Consumer Guide to Steamboat Bodyworks-Hypnotherapy

Colorado Hypnosis & Healing

No name given. A coupon that readers are directed to reveals the name, Michelle. E. Hale, and the credential, CH.t.

The letters, CH. t, are not clarified in the listing, but could stand for Certified Hypnotherapist. As those particular letters are not common, this certification is more than likely from an obscure organization with little or no education, knowledge, or testing requirements.

The State of Colorado does not require hypnotherapists to be licensed or registered.

Here's why.

Hypnosis is a specialty or sub-specialty of mental health and medical professionals who are already bound by the ethical standards of their specific field, profession, and practice. That is good for consumers. But, there is another kind of hypnosis, the kind where training and certification is a very short, maybe only a few hours long, seminar, or online, practitioners claim that hypnosis is useful for anything, and there are no professional standards, established guidelines of patient care, or codes of ethics. This kind of hypnosis is bad for consumers.

There are two things consumers can do to protect themselves and ensure hypnotherapy is provided by a qualified professional.

First, ask practitioners about credentials, education, license information, and professional associations.

The NBCCH (National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists), the only nationally recognized certification for health care professionals using hypnosis, requires:

 - all applicants to have earned a graduate-level degree in any of the appropriate academic disciplines

   for mental health practitioners or a Master or Doctorate degree for medical practitioners and

 - all applicants to be appropriately licensed or registered in their professions in the state in which they

   practice.

Second, ask practitioners about specific needs.

 - NBCCH certified hypnotherapists have varied areas of expertise. Because they are bound by the

   ethical standards of their profession, they disclose their qualifications and expertise as well as whether

   their practice includes a particular area of interest or recommend a qualified practice that does.

 - If the answer to questions regarding specific needs is more along the lines of, "hypnosis is useful for

   anything", or a long list is provided of what the practitioner claims to use hypnotherapy for, it is more

   than likely the practitioner does not have the education, training, skills, and integrity to provide a

   professional level of care.

Hypnotherapy outside the health care profession is the stuff of stage shows and entertainment.