Hypnotherapy in The United Kingdom - Grades of Practitioner

Grades of Practitioner

Various grades are used across the organisations to indicate the level of training, qualifications and experience of hypnotherapy practitioners. Because different standards are used by different registers it is difficult to compare practitioners. Usually terms such as Licensed, Registered and Accredited signify that the practitioner meets the requirements of the Register. Terms such as Associate or Affiliate may be used in various ways. The Hypnotherapy Society uses "Associate" to distinguish members who are not considered ready to practice and Licentiate, Member and Accredited Member for those who are. Only professional members are listed on the website. For example NCH uses "Associate Membership" for anyone with an interest in Hypnotherapy, but you are not listed as practitioner or are able to use the NCH name, logo or any membership grade letters. By comparison GHR Affiliate Grade (available at Foundation Course level of 50 hours) does confer use of GHR logo, membership grade letters and, critically, a listing in the Registered Hypnotherapist directory pages of the GHR.

Note: Probably the essential point for the public is whether an organisation lists a therapist in their public directory of registered, practising hypnotherapists or not - rather than whether the grade is Licentiate, Affiliate, Accredited etc.

'National Occupational Standards'

In 2002, the Department for Education and Skills developed National Occupational Standards for hypnotherapy linked to National Vocational Qualification based on National Qualifications Framework under The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. And thus hypnotherapy was approved as a stand-alone therapy in UK. There are now many training schools which claim that their qualifications are "nationally recognised" or "conform to national occupational standards" but there is no way of independently verifying this. In 2010, NOS were revised via Skills for Health and the HRF. Present at the meetings for NOS revisions was Liz McGelligot, who is also Membership Officer for the Hypnotherapy Society, albeit acting in her capacity as a member of the Forum. The new revised standards are much smaller than the previous set.