Today I learned that in some US states and some countries, hypnotherapy is considered medical practice, some health insurance companies will pay for it (if circumstances are right), and you DO need a license to practice it. As a licensed medical practitioner, you might possibly qualify for medical practitioner discounts at various shops (which can be as much as 40%) via services like SheerID and ID.me.
What is hypnotherapy? Go watch the movie "Office Space". In all seriousness, it is supposedly about helping the client relax and reach a state of focus such as when you get engrossed in a book or on the internet and lose all track of time and your surroundings, which then helps them change mindsets and behaviors or talk about painful feelings and memories. Is hypnotherapy academically/scientifically proven to do anything? Yeah, in the sense that stuff like deep breathing, stress relief and relaxation, meditation, positive "I can do it!" and "positive imagination" therapy, talk therapy, placebos (such as thinking you've been drinking alcohol when you haven't) and so on have all been academically proven to physically do something to the human body (including change your body temperature, reduce pain, improve your immune system, and increase your brain's grey matter density).
Depending on the state, the state hypnotherapist license is granted by either 1) the state Board of Health, 2) the state Board of Psychologists, 3) the state Board of Licensing, 4) the state Board of Hypnotherapists. You can get some certificate or diploma courses in hypnotherapy for less than $100. If you want a degree, you can find them in anywhere from the Associate's to the Doctorate's level, but accreditation is suspect.
As an example, the only qualifications to get a hypnotherapist license in Washington state (granted by the Department of Health) are:
1) proof that you have finished a course in hypnotherapy, ideally that grants a certificate (no mention of a minimum number of hours, of accreditation, or of needing any other education including college education - but 300 study hours is recommended, and your hypnotherapy qualification will be reviewed by a "specialist"),
2) a background check (they note that a permanent record doesn't automatically disqualify you from getting the license)
3) pay the modest licensing fees (around $160) and renew your license annually (around $80).
4) If you are going to practice hypnotherapy online, you need to complete "telemedicine" (telehealth) training, which in Washington state is a free 30-60 minute online course.
California is an example of a state where you don't need a license to practice hypnotherapy, but where if you don't have a license and you advertise that your hypnotherapy can cure or relieve an ailment - including stuff as small as "blemishes" or "anxiety" - you can get a fine of up to $10,000.
In some countries you cannot legally call it "hypnotherapy" or call yourself a "hypnotherapist" unless you have a separate medical license, because the word "therapist" itself is legally restricted to people with medical degrees and medical licenses - however you can remove the word "therapist" and just say you are a "hypnotist" who practices "hypnosis" and then you're perfectly fine.
Some places legally distinguish between "hypnotherapy" or "home hypnotherapy" versus "clinical hypnotherapy". As far as I could find, when a legal distinction exists, getting a "clinical hypnotherapy" license requires for you to already have at least a Bachelor's degree in Counseling, Psychology, Medicine, Nursing or Hypnotherapy, in some cases you must have been working as a medical or therapist professional at some sort of government-recognized clinic or hospital for (at maximum) at least 5 years, then you must take an accredited course on Hypnotherapy worth at least 200-300 hours. For those of you who think that sounds like a lot and have never taken a so-called 200 hour course online before - I have taken an accredited 120 hour one (so much "internationally recognized" that it enabled me to get work visas) in a totally unrelated field, and it only actually took me 7 hours to finish.
Some places distinguish between "hypnotherapy" and "stage hypnotherapy". In that case the former is the "medical" type, techniques aimed at stuff like curbing people's anxieties and addictions. The latter is pure TV/magician entertainment with no therapeutic aim, like "when I count to 3 you will be .
Finally, even if you take a hypnotherapy course that is not accredited in any way, you can attempt to get your certificate "validated" by a third party such as The International Hypnosis Association. In most cases this is purely to make yourself look better to clients and means absolutely nothing. However in states or countries where you need a license to practice, this validation might possibly help grant you the license.
Due to the fact that hypnotherapy is unlicensed and unregulated in many places, and "birds of a feather flock together", you will find a lot of certificates or schools that blend hypnotherapy with other topics that are unregulated and no-license-required in that particular state or country, such as NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming), Mindfulness, Past Life Regression, Aromatherapy, and even Acupuncture. Obviously in other places some of this stuff (particularly acupuncture and aromatherapy) is a highly regulated field and counted as a medical profession. You will find that the majority of people and schools offering hypnotherapy classes have no formal medical or psychological training, and that the websites the courses are sold on feel like they were written by car salesmen back in the 1990s.
Note for courses taught in Spanish and other major languages:
1) With modern technology, including pop-up dictionaries, speech translation for videos/sound, Chat-gpt4 correcting your written Spanish, Deepl text translation, online dictionaries that show you verb forms etc, Reverso Context which shows you phrases, you can successfully complete education like this in major languages like Spanish, French or German without knowing the language.
2) Spanish courses will always say they are "accredited" or have a "partnership" with something. This means literally nothing. One example of so-called accreditation I found is a "school" with 4 employees, 3 of whom are "translators" but NONE of the school's courses have been translated! Their so-called accredited diploma is "accredited" by nothing more than their own one-man schoolhouse! Another example is a "school" claiming to have a "partnership" with Google - that just meant they had put a Google search bar or Google Analytics on their website. Now, if you live in a place where your hypnotherapist education doesn't have to be accredited and you don't need a license, then none of that matters.
Examples of online courses and their price ranges (there are many, many more out there):
What is hypnotherapy? Go watch the movie "Office Space". In all seriousness, it is supposedly about helping the client relax and reach a state of focus such as when you get engrossed in a book or on the internet and lose all track of time and your surroundings, which then helps them change mindsets and behaviors or talk about painful feelings and memories. Is hypnotherapy academically/scientifically proven to do anything? Yeah, in the sense that stuff like deep breathing, stress relief and relaxation, meditation, positive "I can do it!" and "positive imagination" therapy, talk therapy, placebos (such as thinking you've been drinking alcohol when you haven't) and so on have all been academically proven to physically do something to the human body (including change your body temperature, reduce pain, improve your immune system, and increase your brain's grey matter density).
Depending on the state, the state hypnotherapist license is granted by either 1) the state Board of Health, 2) the state Board of Psychologists, 3) the state Board of Licensing, 4) the state Board of Hypnotherapists. You can get some certificate or diploma courses in hypnotherapy for less than $100. If you want a degree, you can find them in anywhere from the Associate's to the Doctorate's level, but accreditation is suspect.
As an example, the only qualifications to get a hypnotherapist license in Washington state (granted by the Department of Health) are:
1) proof that you have finished a course in hypnotherapy, ideally that grants a certificate (no mention of a minimum number of hours, of accreditation, or of needing any other education including college education - but 300 study hours is recommended, and your hypnotherapy qualification will be reviewed by a "specialist"),
2) a background check (they note that a permanent record doesn't automatically disqualify you from getting the license)
3) pay the modest licensing fees (around $160) and renew your license annually (around $80).
4) If you are going to practice hypnotherapy online, you need to complete "telemedicine" (telehealth) training, which in Washington state is a free 30-60 minute online course.
California is an example of a state where you don't need a license to practice hypnotherapy, but where if you don't have a license and you advertise that your hypnotherapy can cure or relieve an ailment - including stuff as small as "blemishes" or "anxiety" - you can get a fine of up to $10,000.
In some countries you cannot legally call it "hypnotherapy" or call yourself a "hypnotherapist" unless you have a separate medical license, because the word "therapist" itself is legally restricted to people with medical degrees and medical licenses - however you can remove the word "therapist" and just say you are a "hypnotist" who practices "hypnosis" and then you're perfectly fine.
Some places legally distinguish between "hypnotherapy" or "home hypnotherapy" versus "clinical hypnotherapy". As far as I could find, when a legal distinction exists, getting a "clinical hypnotherapy" license requires for you to already have at least a Bachelor's degree in Counseling, Psychology, Medicine, Nursing or Hypnotherapy, in some cases you must have been working as a medical or therapist professional at some sort of government-recognized clinic or hospital for (at maximum) at least 5 years, then you must take an accredited course on Hypnotherapy worth at least 200-300 hours. For those of you who think that sounds like a lot and have never taken a so-called 200 hour course online before - I have taken an accredited 120 hour one (so much "internationally recognized" that it enabled me to get work visas) in a totally unrelated field, and it only actually took me 7 hours to finish.
Some places distinguish between "hypnotherapy" and "stage hypnotherapy". In that case the former is the "medical" type, techniques aimed at stuff like curbing people's anxieties and addictions. The latter is pure TV/magician entertainment with no therapeutic aim, like "when I count to 3 you will be .
Finally, even if you take a hypnotherapy course that is not accredited in any way, you can attempt to get your certificate "validated" by a third party such as The International Hypnosis Association. In most cases this is purely to make yourself look better to clients and means absolutely nothing. However in states or countries where you need a license to practice, this validation might possibly help grant you the license.
Due to the fact that hypnotherapy is unlicensed and unregulated in many places, and "birds of a feather flock together", you will find a lot of certificates or schools that blend hypnotherapy with other topics that are unregulated and no-license-required in that particular state or country, such as NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming), Mindfulness, Past Life Regression, Aromatherapy, and even Acupuncture. Obviously in other places some of this stuff (particularly acupuncture and aromatherapy) is a highly regulated field and counted as a medical profession. You will find that the majority of people and schools offering hypnotherapy classes have no formal medical or psychological training, and that the websites the courses are sold on feel like they were written by car salesmen back in the 1990s.
Note for courses taught in Spanish and other major languages:
1) With modern technology, including pop-up dictionaries, speech translation for videos/sound, Chat-gpt4 correcting your written Spanish, Deepl text translation, online dictionaries that show you verb forms etc, Reverso Context which shows you phrases, you can successfully complete education like this in major languages like Spanish, French or German without knowing the language.
2) Spanish courses will always say they are "accredited" or have a "partnership" with something. This means literally nothing. One example of so-called accreditation I found is a "school" with 4 employees, 3 of whom are "translators" but NONE of the school's courses have been translated! Their so-called accredited diploma is "accredited" by nothing more than their own one-man schoolhouse! Another example is a "school" claiming to have a "partnership" with Google - that just meant they had put a Google search bar or Google Analytics on their website. Now, if you live in a place where your hypnotherapist education doesn't have to be accredited and you don't need a license, then none of that matters.
Examples of online courses and their price ranges (there are many, many more out there):
- $9.99 - Diploma in Hypnotherapy taught in Spanish. If you go straight to Udemy it claims it's $84.99 but go to the creator's actual website and click on coupons and you'll get a $9.99 coupon for the Udemy course. The course claims it is accredited, but it's not: https://www.udemy.com/course/hipnosis/
- $29 - David Key's "Board Certified" Hypnotherapy certificate course. It's not explained what exactly board certified means or which board has certified it. If you go straight to the website it claims $999 but if you buy the $7 NLP course, a checkout offer on the NLP course page will lower the price of the Hypnotherapy course to $29: https://davidkey.com/store/hypnotherapy-ecourse/
- 590kr SEK and up courses from Sweden, some of which offer diplomas. It is not a licensed profession in Sweden: https://www.kurser.se/kurs/hypnos
- £150 "UK accredited online exam" to get a diploma via at-home study of hypnotherapy. The UK does not require accreditation or licenses to practice hypnotherapy: http://nlp-hypnotherapy-training-courses..._store.htm
- $7,650-$12,240 Doctorate / PhD course in Hypnotherapy, taught in Spanish: https://hipnosis.org/escuela-de-hipnosis...mologacion
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