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The practice of hypnotherapy is not regulated at the federal level.
This means educational institutions and professional certifying boards set their own standards for minimum academic requirements, scope of practice, code of ethics, postgraduate studies and continuing education.
Historical Standards
In the 1950's the standard was 100 hours of training.
In the 1980's the standard was set at 200 hours.
In 2010 new standards were established which
require a minimum of 400 classroom hours of training before certification as a clinical hypnotherapist.
The International Board of Hypnotherapy (IBH)
Hypnotherapy is an art form based on scientific methods.
Just as an education in medicine, massage therapy or even counseling requires practical skills development with a clinical supervisor, so does hypnotherapy.
You simply cannot learn it sufficiently from a book, some DVDs and logging clock hours online.
We know you need live demonstrations, question and answer periods, supervised hands-on practice in the clinical setting and ample time with instructors to become a competent and confident hypnotherapist.
There are many inferior certifications, and in some cases, even misleading titles awarded.
Some offer certification that is only a "Certificate of Course Completion;"¯ in hypnotherapy from non-licensed schools.
There are some schools that even claim to award "degrees"¯ in hypnotherapy.
These programs are almost all correspondence or online courses and none are accredited or approved by IBH.
Honored Hypnotherapy Teacher and Founder
Gil Boyne (1924-2010) opened the first state licensed vocational training in hypnotherapy and was the founder of the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners (ACHE).
He maintained an office, saw private clients, and taught at the Hypnotherapy Academy in Santa Fe (2003-2008).
Boyne was the director of the Academy's post-graduate training during that time. As a mentor to Tim Simmerman Sierra, the Academy's lead instructor, Boyne spent his later years in Santa Fe.
Academy Director, Tim Simmerman Sierra, was President of the ACHE (Gil Boyne’s organization)
for two terms.
During Tim's tenure as president of the ACHE, he and Gil presented options to the school operators for increasing their training requirements for both hypnotherapy and clinical hypnotherapy.
They requested that schools increase classroom contact hours and reduce the student to teacher ratio during hands-on practice, among other improvements.
These options were declined. Therefore, Tim found it necessary to develop a professional certifying organization that incorporates these higher standards.
The International Board of Hypnotherapy is the result.
Conducting only a brief training—two to four weeks or online—is expedient for the school, and may seem advantageous to the student because it takes less time, and might be less tuition (in the short run).
This takes away from practical skills development, and only allows for an introduction to the more complex methods.
Schools need to do more to support student success, not less.
And Mr. Simmerman Sierra is not willing to compromise on the essential ingredients that help our graduates succeed.
More training really means you can address a greater range of client issues; and therefore, facilitate greater client/patient satisfaction.
It was in the 1980's that ACHE was establishing itself, and at that time, set a higher standard than what was common to that era.
However, it's now 2013, and with more people turning to hypnotherapy than ever before, issues such as academic requirements, scope of practice, standards of practice, and codes of ethics have to be addressed.
Like Gil Boyne, Tim is a passionate advocate for doing what needs to be done to bring hypnotherapy even more into the mainstream.
Reducing training requirements will not help.
Why the Academy is not an ACHE, NGH, or IMDHA, etc. School
In addition to the reasons above, and in order to stay true to Tim and Mr. Boyne's vision, we withdrew from the list of ACHE schools.
We will not seek accreditation or approval from boards that promote lower standards in hypnotherapy certification.
We also are the only licensed hypnotherapy school in America to have a practicing medical doctor on staff.
The International Board of Hypnotherapy facilitates hypnotherapists in the access of quality post-graduate support, mentoring, monthly continuing education, as well as maintains more rigorous requirements for certification.
After working closely with Mr. Boyne, for so many years in Santa Fe, Tim feels the IBH more accurately reflects Boyne's intentions.
The Hypnotherapy Academy of America has relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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