70/year, student membership is free for one year. Published accounts showed annual income to be £64,000 per annum.

The British Society of Clinical Hypnosis (BSCH) Is a body representing professional hypnotherapists in the UK who are trained to a known and verifiable standard (UKCP accreditation or University accreditation. Currently accepting members from 4 training institutions in the UK that meet its educational and accreditation requirements but this number may soon grow as training standards continue to improve.

The Hypnotherapy Society is a non-affiliated learned society and a not-for-profit body incorporated in 1999, Company Registration No. 03739912 Annual Membership fees are £80/annum. The Hypnotherapy Society states in its constitution that "The Society shall maintain a Strategic Alliance with the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council and the General Hypnotherapy Register". It has a cooperation agreement with the Royal Society for Public Health. The Hypnotherapy Society states is not affiliated with any particular training school although the principal also runs Chrysalis Hypnotherapy Training and the Counselling Society.

The British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH) is a non-affiliated professional membership organisation. It is a non-profit making registered charity (charity number 1012806) and a company limited by guarantee (number 5120862). BSCAH is a constituent society of both the European Society of Hypnosis and International Society of Hypnosis. It requires that members are already professionally qualified in a recognised caring profession - for example doctors, dentists, nurses, psychologists etc.

The Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (APHP) is a non-affiliated not-for-profit membership organisation. It is a registered company in England (Company registration no. 4135568) and was incorporated in 2001. It has in excess of 600 members Worldwide. Annual Membership fees are £70/annum. The chair/founder, Terence Watts, is also Principal of the Essex Institute of Clinical Hypnosis and graduates form the bulk of members.

The Scottish Hypnotherapy Society is a very new society, founded on 10 October 2011 by two qualified hypnotherapists, Sarah Bartlett & Ingibergur Thorkelsson. It is not-for-profit, awaiting charity status. It is based in Scotland for qualified hypnotherapists working in Scotland. The aims of the society include bringing internationally renowned speakers, trainers and hypnotherapists to Scotland.

The most open organisation is the National Council of Psychotherapists (NCP) which is a professional association covering psychotherapy and Coaching as well as Hypnotherapy. The NCP validates training only on the basis of educational standards and requires members to continually upgrade and validate their skills. This organisation although a professional association is also a limited company and so the accounts are a matter of public record.