Adding Hypnotherapy To Your Existing Counseling Practice

Hypnosis and counseling are two potentially complementary approaches to mental health treatment that can work together to provide powerful results. Those with a career in counseling may wish to get certified in hypnotherapy and add this to the services they offer.

Hypnotherapy is a form of therapy that uses hypnosis to help clients access their subconscious minds and make positive changes in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through suggestion.

When combined with counseling, hypnotherapy can enhance the effectiveness of traditional talk therapy and help clients achieve their goals more quickly and effectively.

In this article, we’ll explore how a hypnotherapy counseling approach can be effective, and how to add hypnosis in counseling practices.

The Role of Hypnotherapy in Addressing Mental Health Issues

As Milton Erickson (founder of The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis) said, “Patients are patients because they are out of rapport with their own unconscious . . .” Hypnotherapy helps clients get back in rapport with themselves.

The Difference Between Hypnotherapy And Counseling

Counselling and hypnotherapy are two different therapeutic approaches, each with its own goals, techniques, and potential benefits. There is significant overlap, however. Each discipline has a wide variety of techniques, so we’ll be talking mostly in generalities here.

Let’s examine both counseling and hypnotherapy:

Here are some key differences between counseling and hypnotherapy:

• Techniques: Counseling uses conversation and a variety of psychological techniques to encourage personal growth and problem-solving. Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to help the client reach a state of deep relaxation and suggestibility, where they can explore deep-seated issues or change behaviors.
• Client Involvement: In counseling, clients are usually fully conscious, actively participating, and engaging in the process. In hypnotherapy, clients are guided into a hypnotic state, though they remain conscious and in control. Although there’s sometimes conversation during hypnotic sessions, it tends to be more focused on the hypnotherapist giving suggestions to the client.
• Issues Addressed: Both can address a variety of issues, but some problems might be more appropriately addressed by one method than the other. As a general rule, when more insight or understanding is beneficial, talk therapy is preferred. Hypnosis tends to be solution focused, rather than focusing on insight or understanding. Counseling can be solution-oriented and hypnotherapy can lead to insight and understanding. There are tendencies, not rules.
• Training and Regulation: There are different training and certification requirements for counselors and hypnotherapists. In many jurisdictions, counseling doesn’t require specific education or training, nor does hypnotherapy. However, there are many psychologists, mental health counselors, and psychiatrists who are regulated by state, regional or federal governments, and are required to have specific education, training, and licensure. In addition, professional organizations may be involved in overseeing professions, although they may not have regulatory oversight.

The Basics of Hypnotherapy for Counselors

As a counselor, you will need to be trained in the basics of hypnosis and hypnotherapy in order to use these techniques effectively. However, many of your existing skills will transfer across. People in hypnosis can talk, so you can use many of your counseling skills within the trance.

Incorporating Hypnotic Techniques in Your Counseling Practice

Here’s the thing that many counselors who haven’t yet been trained in hypnosis, need to know. . .

Counseling sessions already include many of the same elements as hypnosis sessions.

• Rapport is important. As a counselor, you’re already establishing rapport with your clients.
• Clients and patients may experience strong emotions during a session. This can create increased suggestibility.
• Clients may concentrate deeply on an idea, or think about something in a way they’ve never thought of before. This is hypnotic.
• When clients tell you about an experience and become emotional, they are already partially regressed into that experience.
• In some counseling sessions, the client comes in, sits down, and relaxes.
• Effective counselor’s words carry weight with their clients. While counselors may-or-may-not give advice, their words may encourage the clients to reflect deeply. In other words, the clients have increased suggestibility.

Many hypnotherapists have had the experience of working with a client, asking them questions about what they want to accomplish, establishing rapport, digging into the issue at hand, and realizing the client is already halfway or more into a trance state.

In these cases, we can simply move gently into an induction or suggestion phase of the session. In your hypnotherapy training, you’ll learn to recognize the signs of trance and can do the same in your counseling sessions.

Hypnotic counseling is not a big step from counseling.

Tips for Using Hypnotherapy Safely and Effectively

Hypnosis Risks and Side Effects

Hypnosis isn’t recommended for folks with serious mental disorders, including:

• Schizophrenia
• Hallucinations
• Drug and alcohol misuse
• Delusions

The American Association Of Professional Hypnotherapists mentions, in their code of ethics, “contact and receive approval of any other counseling professional or mental health professional presently treating my new perspective [sic] client.”

We, at the International Hypnosis Association recommend this as well, for folks with the hypnosis contraindications listed above. We’d add that many counselors don’t have training in mental health disorders, so for the above conditions, I’d stick with clinical psychologists, licensed mental health counselors, and psychiatrists (the nomenclature may be slightly different in your part of the world).

Ethics And Professional Standards

Ethics and standards of behavior for hypnotherapists are much the same as for counselors. Some hypnotic techniques require touch. Anyone doing hypnotherapy and counselling should get permission to touch a client beforehand, for anything other than a handshake at the door. If it’s not appropriate to touch a client during a hypnotic intervention, use techniques that don’t require it.

Training and Certification for Hypnotherapy in Counseling

Proper training and certification are essential for using hypnotherapy safely and effectively in your counseling practice. This means completing a comprehensive training program and obtaining certification from a reputable organization.

Finding Hypnotherapy Training Programs

There are many hypnotherapy training programs available for counselors. These programs typically involve a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on training in hypnosis and hypnotherapy techniques.

You can browse our list of schools with IHA Approved Courses, to see what’s available near you. 

The Benefits of Continuing Education in Hypnotherapy for Counselors

Continuing education in hypnotherapy can help counselors stay up-to-date on the latest techniques and best practices in this field. This can help counselors provide the best possible care to their clients and achieve the best possible outcomes.

Conclusion: The Power of Hypnotherapy in Counseling

Hypnotherapy can be a powerful tool for counselors looking to enhance the effectiveness of their counseling sessions. By incorporating hypnotic techniques into their practice, counselors can help clients achieve their goals more quickly and effectively. With proper hypnosis training and certification, counselors can use hypnotherapy safely and effectively to address a wide range of mental health issues.

If you are a psychologist, and want to be a psychologist that does hypnosis, the path forward is simple. The same is true for other counselors. Just get some additional training, and for the most part, the new skills will fit in well with your existing practice.