Why your hypnotherapist should be trained in counselling

Why hypnotherapy and counselling work side by side

If you’re not familiar with hypnotherapy, it may seem as though the main skill is based around hypnosis and taking you into a trance. In reality, hypnotherapists actually need a much wider range of skills than this due to the complex nature of a lot of the issues that clients need help with.

When clients decide to try hypnotherapy, there can be a number of factors that are causing or contributing to the main issue that is being treated. For example, there can be psychological or emotional factors that are dictating why you’re struggling to lose weight or why you’re feeling anxious all of the time, and these can be long standing issues in a lot of cases.

These underlying factors need to be addressed before hypnotherapy is likely to be successful. In fact, having hypnotherapy without the counselling aspect can actually make the situation worse so it’s really important to look at the bigger picture.

Why hypnotherapists need counselling skills

A good hypnotherapist doesn’t just need to be well trained in how to do hypnosis; they also need to have counselling skills so that they can have empathy with the issue(s) that are being treated. This is why you’ll see a lot of qualified hypnotherapists who are also trained counsellors.

Empathy is a really important part of counselling, and it’s particularly important in hypnotherapy to build a strong rapport with clients so that they feel comfortable enough to be hypnotized in the first place. Most people can be hypnotized but it does involve putting a great deal of trust in your hypnotherapist!

Demonstrating empathy involves basic counselling skills and will often be done through choice of words, tone of voice and body language to put you at ease and encourage your unconscious mind to be more receptive to suggestions made by your hypnotherapist .

Active listening is another key part of building rapport, and is part of a wider set of counselling skills designed to delve deeper into your unconscious mind and the underlying factors that may be exaggerating your situation.

Listening is also crucial for the hypnotherapist in making suggestions that you will be more likely to take on board as they can speak in your “voice”. This is much more effective than following any kind of script for suggestions as it’s a lot more personal and tailored to you specifically and will be more helpful for you.

For more information about hypnotherapy and counselling, please contact the expert contributor.